Sondheim’s New Musical Gains Director, Workshop
Image by Thos Robinson/Getty Images
By Talya Zax November 17, 2016
Earlier this month, the New York Post reported that Tony Award-winning director Joe Mantello will direct Stephen Sondheim’s new musical at the Public Theater.
Don’t hold your breath — the musical is reportedly only half done — but with Mantello on board, and a miniature workshop reportedly occurring at the Public this week, the show, which has been in development since at least 2014, is shaping up. Working with playwright David Ives, Sondheim is basing the musical, tentatively titled “Buñuel,” on two films by the Spanish director of the same name: “The Exterminating Angel” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise.”
This summer Sondheim suggested he, Ives, producer Scott Rudin and the Public were aiming for the musical to premiere off-Broadway in 2017. The Post reported they currently aim to have a full-scale workshop of the piece this coming spring. This week’s workshop was closed to the press, but reports from the musical’s first workshop, this past summer, glowed.
“‘The music was gorgeous,’” an unnamed source told the Post’s Michael Riedel. “‘It’s not an old-fashioned Sondheim show — you know, song, dialogue, then a song. It’s much more seamless.’”
Talya Zax is the Forward’s culture fellow. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
