Listen: West End Cast Recording of JOHN CASSAVETES' OPENING NIGHT

CENTER STAGE RECORDS has released the live West End cast recording of John Casssavetes’ Opening Night on CD and all digital outlets. The show features music and lyrics by three-time Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright. Listen here!

John Cassavetes’ Opening Night is the first stage musical with music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Rufus Wainwright. It premiered in London at the Gielgud Theatre in the spring of 2024. The book and direction were by Ivo van Hove and is based on the 1977 movie Opening Night by American avant-garde director John Cassavetes. It tells the story of an actress, Myrtle Gordon, who is premiering a play written for her that is about a woman coming to terms with aging. Myrtle does not come to terms with her own aging and rebels against the play and throws the entire production into jeopardy. A young female fan asking her for an autograph at the stage door gets killed by a car as she runs off onto the street. Myrtle is being haunted by the ghost of the young girl. On opening night, she arrives completely drunk but ultimately does what she does best: act and improvise. Part All About Eve, Opening Night is the story of an actress who risks madness for her truth.  

The live album features Wainwright’s songs written for the original London West End production performed by the cast including Sheridan Smith, Nicola Hughes, and Benjamin Walker, recorded over the last four performances of the play at London’s Gielgud Theatre. 

The release of the album is being celebrated by a one-night-only concert at The Town Hall in New York City on September 15, 2025, and will feature performances by a group of friends Wainwright has in the music and stage world including Sara Bareilles, Darren Criss, Patti LuPone, and Elizabeth Teeter. Wainwright will join this cast of talented performers and sing some of the songs himself, and act as the emcee, leading through the evening and explaining the story of the musical. Jason Hart, who was in Rufus’ band for many years, is the music director and is leading the 13-piece band that will perform Wainwright's original West End arrangements.