A New Brain Two-Disc Cast Album, Starring Jonathan Groff, Released Today

The well-reviewed City Center Encores! Off-Center staging of William Finn and James Lapine's A New Brain, which starred Jonathan Groff, Ana Gasteyer and Aaron Lazar, is released Feb. 5 digitally and in stores from PS Classics.





This new recording, which is based on the well-reviewed City Center Encores! Off-Center staging, preserves the entire show from beginning to end, including more than 15 minutes of previously unrecorded music. The Encores! version incorporated several rewrites by Finn and Lapine.

"And They're Off" is sung by Broadway, film and TV star Jonathan Groff in the lead role of a promising young composer faced with a life-threatening brain disorder. Joined by the entire company, Groff sings of a childhood shaped by a gambling father who abandons the family. The orchestrations are by Michael Starobin with vocal arrangements by Jason Robert Brown and Ted Sperling.

"When we saw the show last June, we were incredibly moved, not only by the amazing performances but also by the revisions Bill and James had made, which made the piece seem more powerful than ever," PS Classics co-founder Philip Chaffin told Playbill.com. "The opportunity to record it, from start to finish, and release it in a two-disc set, was irresistible. And I have to say, the company was truly one of the nicest and most accommodating we’ve ever worked with: folks had moved on to other projects – shows and readings and TV pilots – and they worked hard to make themselves available. The result is really a tribute to their efforts."

The cast featured Groff (Hamilton, Spring Awakening) as a promising young composer struck down by illness alongside Fogler (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Gasteyer ("Saturday Night Live") and Lazar (A Little Night Music, The Light in the Piazza). The cast also included Jenni Barber, Quentin Earl Darrington, Bradley Dean, Josh Lamon, Alyse Alan Louis and Rema Webb.

Also featured on the album is Christian Borle (filling in for Dan Fogler, who was filming in London at the time of the recording).

Broadway producer and New York City Center board co-chair Stacey Mindich is funding the recording.

Track listing follows:

Disc One:

Prologue: Frogs Have So Much Spring ("The Spring Song")

Prologue: 911 Emergency/I Have So Many Songs

Heart and Music

Mother's Gonna Make Things Fine

Trouble in His Brain

Be Polite to Everyone

I'd Rather Be Sailing

Family History

Gordo's Law of Genetics

And They're Off

Roger Arrives

Just Go

MRI Tomorrow

Poor, Unsuccessful and Fat

Sitting Becalmed in the Lee of Cuttyhunk

Craniotomy

Disc Two:

An Invitation to Sleep in My Arms

Change

Yes

In the Middle of the Room (Part 1)

Throw It Out

In the Middle of the Room (Part 2)

A Really Lousy Day in the Universe

Brain Dead

The Music Still Plays On

Don't Give In

Craniotomy (reprise)

You Boys Are Gonna Get Me in Such Trouble

I'd Rather Be Sailing (reprise)

The Homeless Lady's Revenge

Time

Time and Music

I Feel So Much Spring

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