Elysa Gardner

@elysagardner, USA TODAY

On June 3, five days before this year's Tony Awards are handed out, the original Broadway cast recording of If/Then, a contender for best original score, will be released — featuring Idina Menzel, a nominee for best performance by a leading actress in a musical and previous winner for Wicked. The album is streaming now at usatoday.com.

Composer Tom Kitt, who wrote the show with lyricist/librettist Brian Yorkey (also his collaborator on Next to Normal, which earned the 2009 Tonys for best musical and score), says the recording period was short, as is typically the case for cast albums.

"We tracked a little bit on a Sunday night, and then everyone came in for a full day on Monday," says Kitt. "There were five sessions between the orchestra and the singers."

Kitt was disarmed hearing Menzel, who plays a woman recently estranged from her husband and pursuing two very different lives in New York City, sing on Sunday, shortly after wrapping a performance of the show. Her voice, though obviously warmed up, "had a little bit of rawness, but sounded so beautiful and real. Those wound up being some of my favorite takes."

Generally, the composer was "drawn to some of the more spare moments" the various singer/actors provided. "It's one thing to see them on stage, but they really brought those emotions into the room with them — and the unbelievable quality of their voices. I'm amazed, listening to the record, just how accomplished and musical this cast is."