The original Off-Broadway cast recording of Night Side Songs, the Lazour brothers' folk musical about illness and the people around it, arrives on CD and as a limited-edition colored-vinyl 2-LP set on Friday, November 20, with a signing at the Drama Book Shop the night before.
The album has been on streaming services since August 21. The physical edition comes from Octoverse Media and Warner Music Group's Arts Music, working with Lincoln Center Theater, and is sold exclusively through the Rhino Store.
Lincoln Center Theater staged the musical at LCT3's Claire Tow Theater from February 14 to March 29, 2026, a run that placed it among the ten best-selling productions in that theater's history. It won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Ensemble, and picked up nominations from the Drama Desk (Outstanding Music), the Drama League (Outstanding Production of a Musical) and the Lortels (Outstanding Musical).
The score is by Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour, the songwriting brothers behind We Live in Cairo. Taking its title from Susan Sontag's line that "illness is the night side of life," the show moves between patients, caregivers, doctors, relatives and strangers, and asks what holds people together when a diagnosis turns a life over. Taibi Magar directed, with music direction by Alex Bechtel.
The recording keeps the stage company: Robin de Jesús, Brooke Ishibashi, Jonathan Raviv, Kris Saint-Louis and Mary Testa. In keeping with the folk tradition the score draws on, an invited audience sat in the studio and sang along. Mara Isaacs, Todd Sickafoose and Andy Einhorn produced the album, with the Lazours as co-producers.
Its twelve tracks run from Glow, Glow, Glow to Will You Let Me Know, taking in Miracle Song, Santa Cruz and I Will Check in On You along the way.
On Thursday, November 19 at 7:30pm, the Drama Book Shop at 266 West 39th Street hosts a signing with Ishibashi, de Jesús, Raviv and Testa, together with Daniel Lazour and Bechtel. Copies of the CD and the 2-LP set will be on sale there a day ahead of the official release.
The musical had a long road to Lincoln Center. It was commissioned by American Repertory Theater, developed and shown at the Under the Radar Festival, and given its premiere in a co-production between A.R.T. and Philadelphia Theatre Company before Lincoln Center Theater brought it to New York.
