Release date:
August 23, 2024
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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).

Tracklist:
  • 1. Three Stars (or, Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois) - By My Brightest Diamond & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 2. The Long Hike - By Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 3. Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
  • 4. Jacksonville - By Tasha & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 5. Zombies - By My Brightest Diamond & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 6. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. - By My Brightest Diamond & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 7. The Man of Metropolis - By Tasha & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 8. Decatur - By Elijah Lyons & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 9. Chicago - By Elijah Lyons & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 10. To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament - By Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 11. Casimir Pulaski Day - By Elijah Lyons & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 12. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
  • 13. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! - By Elijah Lyons & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 14. In This Temple, as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
  • 15. The Seer's Tower - By My Brightest Diamond & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 16. Chicago (Reprise) - By Elijah Lyons & Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical
  • 17. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
  • 18. Epilogue - By Original Cast of Illinoise: A New Musical