“The Bridges of Madison County†is going to Broadway. Bartlett Sher (“South Pacific,†“The Light in the Piazzaâ€) will direct a new musical based on the hit film and best-selling novel by Robert James Waller, the producers announced Thursday.
Jason Robert Brown, a Tony winner for “Parade,†has written the music and lyrics; the show has a book by Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman. Performances will begin January 13, 2014 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, with an opening night planned for late February.
“Madison County†tells the story of Francesca Johnson, a small-town 1960s Iowa housewife who has a brief but intense affair with Robert Kincaid, a photographer from National Geographic. Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood played the lead roles in the 1995 film. Elena Shaddow and Steven Pasquale will play the parts in the show’s premiere this summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival. (Kelli O’Hara, who starred for Mr. Sher in “South Pacific†and “Light in the Piazza,†had played Francesca in an earlier workshop.)
No casting for the Broadway production was included in Thursday’s announcement, which did say that Mr. Sher would be reunited with his Tony Award-winning “South Pacific†design team: Michael Yeargan (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes) and Donald Holder (lighting).
