Following ten sold out performances at London’s Palladium and Lyric theatres, the London Concept Album of Death Note The Musical is announced.
The original producers of the critically acclaimed Death Note, The Musical: In Concert are thrilled to announce the 17-track album is to be released by Ghostlight Records, with a date to be announced imminently.
The forthcoming release will be produced by the legendary Nigel Wright (Evita film, Sunset Boulevard, Jesus Christ Superstar LIVE), co-produced by production musical supervisor, Katy Richardson (Six the Musical, Bonnie and Clyde West End and cast recording), and engineered by Nick Pugh.
The album will feature the stars of the original Palladium concert, including Broadway legend Adam Pascal (as Ryuk), Joaquin Pedro Valdes (Light), Dean John Wilson (‘L’), Aimie Atkinson (Rem), Frances Mayli McCann (Misa Misa) Rachel Clare Chan (Sayu) and Christian Ray Marbella (Soichiro).
Palladium/Lyric ensemble members featured on the album include Jade Copas, Charlotte Coggin, Eu Jin Hwang, Jessica Lee, Nick Len, Jojo Meredith, Boaz Chad, Marcel Li-Ping and Yojiri Ichikawa, with additional singers to include Ying Ue Li, Yuki Sutton, Nicola Espallardo, Gracie Lai, Rumi Sutton, Ethan Le Phong, Leon Hong, and Aaron Teoh.
The ground breaking musical, which premiered in Japan in 2015, and is the winner of the 2022 Best Musical Korea Musical Awards, has a score by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Bonnie & Clyde) with lyrics by Jack Murphy, book by Ivan Menchell, and orchestrations and arrangements by Jason Howland. The London concert production was directed by Nick Winston, with music supervision by Katy RIchardson, and was music directed and conducted by Chris Ma.
Based on the best-selling Japanese manga series of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata / Shueisha, the story follows Light Yagami, a bright but dissatisfied high school student in Tokyo who comes across a discarded notebook owned by Ryuk, a mythological god of death. Discovering he can kill anyone by just writing their names in the supernatural notebook, Light takes justice into his own hands by filling the notebook with names of the nation’s most wanted criminals. But a detective only known as ‘L’ is soon tracking him down…
Composer Frank Wildhorn says “After the amazing debut of Death Note in Japan and winning Best Musical in Seoul in 2022, the phenomenon that is Death Note The Musical London beginning with the concerts is thrilling to see the reaction and the passion from the fans! I’ve been doing this a while now and this kind of enthusiasm brings me back to the early days of Jekyll and Hyde.
He continues, “It was always a dream of mine to bring my manga shows West and to share them with a Western audience in English. Ivan, Jack, and I are so grateful to our producers in Japan, London, and New York, who gave us the chance for our ‘voice’ to be heard. What an adventure…and we’re just getting started!”
Alongside Ghostlight Records, Mr. Wildhorn serves as an Executive Producer of the Album, along with the original UK concert producers Carter Dixon McGill, Haley Swindal/Pinnacle Productions, Louis Hobson/Indie Theatrical, and Horipro. They are joined by Van Dean and Michael Croiter/Yellowstone and Steve Swindal, with associate producers Carolyn Anthony, Greg A. Deluca, Tamara & Peter Erickson and Kenneth Novice.
