The Story of My Life will indeed live on. The good folks at PS Classics will issue a cast recording of the short-lived Broadway show. Co-stars Malcolm Gets and Will Chase will head into the recording studio on March 13th, and the CD is scheduled for release on June 2nd, according to Tommy Krasker, executive producer for PS Classics.
As I said in my review of The Story of My Life, Neil Bartram's terrific score was the best thing about the show, combined with the wonderfully modulated performances by Chase and Gets. And the cast recording makes it infinitely more likely that the show will enjoy a regional afterlife.
Apparently, that's exactly what the show's producers were thinking. According to a recent report by Peter Filichia, after the disappointing reviews for The Story of My Life came out, the producers made the decision to close the show rather than run through all of the investors' cash. "They felt that the money they hadn’t spent could be put to better use by making a cast album that could spur further productions," writes Filichia. "That would give the investors some return."
As I've said, I really think we're going to see this show blossom in regional theater, much in the same way that The Last Five Years, Seussical, and even Into the Woods didn't reach their full earnings potential until they hit the aftermarket. And I really hope this isn't the last we've heard from Neil Bartram and Brian Hill.
I'm very pleased to hear this news. I've been a Malcolm Gets fan for a while and am looking forward to having another CD with his voice on it. :)
Posted by: Laine | March 08, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Too bad they didn't make a live video recording. It's hard to be a fan of a Broadway actor living thousands of miles away from Broadway :-) I hope the CD sells well. I'm waiting for a friend to buy it from an mp3 store (they don't allow downloads in my country), can't wait.
Posted by: Account Deleted | February 19, 2010 at 04:15 AM