It’s been a 20-year-long journey to arrive at Ghostlight Records’ current destination. In those 20 years, Ghostlight has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings. And like any piece of great theatre, there have been a lot of “rewrites” in order to reach this point.

Ghostlight began as an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records, which was founded in 2000 by Kurt Deutsch and Sherie Rene Scott. Their goal was simple: to bridge the gap between pop/rock music and theatre. This goal stemmed from the evolving world of musical theatre in the late nineties, with Rent marking the rise of a new breed of Broadway performer and composer. At the same time, the internet was revolutionizing the music industry. Musicians connected directly with their audience outside the constraints of traditional record labels, allowing artists greater freedom to create the music they wanted. Sh-K-Boom gave voice to this movement within the theatre community. Sherie, Alice Ripley, and Adam Pascal were some of the early artists to partner with Sh-K-Boom, making rock-centric albums that gave these multifaceted performers an avenue to showcase their non-theatrical sensibilities.

After Sh-K-Boom released its first cast album in 2002 – the incredibly popular The Last Five Years – the label created Ghostlight Records as an imprint dedicated exclusively to the preservation of musical theatre. Ghostlight became home to an enormous variety of cast albums, looking toward the future while continuing to honor the past of the distinctly American art form. In this spirit, Ghostlight also released solo albums from musical theatre performers that exist more within the genre than the early pop/rock solo music from Sh-K-Boom. The Sh-K-Boom Room provided a platform for live concert series, where composers and performers alike showcased material and developed work. Since its inception, Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight have amassed a library of over 150 records, won multiple Grammy awards, and developed relationships with the industry’s most exciting talent. Sh-K-Boom Entertainment is also a producer of the acclaimed film version of The Last Five Years, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.

From the influx of popular music in musical theatre that started it all, the form has continued to evolve – and with it, so have Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records. There are changes in the air. Under our new partnership with Warner Music Group's Arts Music division, Ghostlight Records will continue doing what it does best – preserving the best of musical theatre for generations and evolutions to come, through its expansive roster of cast album recordings. A new subset of the label, Ghostlight Deluxe, will showcase the ever-growing and diverse worlds of cabaret and jazz. And while we're just going by Ghostlight now, Sh-K-Boom will always be part of our history and the fabric of our music-making endeavors.

We are proud of where our journey has taken us, and excited about where we are today. Theatre and music are living, breathing art forms, designed to change over time. Ghostlight Records will continue to exist in the same way – evolving and creating alongside our vibrant community of artists.