Exclusive: Julia Murney, Roger Daltry, & More Sing 'It Happens at Night' From WINCHELL: THE MUSICAL

Yellow Sound Label will release Winchell: The Musical (NYC Studio Recording) this Friday, August 29. We have your exclusive first listen to the track “It Happens at Night,” which features Kristen Duerr, Julia Murney, Roger Daltry, and more. Listen below!

Focusing on the legendary media figure Walter Winchell, the show features music by Keith Levenson (celebrated conductor and songwriter) and lyrics by Martin Charnin (Annie) and Keith Levenson. Album proceeds will benefit the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Heath, located in Las Vegas, NV, which treats trauma and movement disorders, and has helped Mr. Levenson in his ongoing fight with Parkinson’s disease.

The all-star cast includes Roger Daltrey, Sally Struthers, Kate Baldwin, Chip Zien, F. Murray Abraham, Julia Murney, Billy Idol, Michael Cerveris, Darlene Love, Kristin Duerr, Adrian Zmed, Jon Cryer, Claudia Schneider, Steven Mercurio, Jackie Turner, Alice Cooper, Angelina Carballo, and Jason Robert Brown as Walter Winchell.

Walter Winchell (1897-1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for the New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. He claimed that his popularity and influence “turned journalism into a form of entertainment.” Winchell’s legacy is still relevant today; he not only wrote about celebrities, he invented them.

Winchell: The Musical was scheduled to open on Broadway in 1991, but a scandal involving the producers forced the show to cancel those plans. The score was never recorded, but this new album offers musical theater fans the chance to hear this melodic and delightful score for the first time.

The show’s ensemble includes: Claudia Schneider, Jesse Janet Richards, Claire Howland Kenny, Giulianna Augello, Neal Mayer, Larry Kleiber, Peter Cormican, Angela Rose DeAngelis, Peter Green, David Josefsberg, Mallory King, Mark Megill, Dominque Plaisant, Tom Rocco, David Quinn, Lisa Spielman, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Joy Donze.

Keith Levenson crosses the borders of Broadway, rock, pop and symphonic music. He composes, conducts, arranges and programs for theater as well as concert and television stages. Keith has conducted the Broadway and National Touring productions of Annie with Nell Carter and Sally Struthers, Grease with Deborah Gibson and Mackenzie Phillips, Jesus Christ Superstar, Big River, Chess, Annie Warbucks, Tony and Grammy Award-winning Dreamgirls, and the National Tour of Tommy. He served as music supervisor of the National Tour of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Ann-Margret, and the National Tour of The Bridges of Madison County. As a music supervisor/orchestrator/arranger, Keith has worked on Broadway and regional productions of She Loves Me, On the Town, Shenandoah, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Can-Can, and numerous others.

His recordings include collaborations with Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Ry Cooder, David Sanborn, Eric Burdon, Alice Cooper, Natalie Cole, Andrea Marcovicci, Dr. John, and many others. He is the winner of multiple ASCAP awards for composition including Most Promising Songwriter of the year and is an active member of The Dramatist Guild. Keith currently sits on the board of MFM (Musicians for Musicians), a national advocacy group for musicians’ rights.

Mr. Levenson has toured and recorded worldwide as the arranger, orchestrator, music director, and conductor of “The British Rock Symphony” and “The Ultimate Rock Symphony.” He has arranged and conducted for The Who, Roger Daltrey, Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, Thelma Houston, Peter Frampton, Billy Preston, Ann Wilson, Darlene Love, Eric Burdon & The New Animals, Yes, Billy Thorpe, Kiss, and The Alan Parsons Live Project.

In 2018 Keith conducted the US tour of the legendary rock opera Tommy with symphony orchestras across the country. It resulted in Tommy Orchestral, the album produced by Keith and Roger Daltrey, which went straight to the top of Billboard’s “Classical Crossover” chart.

Keith’s television work includes “The Wizard of Oz in Concert,” which he arranged and conducted at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Featuring Jewel, Jackson Browne, Joel Grey, Roger Daltrey, Natalie Cole, Debra Winger, Ry Cooder, and The Boys Choir of Harlem.  The Wizard of Oz has become an annual holiday favorite on TNT, PBS and VH-1 and has been recorded by Rhino Records. Keith has also recorded extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra, The Melbourne Symphony, The Los Angeles Symphony, and The New York Philharmonic.

As a composer or lyricist/librettist Keith has written the musicals Star-Crossed with Jeanine Tesori, Winchell with Martin Charnin, The City Suite, and the Broadway production of The Flowering Peach. Television scores include the PBS Specials “Great Streets” with Randy Newman and “Challenge to America” as well as compositions for American Movie Classics, Romance Classics.