The new musical from the Be More Chill writer premiered in 2019 at New Jersey’s Two River Theater.
Joe Iconis‘ Love in Hate Nation will get a cast recording via Ghostlight Records, with a digital and streaming release planned for February 11. The album will feature the cast of the musical’s 2019 world premiere at New Jersey’s Two River Theater, which included Sydney Farley, Amina Faye, Jasmine Forsberg, Lauren Marcus, Kelly McIntyre, Lena Skeele, Emerson Mae Smith, Ryan Vona, and Tatiana Wechsler.
Pre-orders for the album, now available, include immediate access to the track “Revolution Song.” To pre-order, click here.
With a book, music, and lyrics by Iconis, Love in Hate Nation is a love story about two women caught in the middle of a changing America in the 1960s, centering on teenagers Susannah and Sheila and their time at the oppressive National Reformatory for Girls. The Two River production was directed by John Simpkins and featured musical direction and arrangements by Anastasia Victory and music supervision and orchestrations by Charlie Rosen.
The album is set to include two bonus tracks: the song “Jezebel,” and a cover of “Masochist” by The Smith Twins.
“In terms of passion projects, they don’t get more passionate than Love in Hate Nation,” shares Iconis. “I’m beyond proud of this badly-behaved original musical and I couldn’t be more ecstatic or grateful that Ghostlight and Two River Theater have given us the opportunity to record it. I think our chorus line of 8 ass-kickin’, diverse, powerhouse women is representative not only of the world we currently live in, but the world we should aspire to live in, and I can’t wait for them to be singing their bloody hearts out over speakers far and wide. Here’s to human beings and musicals and cast albums that don’t fit the mold and here’s to the institutions that support them.”
Two River Theater also gave Iconis’ Be More Chill its world premiere in 2015, the recording of which became a streaming phenomenon on Spotify and led to the work’s Off-Broadway and Broadway premieres in 2018.
The Love in Hate Nation original cast album is produced by Iconis, Ian Kagey, and Rosen, with Michael Hurst/Two River Theater and Kurt Deutsch serving as executive producers.