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We Shall Someday: World Premiere Recording, the new musical with book and lyrics by Harrison David Rivers and music and additional lyrics by Ted Shen, is now available from Joy Machine Records in streaming and digital platforms.
To stream or download the album, please click HERE and listen below:
The cast album is produced by Deborah Abramson (Maybe Happy Ending), who also serves as music director and conductor. Two-time Tony Award winner Michael Starobin (Assassins revival, Next to Normal) provides orchestrations. The release aligns with The We Shall Someday Project’s commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides.
About We Shall Someday
Uplifted by a sweeping, jazz-infused score, We Shall Someday is an original musical following three generations of a southern Black family, as they each encounter and confront acts of racial injustice. Offering an exploration of our past to propel us forward with conviction and hope, We Shall Someday examines how we continue the fight for freedom and justice.
The show begins in 1961 when Julius makes the decision to join the Freedom Rides. The second act follows his daughter, Ruby, as she wrestles with how to respond when Jay, her teen son, is brutally attacked by the police. The third and final act continues in 1992, on the heels of the Rodney King verdict, with Jay, as he weighs his choice to join the movement.
With searing vocals and deeply personal truths, We Shall Someday is a galvanizing and moving new work about the family bonds that hold us together and the courage, resolve, and direction needed to keep moving forward.
“The Freedom Riders are part of a long and proud history of Americans courageously fighting for civil rights,” comments Harrison David Rivers, the show’s co-creator. “We Shall Someday is both a celebration of their heroism and a reminder that the fight for human dignity is ongoing. Each of us has a responsibility to do what we can to put an end to systemic oppression and discrimination, so that all of us can live with respect and freedom.”
Ted Shen, who composed the music, adds: “The jazz-rooted musical language of We Shall Someday mirrors the propulsive energy and emotional complexity of the characters’ journeys. As their stories unfold across three decades, the score’s stylistic palette shifts from blues-inflected jazz, gospel, and protest music of the 1950s–60s to the R&B and funk grooves of the 1980s–90s. These evolving soundscapes ultimately resolve in a timeless anthem of solidarity and hope.”
The album features performances by John Edwards (Broadway’s MJ: The Musical, Jelly’s Last Jam at Encores!, Smokey Joe’s Café revival), Cole Thompson (Broadway’s Into the Woods, Off-Broadway’s White Rose: The Musical), Danyel Fulton (Suffs National Tour, Drama League nominee for Broadbend, Arkansas), and Jake Loewenthal (Signature Theatre’s Ragtime, Into the Woods, She Loves Me).
We Shall Someday has been performed at Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis, MN, as a concert presentation at the Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C. and last year as part of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The show was hailed as “a powerfully affecting work” by The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a “beautiful, emotionally rich, historically relevant new musical” by Talkin’ Broadway, and “an epic story told in an intimate, moving, and lovely way” by Cherry and Spoon.
The We Shall Someday Project (WSSP) amplifies the landmark history of the Freedom Rides through a dynamic intersection of the arts and community engagement that seeks to spark intergenerational dialogue, strengthen community bonds, and inspire present-day action around the ongoing movement for social justice. WSSP will commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides at events throughout landmark Civil Rights cities across Alabama including Anniston, Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma.
For more information about the show and the We Shall Someday Project events, please visit WeShallSomedayProject.com.
Track List:
- Yes, Ma’am
- Arna
- Freedom Riders
- I Shall Not Be Moved
- Yes, Ma’am (Reprise)
- Freedom Riders (Reprise)
- All a Father Wants
- White Pines Cemetery
- Dreams
- President
- Diana Ross
- The Woman on the Porch
- Sunday School
- Driver’s License
- Black Woman
- Just One
- Some Kinda Sign
- Better Place
- Forward
- Eighty-Nine Seconds
- Ain’t Nobody
- She’d Been Crying
- ’Cause He’s Mine
- Not Guilty
- White Boy
- The Protest (Part 1)
- What the—?
- The Protest (Part 2)
- Brothers and Sisters
- Forward (Reprise)
- We Shall Stand Together
