Did You Know That These Musicals Started as Concept Albums?

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The concept of the original Broadway cast recording as we know it is less than a century old. In the early 20th century, songs from popular musicals were often recorded but they weren’t collected onto one album featuring the entire score sung by the original Broadway cast. The creation of Broadway cast albums began in earnest in the 1940s, after the popularity of the original cast album of Oklahoma! Before that, there were a few recordings of West End shows and even some New York pseudo-original cast albums (often made either without complete orchestrations or without the complete score recorded) but in the 1940s, cast albums started to become a staple for new hit Broadway musicals. Just as the art form ascended to the Golden Age, cast recordings became an essential element in the life of a Broadway musical. 

These days, almost every new musical that makes it to Broadway (and the majority of those that make it off-Broadway) receives a cast recording. Cast recordings are a vitally important part of what keeps musicals alive. They are a record of what was created which exists long after the show has closed and they introduce new audiences to the piece forever. Cast recordings inspire new productions; they are the permanent tool that represents the show and leads to major revivals and licensed productions. They are also a marketing tool that encourages ticket buyers to support theatre; those listening to a show they enjoy often want to see it live. Cast recordings allow folks to experience a score who could not see a given production and generate new fans for the artists who made the recording, leading to support of their other work. On the flip side, shows that do not receive cast recordings are much more likely to disappear and be forgotten.

Typically, cast recordings are made once a new musical is open in New York and has its material frozen, so that the album can reflect the final version of the show. But this is deviated from fairly often. Sometimes cast recordings are made in advance, especially if a show was produced outside New York without immediate plans to transfer to Broadway or off-Broadway. When this happens, the album is a great marketing tool for the New York production, even if it doesn’t feature the full New York cast. Sometimes hit shows that begin in the West End prioritize their original West End cast recordings and never make a Broadway album. (Mamma Mia! is a good example of this; the show received a 1999 original West End cast recording but no original Broadway cast album despite being such a massive hit.) There are several ways that cast albums have become an advance marketing tool for their productions.

A concept album of a musical is an entirely different kind of creation. The idea of the concept album took flight at the same time as the idea of the rock musical. A concept album introduces audiences to the score of a musical by deliberately releasing an album of the songs before any live production exists at all. The concept album ostensibly stands on its own terms. Whether or not an eventual live production happens, the concept album exists independently. These recordings of musical scores that tell a story, created without existing productions were also at one time called album musicals. Just like Oklahoma!—not the first Broadway cast recording but the most attention-getting early one that folks remember—Jesus Christ Superstar is often thought of as the first concept album. But, there were concept albums before 1970’s Jesus Christ Superstar record. In fact, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown started out as a 1966 concept album before becoming an off-Broadway and eventually Broadway musical. And there have been concept albums since at least the 1940s, many of which don’t wind up as prominent stage productions but persist in recorded form. 

Jesus Christ Superstar made quite a splash when it was released on two LPs in 1970. The score with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice told the story of Jesus and Judas, centered on Jesus’ final days and largely based on the telling from the Gospel. Lloyd Webber and Rice made Jesus Christ Superstar as a concept album when they were not able to find willing producers and get a live production to happen, so this early concept album was indeed always intended to be a stage show. (The degree to which each concept album is intended to be a promotional tool for a live production is always debatable.) The Jesus Christ Superstar album was a huge hit and led to a Broadway production the next year. The theatrical community didn’t quite know where to place this anachronistic rock musical about Jesus that started out as a record, and it wasn’t even nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award in its season. But the show went on to become an international hit, inspiring more rock musicals and more concept albums.

Other notable Broadway musicals that originally started as concept albums include, in addition to You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and Jesus Christ Superstar: Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, Evita, Chess, The Who’s Tommy, Jekyll and Hyde, The Civil War, Aida, American Idiot, Hadestown, and Here Lies Love. 

An important Broadway musical that deserves more space in the history books is Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (Tunes From Blackness). The work by Melvin Van Peebles, who penned book, music, and lyrics, started out as a 1970 concept album before coming to Broadway in 1971. Van Peebles cross pollinated his songs in different projects he created, with numbers from a few of his albums appearing in this show that was nominated for the Tony for Best Musical and tracks from the Ain’t Supposed to Die… record ending up in the stage musical and also in his 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

Evita, with the same writers as Jesus Christ Superstar, also started out as a concept album. The recording of Evita was released in 1976, and following its success, the stage musical came to London and eventually Broadway. Like Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita centered on a real larger-than-life figure and told her life story through modern musical vernacular. It’s worth noting that not all mega-musical pop operas released a concept album prior to a stage production in the 1970s and 1980s, but the significant number who did were inevitably inspired by the trajectories of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. 

