2016 Summer Olympics Mascots Named After BLACK ORPHEUS Songwriters

The Organizing Committee for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro just announced its official mascots will be "Vinicius" and "Tom" -- named after legendary Bossa Nova artists Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim. These two vital voices in Brazilian culture were responsible, along with collaborator Luiz Bonfa, for the now iconic music at the heart of the Academy Award and Cannes Palme d'Or winning film Black Orpheus.

For more information on the official Rio 2016 Olympic Mascots, visit www.rio2016.com/mascots.

As was announced by producers Stephen Byrd, Alia Jones-Harvey, and Paula Marie Black in July, a new musical stage adaptation of Black Orpheus is being readied for its World Premiere on Broadway. Black Orpheus will feature a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and will be directed by multi Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe. The score will include many of the legendary Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa, and Vinicius de Moraes themes from the motion picture.

Originally based on the play Orfeu de Conceição by the great Moraes, Black Orpheus resets the classic Greek love story of Eurydice and Orfeu against the back drop of a Rio de Janeiro favela during Carnival. Equal parts celebratory, erotic, haunting and tragic, Black Orpheus became an instant classic, winning the Cannes Palme d'Or and the 1959 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and introduced the world to Bossa Nova. Moraes and Jobim's work together on Black Orpheus forged their creative relationship; they went on to maintain one of the most legendary and productive collaborative partnerships in music history, giving the world a new sound that included beloved standards like "The Girl from Ipanema."

For more about the musical, visit www.blackorpheusmusical.com.