V/A "Illinoise: A New Musical" (Original Cast Recording) (RSC 2024)

Pressed on RSC Exclusive Aqua Vinyl and released exclusively with the Chicago 2024 Record Store Crawl. Limited to 500 copies.

This is a recording from the 4-time Tony-nominated Broadway show Illinoise: A New Musical. The new work features music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens based on his album Illinois, a book by Tony Award-winning director-choreographer Justin Peck (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Carousel) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole), and direction and choreography by Peck. Illinoise moved to Broadway in April of this year, direct from two critically acclaimed sold-out productions at the Park Avenue Armory and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Stevens’ beloved classic “springs to epic life on stage,” according to the Washington Post, with live music and vocals, choreography, and narratives centering on self-exploration and community set to the entirety of Stevens’ album. Its songs—with new arrangements by composer, pianist, and frequent Stevens collaborator Timo Andres, a Nonesuch artist, and Music Supervision and Direction by Nathan Koci—range in style from DIY folk and indie rock to marching band and ambient electronics, performed by a live band and vocalists (Elijah Lyons, My Brightest Diamond, Tasha).