WARNER EXPANDS CAST ALBUM BIZ

Warner Music Group has acquired British-born West End and Broadway musical theater record label First Night Records, bringing recordings for shows including Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon and Singin’ in the Rain to its stable.

WMG’s Arts Music Division, led by President Kevin Gore (pictured), will oversee the company. As part of the deal, First Night co-founder John Craig will join the Arts Music team under a multi-year consulting agreement to identify and record musical theater productions in the U.K.

The acquisition joins a growing portfolio of labels under Arts Music, including the recently relaunched Sesame Street Records and imprints with Cloudco Entertainment and Build-A-Bear Workshop. It follows the establishment of the joint venture with Kurt Deutsch’s Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records in the States.

“I am pleased that the catalogue is going to WMG, who in the last few years have shown they want to be in the cast recording business,” Craig said. “It will be nice to see some of our iconic recordings given a new lease of life through WMG’s aggressive marketing. Kevin Gore is a real record man, someone who has come up through the ranks and embraced the new media and all its benefits. I think it will be a wonderful partnership.”

Gore added that Craig has “recorded some of musical theatre’s most iconic shows, we’ve already collaborated on four new cast recordings over the last 18 months, and I look forward to our continued partnership for years to come.”

Craig and Tony Edwards founded First Night Records in 1984 and have recorded more than 150 productions from small shows to large symphonic versions of blockbuster musicals.

First Night has recorded every show that Sir Cameron Mackintosh has produced in London including Follies, Miss Saigon and Oliver!.