Apple’s highly anticipated and critically acclaimed animated musical comedy series Central Park, from Emmy Award winner Loren Bouchard, Grammy Award winner Josh Gad and Emmy Award winner Nora Smith, features an all-star roster of iconic songwriters behind its show-stopping numbers.
The series features an A-list voice cast including Gad, Leslie Odom, Jr., Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs and Stanley Tucci, who perform original music throughout the season, giving viewers yet another reason to break into song and dance for today’s series launch of the first two episodes on Apple TV+ (apple.co/-centralpark).
Each episode features three to six original songs and will be released on the series’ soundtrack on Apple Music and other digital service providers day and date with their episodic debut on Apple TV+. Songs from the first two episodes are available now on the soundtrack from Hollywood Records, which is available to stream today.
From rock to hip-hop, Broadway, R&B and beyond, guest songwriters contributing to season one soundtrack include: Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, actress Sara Bareilles; Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award-winning singer, songwriter, activist and actress Cyndi Lauper; Tony-nominated lyricist Glenn Slater; composer, songwriter, conductor and producer Alan Menken, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor, singer, songwriter Darren Criss; Grammy-winning and Academy Award- nominated singer/songwriter Aimee Mann; Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Meghan Trainor; platinum-selling, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Anthony Hamilton; Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Fiona Apple; social activist and artist Rafael Casal; and actor-rapper Utkarsh Ambudkar.
Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel (Olaf’s Frozen Adventure) and Brent Knopf (Bob’s Burgers) serve as the show’s composers and writers, while musical arrangements are created by the music production team, including executive music producer Frank Ciampi (Alien News Desk, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), music supervisor Patrick Dacey (Bob’s Burgers) and music editor Tim Dacey (Bob’s Burgers).
Guest songwriters broken down by episode and artists:
- Episode 101 “Poops I’ll Pick It Up” – Steven Davis, Nora Smith, Loren Bouchard
- Episode 102 “Weirdos Make Great Superheroes” – Sara Bareilles
- Episode 103 “The Park is Mine” – Rafael Casal and Utkarsh Ambudkar
- Episode 104 “Garage Ballet” – Cyndi Lauper and William Wittman | “Rats” – Cyndi Lauper and Teddy Sinclair
- Episode 105 “Spoiler Alert” – Alan Menken and Glenn Slater
- Episode 106 “First Class Hands” – Darren Criss
- Episode 107 “Big Deal” – Aimee Mann
- Episode 108 “I’m In A Perfect Relationship” – Meghan Trainor
- Episode 109 “Live it Up Tonight” – Anthony Hamilton and Charles Holloman
- Episode 110 “New York Doesn’t Like Your Face” – Fiona Apple and David Lucky
In addition to the original songs by the guest songwriters, there are also several tunes in each episode written by the show composers.
Beginning today, fans can visit a dedicated Central Park destination on Apple Music at Apple.co/CentralParkMusic for music-driven content from the series including cast-curated playlists, interviews and more.
Each week, a lyric video for catchy tunes like “Own It,” which is featured in episode 101 and written by composers Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel, Sara Bareilles’ “Weirdos Make Great Superheroes,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Rats” and Meghan Trainor’s “I’m in a Perfect Relationship” will be available to coincide with the episode’s debut on Apple TV+.
Central Park follows the Tillermans, a family that lives in Central Park. Owen, the park manager, and Paige, his journalist wife, raise their kids Molly and Cole in the world’s most famous park, while fending off hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham and her long suffering assistant Helen, who would love nothing more than to turn the park into condos.
The series is created, written and exec produced by Bouchard, Gad and Smith; Sanjay Shah and Halsted Sullivan are also exec producers. Central Park is produced by 20th Century Fox Television.
