Center Stage Records' new deluxe edition of the 2023 studio album of Chilina Kennedy's musical Wild About You is out, and the actor-turned-writer is taking us behind the scenes of its creation! Released September 27, the new edition features two new bonus tracks that add material written for the musical (which is still in active development) since the album's initial release.

Set to a pop-folk score, the musical follows Olivia as she puts together the pieces of her life with a limited memory after finding herself in the hospital. Through a jumbled past, she wonders which one of the loves of her life is her emergency contact, and as she gains clarity, she remembers her greatest love: her son.

The work features music and lyrics by Kennedy and a book by Eric Holmes. The album's cast features Ashley Loren, Troy Iwata, Jackie Burns, Kennedy Caughell, Rachel Ling Gordon, Katharine McPhee, Jessie Mueller, Paul Alexander Nolan, Lea Salonga, Alex Newell, Joaquina Kalukango, Eric McCormack, Jenn Colella, Aisha Jackson, Noah J. Ricketts, and Jay McKenzie. The Wild About You album is produced by Brian Spector and music supervisor, arranger, and orchestrator Daniel Edmonds. The new tracks are produced by Edmonds, Kennedy, and Spector.

Kennedy tells us how each song fits into the new musical's story, and how they came to be written, below:

This is the first time we meet our protagonist, Olivia. The song is essentially a mental and emotional breakdown, which is the beginning of the life and death journey she undertakes throughout the course of the show. I love starting a song with a question, in this case. “What is all this shadow? What is this place I’m in?.” From this opening moment on, Olivia has many questions—from who she is to what reality is. It sends the audience on a mysterious adventure where they get to travel with her and discover the answers at the same time as she does. I first wrote this song years ago, and it has changed quite a bit over time, especially the lyrics, which have become more specific, while still holding on to their poetic mystery. We recorded Katharine McPhee remotely while she was in LA and we were on the east coast. It was wonderful to watch her play with the material and make the song her own.

2. "Bad Day Box"

This is a fun romp into Olivia’s memory of her high school days with her boyfriend Michael, who later becomes her husband. This is Michael and Olivia at their most free, fun, and flirty, making out in her parents’ house before they get home. We see the sweetness of their relationship as they give each other adorable bad day boxes full of presents and memories to get them through being without each other while they are at different colleges. I wrote this song during the pandemic while I was holed up in a strange house with no instruments except a ukulele. I borrowed an organ from a theatre company and spent a couple months being creative when I wasn’t playing chess, cooking and binge-watching Netflix. This is one of the songs that came out of that time. It was fun and challenging to separately record Paul [Alexander Nolan] in Canada and Jackie [Burns] in NYC.

3. "Wild About You"

This is the title track of the show and has been around since before I recorded my debut album in 2012. It was originally entitled “Mad About You” and had a slightly different melody in the chorus. The song almost got scrapped but ended up staying when we found where it belonged in the show. As soon as I heard Tony nominee Jenn Colella sing the new version of it, I knew we had hit on something. This song is when we first meet Jessica, Olivia’s college roommate. Over the course of the song, they discover and admit to feelings for each other that neither of them has acknowledged until this moment, with the help of some liquid alcoholic courage and a crowded dance floor. Daniel Edmonds’ incredibly fun arrangements take us back in time and make us feel we’re actually in a club.

4. "Gold"

The genesis of this show was inspired by many songs that were written separately and included on my debut album “What You Find In A Bottle”, with original arrangements by Rick Fox and produced by Chad Irschick at Inception Sound. Gold was a very personal song that was born out of events from my own life. I re-wrote many of the lyrics for Wild About You, but the essence of the song remained intact. Like some of the other songs, it was one of those pieces of the puzzle that didn’t always fit the version of the show Eric and I were writing. But eventually, it fought its way back into the story, giving us insight into the depression that overtakes Olivia when she is stuck in the suburbs in a toxic situation. Daniel and I were blown away by Tony- and Grammy Award–winning Jessie Mueller’s interpretation and vulnerability on the track. It is still one of my favorites, made even more special by recording a live 50-piece string section with the Budapest scoring orchestra.

5. "Fast Train"

Fast Train is a song that Olivia sings in the show and her 18-year-old son Billy sings a shorter reprise of it in act two. However, for the concept album, we wanted Jay McKenzie to sing it in its entirety. I wrote this song during one of the earlier workshops of the show and we loved how driving it was, matching the impulsiveness of the two characters. It allows both mother and son to have a parallel moment of rebellion, where they are each craving freedom and answers to questions that have eluded them for far too long. Jay’s powerful vocal performance really delivers on the promise of the song. It’s even more impressive because we tracked him after a full day of rehearsals at MJ.

