'In The Heights' Jumps to Top Ten on Amazon, Following Best Musical Win at Tony Awards; CD Debuts at #1 on Billboard Chart
Ghostlight Celebrates Growth of Independent Label Created By-And-For the Broadway Community
Kurt Deutsch, President of Ghostlight Records, is pleased to confirm that sales of the Original Cast Recording for 'Legally Blonde The Musical' have exceeded 100,000 copies, as of this week. This is yet another milestone for Deutsch's independent label, which also saw their double-CD release of the OCR 'In The Heights' debut at #1 on Billboard Magazine's Cast Album Chart, and then jump into the Top Ten of Amazon.com's overall CD sales ranking following the production's Tony Award win for Best Musical.
Legally Blonde's OCR has seen a surge in sales as the result of the new MTV Reality Competition Series, 'Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search For Elle Woods,' which debuted June 2nd.
iTunes is currently featuring exclusive radio-friendly singles of four of the most popular tracks from In the Heights: “In the Heights," “96,000," “When You're Home," and “It Won't Be Long Now." These singles can be downloaded individually, or are included in the full album download. In the Heights has also cracked the Top 15 in overall album sales on iTunes - it's currently #14.
Ghostlight's OCR for the Tony Award Winning Passing Strange entered Billboard's Cast Album Chart at #14, even with its digital-only availability. Brick and Mortar release for Passing Strange is July 15th.
Ghostlight Records is a label created by and for the Broadway community. They are committed to bringing the music of the 'New Broadway' to a contemporary audience, using modern technology, innovative marketing and artist involvement. Utilizing music videos, digital downloads and other aggressive strategies new to the Broadway arena, Ghostlight continues to be on the vanguard of interacting with the next generation of Broadway music consumers. The label and its artists continue to generate significant attention. President Kurt Deutsch was interviewed by PLAYBILL, regarding the label's embrace of 'Broadway's Digital Age'.
'In The Heights' features Latin, Salsa and Hip-Hop-infused music, conceived and written by emerging superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ghostlight Records released the OCR on June 3rd, as a 23-track, two-CD package, complete with a 68-page booklet containing cast photos and song lyrics. The double album was produced by Andres Levin (proclaimed"the master chef of Urban fusion" by The LA Times,) and by Ghostlight President Kurt Deutsch. The cast of 'In The Heights' celebrated the CD's release with a jam-packed in-store performance at Virgin MegaStore last week. Here is Broadway.com's Exclusive video for '96,000'.
The acclaimed rock musical PASSING STRANGE became the first-ever Broadway show to get a 'Digital Exclusive Release' via iTunes, as Ghostlight Records confirmed a May 27th download date for the Original Cast Recording. Brick and Mortar retail availability is planned for July 15. The Original Cast Album of the celebrated production was recorded in front of a live audience, in a dynamic recording session on stage at the Belasco Theatre. Read the exclusive VARIETY write-up. Passing Strange has won the NY DRAMA CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD for Best Musical.
ABOUT GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS: Sh-K-Boom Records and its imprint Ghostlight Records is a Grammy-nominated record label, a producer of recorded and live entertainment, and an interactive community at www.sh-k-boom.com, and www.ghostlightrecords.com. Since being founded seven years ago by Kurt Deutsch and Sherie Rene Scott, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight is the leading producer of Original Broadway and Off Broadway cast albums, and solo recordings by the new generation of Broadway stars and composers. Their winning philosophy has been to work in close partnership with performers and producers, to create product that comes from directly within the community of Broadway artists. With over 50 albums in their catalogue, titles include: The Smash Broadway Hit Legally Blonde, Grammy and Tony Nominated Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Grammy nominated and Tony Winning The Drowsy Chaperone, Grammy nominated and Tony Winning The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the Grammy nominated all-star benefit recording of Hair for The Actors' Fund of America, as well as The Last 5 Years, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Bright Lights, Big City (with Patrick Wilson and Jesse L. Martin), and Michael John LaChiusa's See What I Wanna See and Bernarda Alba. Solo Artists include: Patti LuPone, Billy Porter, Jason Robert Brown, Christine Ebersole, Adam Pascal (original star of Rent), Sherie Rene Scott (star of Aida and The Little Mermaid), and Kelli O'Hara's debut solo album, Wonder in the World. On May 27, Ghostlight released the Passing Strange OCR as the first-ever Digital Exclusive release via iTunes for a Broadway show. Ghostlight releases are distributed by Razor and Tie.
For more information contact Seth Cohen PR.
