JOSH GROBAN TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM, STAGES, ON APRIL 24
STAGES FEATURES GROBAN’S RENDITIONS OF SOME OF THE GREATEST MUSICAL THEATRE SONGS OF ALL TIME
SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE KELLY CLARKSON, AUDRA MCDONALD AND CHRIS BOTTI
Watch the album trailer for STAGES HERE.
Multi-platinum recording artist Josh Groban announced he will release a new album, Stages,
on April 24, 2015, via Reprise Records. The album is a collection of
some of the greatest musical theatre songs of all time, which Groban
describes as “gorgeously arranged songs that have stood the test of
time,” and which he was drawn to because of their combination of
“incredible melody with an incredible story.”
“Nothing
has inspired me more in my life than the energy that is shared in a
theatre when great songs and great art are on the stage,” he says. “I
wanted this album to pay tribute to those inspirations and memories,”
adds Groban.
Recorded
with producers Humberto Gatica and Bernie Herms in both Los Angeles and
London’s Abbey Road (with a 75-piece orchestra), Stages features songs from Les Misérables (Bring Him Home); Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel (You’ll Never Walk Alone); Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George (Finishing the Hat), Sweeney Todd (Not While I’m Around), and Into the Woods (Children Will Listen); The Fantasticks (Try to Remember); A Chorus Line (What I Did For Love); Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera (All I Ask of You), The Wizard of Oz (Over the Rainbow), and others.
Another highlight is Pure Imagination, originally sung by Gene Wilder in the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which though best known as a film, is also a West End musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“It’s a tiny bit of a cheat because it was from a film originally, but I
really wanted to sing it,” Groban says. “The fans wanted me to as well.
It’s one of my most requested songs to record ever. I am a huge fan of
the original film; it was a part of my childhood. Gene Wilder will
always be number one for me with this song. There’s a tenderness to the
way he sang it that is just the essence of Wilder. It’s something in his
soul that will never be duplicated.”
“Stages
is an album I’ve wanted to make since I signed to Reprise/Warner Bros.
Records during my freshman year as a Musical Theatre student at Carnegie
Mellon,” Groban says. “I knew in my heart that, at some point, I would
visit the songs I love from that world as an album. Having lived in New
York City the last few years, seeing as much theatre as I could see, and
having so many great friends in the theatre community, it became really
inspiring to take this on. It was time.”
Groban
says the title was inspired by his lifetime love for the musicals
represented on the album, as well as “the countless stages, both
physical and metaphorical, it
has taken for me to get to a place where I have the opportunity to
record an album like this in the way we did it, with the great orchestra
at Abbey Road. It was an extraordinary ‘pinch me’ opportunity. There
was a great freedom to go big with these songs because the world of
musical theatre welcomes that. It’s all about big stories, big emotions,
and big vocals. Every arrangement on this album is its own work of art.
Standing in the room and listening to the orchestra was just
breath-taking. And Both Humberto and Bernie are producers who think
about the warmth and clarity and emotion of the voice. What I love about
them is the vocal, the arrangement, the quality is key.”
Stages features three duets: Kelly Clarkson is featured on All I Ask of You (“she can, quite simply, do anything”); Audra McDonald sings on If I Loved You (“in my head I heard her on this and to sing it in the room with her was a dream come true”); and trumpeter Chris Botti plays on Old Devil Moon (“he
plays with such control and expressiveness”). “All of these duets have
great meaning to me and I’m honoured to have them on this album,” Groban
says.
Listen now to Josh Groban ‘STAGES’ (Deluxe edition)
Pure Imagination (from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory)
What I Did For Love (from A Chorus Line)
Bring Him Home (from Les Misérables)
Les Temps Des Cathédrales (from Notre Dame de Paris)
All I Ask Of You (from The Phantom of the Opera) (feat. Kelly Clarkson)
Try To Remember (from The Fantasticks)
Over the Rainbow (from The Wizard of Oz)
Children Will Listen/Not While I’m Around (from Sweeney Todd/Into the Woods)
You’ll Never Walk Alone (from Carousel)
Old Devil Moon (from Finian’s Rainbow) (feat. Chris Botti)
Finishing the Hat (from Sunday in the Park with George)
If I Loved You (from Carousel) (feat. Audra MacDonald)
Anthem (from Chess)
Gold Can Turn To Sand (From Kristina) [Bonus Track]
Empty Chairs At Empty Tables (From Les Misérables) [Bonus Track]
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