Inaugural event of Jeanine Tesori, Anne Kauffman and Taneisha Duggan’s Cast Album Project

In 1999 an event occurred that challenged the definition of musical theater, transfixed audiences and received an overwhelmingly impressive critical response.  That event was Running Man, an explosive convergence of jazz, opera, and chamber music by the deeply accomplished and highly lauded artists, composer Diedre Murray and poet Cornelius Eady. Originally produced by Music Theater Group at HERE Arts Center, and directed by Diane Paulus, this hauntingly beautiful story was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won an OBIE for Composition, yet has never received a cast recording. 

With this 2-night-only live recording, directed by choreographer-director Jeffrey L. Page and music directed by composer Jaret Landon, the story of the disappearance of a young African American man will finally be available to inspire artists and audiences into the future. 

This is the Cast Album Project’s inaugural outing. CAP is a collective devoted to the platforming of innovative and underproduced musical theater by historically marginalized creators. CAP partners with Center Stage Records, dedicated to the preservation of Broadway, London, Off-Broadway, new musicals in development and theater-related solo albums, album producer Michael Croiter and his Yellow Sound Label, and CLASSIX, a collective that formed to explode the classical canon through an exploration of Black performance history and dramatic works by Black writers.

The Classix team joined this project to document the rehearsal process.

Follow the Cast Album Project

Creative Team

Running Man

Story and Music: Diedre Murray

Book and Lyrics: Cornelius Eady

Director: Jeffrey L. Page

Music Director: Jaret London

Cast Album Project

Anne Kauffman: Founding Co-Artistic Director

Jeanine Tesori: Founding Co-Artistic Director

Taneisha Duggan: Creative Producer

Ash(er) Lloyd Ehrenberg: Associate Creative Producer

Classix Documentation Team

Director: Brittany Bradford

Dramaturg: Arminda Thomas

Director of Photography: Ralston Smith

1st Camera: Dar Riser