Apple cider vinegar Is Pilates for you? 'Ambient gaslighting' 'Main character energy'
MUSIC
Tony Awards

Josh Groban mines old love for new 'Stages'

Elysa Gardner
@elysagardner, USA TODAY
Josh Groban's new "Stages" album features songs from stage and screen musicals.

NEW YORK — Josh Groban, who is 34, figures that his new album, Stages, has been "about 27 years in the making."

It was "trips to see great musicals as a kid that first inspired me," explains the singer. Stages (out April 28) features some of the most beloved musical-theater songs of all time, from Rodgers and Hammerstein's If I Loved You and You'll Never Walk Alone (both from Carousel) to Stephen Sondheim's Children Will Listen (Into the Woods) and Not While I'm Around (Sweeney Todd), presented as a medley, and Finishing the Hat (Sunday in the Park with George).

"In my mind, it started as a Sondheim double album," quips Groban, whose affection for the composer/lyricist is such that he named his Wheaten terrier Sweeney, after the bloodthirsty protagonist of Todd. In fact, Stages was conceived as a collection of songs from stage and film musicals. Two of its entries, Over the Rainbow and Pure Imagination (the latter from Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) were introduced on screen.

In the end, the bari-tenor narrowed the song list down by choosing "what felt right for my age, what felt right for my voice, stories I want to tell now."

'No escaping' Broadway for Josh Groban

He also wanted to accommodate the artists who make guest appearances, among them trumpeter Chris Botti. "I'm glad he picked Old Devil Moon," says Groban, because the Burton Lane/Yip Harburg classic "was basically the first musical-theater song I sang as a solo" (when Groban played the lead in his high school production of Finian's Rainbow).

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald — "the queen," Groban calls her — turns up on If I Loved You, while Kelly Clarkson joins Groban for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart's All I Ask Of You, from The Phantom of the Opera. "She runs deep," Groban say of Clarkson. "I knew she was a Broadway buff. ... I think fans of both of ours are going to be really blown away by her vocals on this record."

Some of the album was recorded at London's storied Abbey Road studios, though the sessions took place mostly in Los Angeles, allowing Groban to spend time with his girlfriend, actress Kat Dennings of CBS' 2 Broke Girls.

"I'm slowly getting her into the musical-theater world," Groban says. "We've only seen a few shows. We're getting past the thing of, 'What, they're doing a scene and all of a sudden they turn and sing?' ... I've got to bring her to New York and take her to some of these brilliant shows."

Groban would love to take a stab at Broadway himself in the not-too-distant future. "There's no escaping it now — it's about finding the right thing. I'd like to bring back Chess," an '80s musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and lyrics by Tim Rice. "I think the book needs work, but that music deserves to be on Broadway again."

For now, Groban is planning a tour, set to launch Sept. 12 in Atlanta. And given that "there's a lot of stuff left over" from the material he considered for Stages, fans should expect a follow-up. "There has to be," he says.

Featured Weekly Ad