It followed then that lyricist Tim Rice took the same path with his 1988 Broadway musical Chess, which initially premiered as a concept album in 1984. Rice wrote Chess with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame. Unlike Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, Chess was not a success in its original Broadway production. But the popularity of the songs, first heard and loved on the concept album, have led to the show’s numerous concert performances, rewrites, and now a current Broadway revival. Without Chess promoting its score first through the concept album and then through several cast and concert recordings, there would be no Chess revival today. 

Four non-Tim Rice concept-album-to-Broadway-production shows with similar journeys are The Who’s Tommy, American Idiot, Hadestown, and Here Lies Love. In contrast with Jesus Christ Superstar, Ain’t Supposed to Die…, Evita, and Chess, which counted only a few years, if that, between concept album and Broadway bow, The Who’s Tommy, American Idiot, Hadestown, and Here Lies Love released concept albums years before finally making their way to Broadway. The rock band The Who released Tommy, their album about a troubled pinball wizard, in 1969. The musical opened on Broadway in 1992. American Idiot also took a slightly slower path to the stage, although this was mostly a function of how much longer it takes to get a musical up in the modern era. The album by Green Day was a 2004 punk rock staple that landed on Broadway in 2010. Anaïs Mitchell penned the Hadestown folk album in 2010, leading to the following and demand for a live production that led the show to Broadway and a Best Musical win in 2019. Here Lies Love emerged as a concept album by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim in 2010 and the exploration of the life of Imelda Marcos, First Lady of the Philippines, eventually made it to Broadway in an immersive production in 2023. The Tommy, American Idiot, Hadestown, and Here Lies Love albums were written by popular recording artists, rather than by regular theatre artists.

Several of Frank Wildhorn’s musical, including his popular Jekyll and Hyde, were presented in concept album form prior to Broadway bows. The 1990 concept album of the musical adapted from the Gothic novella was billed as a highlights album and featured musical theatre actors playing the roles. Jekyll and Hyde, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse in addition to music by the prolific Wildhorn, actually received a second album in 1994 prior to its Broadway bow and conventional original cast recording in 1997. The 1994 album was a two-disc affair boasting a complete recording of the score, which had become beloved by rabid fans due to a pre-Broadway production as well as the popularity of the first concept album. Both Jekyll and Hyde concept albums that pre-date the show’s Broadway bow feature actors who might play the roles recording the songs. In contrast, the concept album for Wildhorn’s The Civil War (with lyrics by Jack Murphy) was released following the musical’s brief Broadway run and featured a slew of country stars, like Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood, interpreting the show’s songs. 

Disney strategically released a concept album of their original musical Aida in 1999, the year before the show opened on Broadway. Aida’s concept album featured performances from The Spice Girls, Sting, Tina Turner, James Taylor, Janet Jackson, and an illustrious list of other artists. Yet again, Tim Rice wrote lyrics for a show that came to Broadway concept album first; Rice has had more of his Broadway shows do this than not. The music by Elton John, in his Broadway follow up to the mega-hit The Lion King, was undoubtedly an attraction for the high level lineup of musical artists who agreed to appear on the concept album. A track performed by John and LeAnn Rimes even charted. The fact that concept albums became popular when Broadway attempted to align with radio music following a period of divergence, during the era of Jesus Christ Superstar, meant that getting a single to reach the Billboard Hot 100 was always the goal. Future stars in the Broadway production of Aida, Heather Headley and Sherie Rene Scott, appear on tracks, and there is a cut song that didn’t make it into the Broadway transfer. The original cast recording was released in 2000.

The most important landmark musical of the century, Hamilton, almost started out as a concept album. Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda originally conceived the story about our underappreciated founding father as The Hamilton Mixtape, which would have been a recording pre-dating any stage production. Hamilton developed so that it made more sense to premiere first as a stage production, before releasing a concept album with popular artists interpreting the songs later on. A year after Hamilton’s Broadway bow, and following the release of an original cast recording, an album called The Hamilton Mixtape, featuring artists from Usher to Kelly Clarkson to John Legend, was released. More recently, in 2024, Miranda collaborated with Eisa Davis on a concept album of Warriors, a new piece based on the 1979 movie. This time, the concept album does pre-date an intended stage production. Warriors is amassing a plentiful fanbase based on its album, which features a combination of theatrical performers and artists from the popular music sphere.