6. "High"

This piece of music has been in the show as long as it’s been in development and is also on my debut album, What You Find in a Bottle. It hasn’t changed much over the years, and for the first half of the song, it feels like a sexy escape into the best moments of a love affair, right at the beginning of the infatuation. Noah Ricketts and Emmy Award winner Eric McCormack sing from two very different perspectives about their relationship with Olivia —Noah sings about the passionate love they’ve found and Eric sings about the heartbreak of their faded marriage. Jenn Colella is also featured on the track as Jess, who still pines for her old roommate. Daniel and I were inspired by some of the sensual synth and vocal production from artists like James Blake and Finneas, and enjoyed layering those elements into the song.

7. "What I'm Here to Find"

After losing custody of her only son, Olivia vows to get him back, no matter what it takes. This song was originally called “Now It’s Up to You” and it has been rewritten many times, each time getting more specific in order to serve a pivotal moment in the show, just before the end of act one. I knew that Tony Award winner Joaquina Kalukango had to sing this song on the concept album. She is the mother of a young son and an incredible actress, as well as a superb vocalist. I knew in my bones that she would connect to the desperate plea of the song that resolves in Olivia’s commitment to do better. We recorded Joaquina in Georgia and I’m still in awe of her ability to connect so powerfully to the material.

8. "Without You"

The chorus of this song is the heartbeat of Wild About You. It is a melody that Olivia wrote for her son Billy when he was a little boy and it appears and reappears in many ways over the course of the show, triggering fresh memories each time. For the concept album, we asked the supremely talented Kennedy Caughell to sing Olivia and added the multi-talented Rachel Ling Gordon to sing with her. We felt it was important to feature a child’s voice on this track. "Without You" has been part of the show since the very beginning. I was inspired to write it a long time ago after listening to Bob Dylan’s "Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright." I love sad songs that sound light and sunny. They always break my heart.

9. "I Wouldn't Call It Love"

This is the last song on the concept album that was taken from my debut album What You Find in a Bottle and re-written for Wild About You. Anyone who has heard Aisha Jackson sing knows what an insanely talented artist she is. Daniel and I reinterpreted this version of the song for her, and she makes it completely her own. I wrote the original version of the song years ago and it was loosely based on my own personal experience of wanting someone who wanted someone else. This feeling is probably familiar to many people, and it was easy to rewrite the lyrics for the role of Jessica, who wants to be with Olivia, but Olivia’s attention is being monopolized by sexy, artistic and rebellious Thomas.

10. "Take Us Down"

“Take Us Down” is one of the newest songs that I wrote for Wild About You. It takes us through the fantasy of what it is to imagine how life might be different if we risked it all and followed our hearts. But in the end, sometimes we must make the difficult and responsible adult choice, as heartbreaking as that can be. I had the pleasure of singing this song with Noah J. Ricketts. We recorded the vocals separately, but I could feel the emotion and connection through time and space, and in every note of Noah’s gorgeous vocals. We wanted to support the expansiveness of the dream of these characters with our lush string section to really make it soar!

11. "Dangerous Lines"

Tony Award winner Alex Newell was one of the last artists to record for us and I was blown away by Alex’s unparalleled vocals. This is one of the recording sessions we had at Billy Jay Stein’s studio Strange Cranium, and it was one of the only sessions we were all together, in person, and it was thrilling. I was suddenly inspired one afternoon and wrote this song very quickly, all at once. It happens near the end of the show. Billy sings it when he thinks he’s alone and abandoned, torn between his family’s truth and lies. In addition to the once-in-a-generation vocals, it also shows off the incredible contributions of our guitarist, Meg Toohey, and drummer, Chris Jago, who feature across the whole album.

12. "Here"

I wrote this song years ago for someone in my life that I’m very close to. Eric and I have often joked about it being the cockroach song that never dies and keeps returning no matter how many times we try to cut it. We’ve had different versions of it in different places in the show, sung by different characters. It has become the finale of the show, sung by Olivia to her son Billy. Lea Salonga’s pitch-perfect, beautiful rendition of this song is the stuff of dreams. We all know Lea as an iconic Tony and Olivier-winning, Grammy-nominated artist (and Disney legend!). But she is also a mother and a truly wonderful human, who brought a connection to the lyrics that is very special. It was actually the first song we recorded, and I’ll never forget that amazing session!

13. "Who's Olivia?"

“Who’s Olivia?” is the first additional demo track on the deluxe version of the album, sung by the brilliant and funny Troy Iwata. Billy sings this song when he first discovers letters and bad day boxes that his mother left him and which his father hid from him. It is the beginning of his journey to finding out more about her.

14. "On the Line"

“On the Line,” sung by Ashley Loren and Eric McCormack, is a big moment of redemption and forgiveness for the characters of Olivia and Michael. It’s a chance for them to say to each other what they should have said many years ago. They each get the chance to break apart the ties that keep them holding onto the anger and resentment that first drove them apart. This was a moment of magic in the studio where Eric recorded remotely in Vancouver and Ashley recorded in NYC.