Passing Strange Cast Album Hits iTunes May 27

The new musical Passing Strange will be the first Broadway show to get a digital exclusive release, when the original cast album will be available to download on iTunes on May 27. The actual CD will be available in stores sometime in July.

The album was recorded on April 14 at the Belasco Theatre in front of a live audience; cast albums are usually recorded in a studio. Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records President Kurt Deutsch and Bill Rosenfeld are the executive producers. Passing Strange co-creators and long-time collaborators Stew and Heidi Rodewald are the producers of the album. "We… wanted to get the music to fans as quickly as we could," Deutsch said in a statement. "With the technology that exists today, we're able to do that."

Passing Strange is the story of a young black bohemian who, in search for self and home, charts a course for "the real" through sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. He leaves his middle class home—and his mother—in Los Angeles to find out about life in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Besides Stew and Rodewald, the musical also stars de'Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Christian Cassan, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Christian Gibbs, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Naomi Jones and Jon Spurney.