‘Anne Frank: The Musical’ To Premiere Off-Broadway In September

Anne Frank in 1940. Image by Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam/Wikimedia Commons

By PJ Grisar May 28, 2019

A musical adaptation of the life of Anne Frank will make its U.S. premiere at the Center for Jewish History this September.

“Anne Frank, The Musical,” written by composer-playwright Jean-Pierre Hadida, made its debut in Paris in 2008.

Hadida is not the first to attempt to tell Frank’s story in a musical; Enid Futterman and Michael Cohen’s “Yours, Anne,” debuted Off-Broadway in 1985. It was not well received, with The Times calling it “soporific” and “always tasteful and just as consistently inert.” There was also a Spanish musical from 2008 called “The Diary of Anne Frank: A Song to Life” with a book by Jaime Azpilicueta and music and lyrics by Jose Luis Tierno. That show was controversial in part for having the blessing of the Anne Frank Foundation, caretakers of the Amsterdam museum based in the house in which the Franks hid, but not the Anne Frank Fund, then headed by her last surviving relative, cousin Buddy Elias, who died in 2015.

The Center for Jewish History production will be directed by David Serero, who also stars as Otto Frank. Performances begin September 11.

Correction, May 29, 3:02 p.m.: An earlier version of this article misidentified a Madrid production as the Hadida musical. The Madrid production mentioned was of a different musical, “The Diary of Anne Frank: A Song to Life.”

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture intern. He can be reached at grisar@Fforward.com

PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at grisar@forward.com and @pjgrisar on Twitter.

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