Following last year’s world premiere at Auckland Theatre Company, Shortland Street – The Musical now has an album. Original cast recordings are a tradition for West End and Broadway musicals, and so it seemed fitting
for New Zealand’s own Broadway-scale musical to have one as well.
Featuring 16 hilarious songs written and composed by Guy Langford, including Stuck in a Love Triangle, Cliffhanger, The Five Wives of Doctor Warner and, of course, Not in Guatemala Now, the album is the next-best thing to seeing the show live.
“As well as providing a way for people that saw the show to listen to the songs again and again, my hope is that the
album gives those who missed out on seeing it the opportunity to experience the music. Who knows? Maybe it’ll inspire
future productions of the musical as well” says Langford.
On that note, the musical recently had a critically acclaimed season at Palmerston North’s Centrepoint Theatre starring
Blair Strang and Roy Snow as Doctor Hone Ropata and Doctor Chris Warner respectively. And now the musical is licensed by
Playmarket New Zealand, who are currently negotiating future productions of the show around the country.
The album features all of the original cast (including Lisa Chappell and Mark Hadlow) and band plus a whistling cameo
from director Simon Bennett and a (muffin) tap dance solo by choreographer Liv Tennet. Logistically it was an epic task
to get everyone in the same room together to record…so much so that in fact that never happened! Instead, the recording
was captured in stages, and then put together in the mix later. But you couldn’t tell in the final mix – it sounds just
like it did on stage, but better.
The album was funded with the help of over 150 generous Boosted crowdfunding donors, and is released this Friday 26
July.
The album is available to stream / purchase from the following links:
Plus more.