Pacific Overtures cast recording on PS Classics

PS Classics will record the cast album of the new Broadway production of PACIFIC OVERTURES on February 1, and anticipates a May release. The production, presented by Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) in association with Gorgeous Entertainment (Kumiko Yoshii & Michael Wolk, Producers), began performances at Studio 54 on November 12, 2004, and plays through January 30, 2005.

Spanning 150 years, the Tony Award-winning Pacific Overtures tells the story of Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in the "Floating Kingdom" of Nippon in 1853. This landmark musical, first produced in 1976, chronicles the influence America had upon Japan, detailing and dramatizing the westernization of Japanese culture in a style based on the ancient form of Japanese Noh theatre. This production of Pacific Overtures is the second of two Sondheim & Weidman musicals produced by Roundabout Theatre Company in 2004. The critically-acclaimed and Tony Award-winning production of Sondheim & Weidman's Assassins opened on April 22nd, 2004 at Studio 54, and was preserved in a Grammy-nominated disc by PS Classics.

B.D. Wong stars in Pacific Overtures with Eric Bondoc, Michael J. Bulatao, Evan D'Angeles, Frederick Edinger, Joseph Anthony Foronda, Yoko Fumoto, Alvin Y. F. Ing, Fred Isozaki, Francis Jue, Darren Lee, Michael K. Lee, Ming Lee, Telly Leung, Orville Mendoza, Paolo Montalban, Alan Muraoka, Mayumi Omagari, Daniel Jay Park, Hazel Anne Raymundo, Sab Shimono, Yuka Takara, Kim Varhola and Scott Watanabe.

Tommy Krasker, co-founder of PS Classics with Philip Chaffin, will produce the album; Krasker has previously produced six Sondheim cast albums, including The Frogs and Assassins (for PS Classics), Saturday Night and Bounce (for Nonesuch Records) and Sweeney Todd: Live in Concert (for the New York Philharmonic's own label).

Twice Grammy-nominated (for its two previous collaborations with Roundabout Theatre Company, Assassins and Nine: The Musical), PS Classics has been profiled in publications such as The New York Times for its diverse line of show albums, solo CDs and songbook recordings. Its cast albums celebrate Broadway (The Frogs, Fiddler on the Roof, A Year With Frog and Toad), off-Broadway (My Life With Albertine and Zanna, Don't!), and regional theatre (Ricky Ian Gordon's Only Heaven and Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite). Its solo albums range from jazz (Jessica Molaskey: Pentimento) to folk (Rebecca Luker: Leaving Home) to pure show music (Christine Andreas: Here's to the Ladies). And the composers highlighted range from Billy Strayhorn and Jerome Moross to Maury Yeston and Jason Robert Brown. P.S. Classics is distributed exclusively by Image Entertainment. For more information visit www.psclassics.com.