Just when it looked like the 2019-2020 Broadway season would be dubbed "The Year of the Jukebox Musical," original works began popping up with announcements.
Many of these were heavily rumored. Insiders knew that producers wanted to bring "The Lightning Thief" tour to Broadway for a limited engagement. "Diana" has a high profile team that demanded to be seen on the rialto. And with the hype surrounding "SIX," how could it not transfer?
But Lincoln Center Theater made the first true surprise announcement of the season. Without so much as a whisper of any plans for a Broadway mounting, it was just announced that "Flying Over Sunset" will debut at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre this spring.
And there's quite a team behind this original musical. James Lapine serves as director and book writer. Tom Kitt provides the music, with Michael Korie supplying lyrics. Michelle Dorrance choreographs. Leading the cast are Tony nominees Carmen Cusack, Harry Hadden-Paton, and Tony Yazbeck.
The story, according the the synopsis: Set in the 1950's, "Flying Over Sunset" is a work of fiction inspired by the lives of three extraordinary and accomplished people - writer Aldous Huxley (Harry Hadden-Paton); playwright, diplomat, and congresswoman, Clare Booth Luce (Carmen Cusack); and film legend Cary Grant (Tony Yazbeck) - each of whom in real life experimented with the drug LSD. At a crossroads in their lives the three come together, and under the influence of the drug, take a trip and confront the mysteries of their lives and their world.
Previews begin March 12, 2020 ahead of an April 16, 2020 opening night. An original musical, dipped in LSD, that'll bring Carmen Cusack's glorious voice back to Broadway? I'm sold! The spring season is shaping up to be a nice surprise. And stay tuned...new show announcements are still on the way ;-)
