Queen of the Mist Original Cast Recording CD by Michael John LaChiusa

Words and music for Queen of the Mist come from Michael John LaChiusa, a five-time Tony nominee whose credits include The Wild Party, Marie Christine and Hello Again. The show took the 2012 Outer Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding New Musical.

Mary Testa, herself a two-time Tony nominee, plays Anna Edson Taylor. In 1901, at 63, Taylor set out to become the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel she designed herself. The musical follows her through the falls and through the crowd of swindling managers, assassins, revolutionaries, moralizing relatives, anarchists and activists who wanted a piece of the story. She believed there was greatness in her and had no interest in living an ordinary life, so she went ahead and tempted fate.

LaChiusa's score pulls in turn-of-the-century themes and keeps his usual complexity and insight. At its heart this is a story about one great fall, and about a woman who risked dying so she could actually live.

Jack Cummings III, a five-time Drama Desk nominee, directed, continuing a long run of work between Transport Group and LaChiusa that also produced the Drama Desk-nominated First Lady Suite and Hello Again. Transport Group Theatre Company commissioned the musical as the opening production of its ten-year cycle, The 20th Century Project, which drew on themes from each decade of the century. This show sits in the first decade, 1900 -1910.

For Sh-K-Boom & Ghostlight Records this was the fourth LaChiusa release, after cast recordings of See What I Wanna See, Little Fish and Bernarda Alba. The Shen Family Foundation provided generous support that made the recording possible.