EXCLUSIVE: Start spreading the news! A new musical loosely based on Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film New York, New York will begin performances on Broadway, theater to be announced, in March 2023. Opening night will be in April, with Tony and Olivier Award winner Susan Stroman on board to direct and choreograph.
The show — of course it’s called New York, New York — will feature numbers written for the movie by legendary songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago, The Scottsboro Boys, Cabaret). Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) will write additional lyrics for new Kander tunes, Deadline has learned.
Four Kander and Ebb songs were used in Scorsese’s MGM film, including the fabled title track that will definitely feature big in the Broadway show.
Casting breakdowns for New York, New York were being issued today. The production is believed to have a cast of 31 and an orchestra of 19 musicians.
Producers Sonia Friedman (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Ferryman) and Tom Kirdahy (Inheritance) have assigned David Thompson, a frequent Kander and Ebb collaborator (he worked with them on The Scottsboro Boys and Steel Pier) to write the book. Sharon Washington will co-write the show; Washington won acclaim for the solo stage show Feeding the Dragon which was subsequently produced as a successful audio play by Audible.
Other members of the creative team include Sam Davis, music supervision and arrangements; Daryl Waters and Davis, orchestrations; David Loud, vocal arrangements; and music direction by Alvin Hough Jr.
Foresight Theatrical is handling general management. Casting’s being handled by Jim Carnahan Casting’s Jim Carnahan and Jason Thinger.
Deadline understands that the characters played by Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli in the 1977 film will not appear in the new iteration. Indeed, our reporting indicates that the new New York, New York will feature little of Scorsese’s storyline.
It will still be set in postwar 1946, but the focus will be about a city in recovery, plus the casting and story will be inclusive.
Deadline has been tracking the show for some time; it’s been in development for four years; a fully-staged, hush-hush workshop was done in New York several months ago.
A Broadway powerhouse who attended the workshop but who declined us permission to use their name told us that the performance was “profoundly beautiful and special.”
They continued: “It’s about this city; this social experiment of people from all walks of life. Simply put, it’s about New York with a big band, big cast and show-stopping dance numbers. The thing to remember is that it’s not the film, it’s a million miles away from the film, just to be clear.”
New York, New York will be the first new Kander and Ebb musical to arrive on Broadway since The Visit in 2015.
The show also reunites Kander and Stroman, who worked together on Scottsboro Boys and Steel Pier. Their other collaborations include Off Broadway shows The Beast in the Jungle, And the World Goes ‘Round, plus the revival of Flora and the Red Menace.
Stroman has been enjoying plaudits for an acclaimed revival of the musical Crazy For You she directed and choreographed starring hot leading man Charlie Stemp at the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex, UK. Word on the street is that Crazy For You is headed for London’s West End, and there’s a lotta chatter about the possibility of a run on Broadway.