Alex Timbers to Helm THE LAST GOODBYE NYC Lab

According to an Equity casting notice, THE LAST GOODBYE, a musical featuring the tunes of the late Jeff Buckley, will soon get a New York City reading. The show, which premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival, will hold a developmental lab January 27- February. Alex Timbers will direct and Sonya Tayeh will choreograph.

The musical, which incorporates Buckley's music, namely the hits "Lover, You Should've Come Over" and "Eternal Life," into William Shakespeare's famed tragedy, is rumored to be getting a Manhattan reading in the near future. Also in the works is a fully-staged out-of-town production.

The show has been conceived, adapted and directed by Michael Kimmel in collaboration with Mary Guibert, Buckley's mother and the executor of his estate, and Jeff Buckley Music.

Jeff Buckley was born in California's Orange County in 1966 and died in a tragic drowning accident in Memphis on May 29, 1997. He had emerged in New York City's avant-garde club scene in the 1990's as one of the most remarkable musical artists of his generation, acclaimed by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians alike. His first commercial recording, the four-song EP Live At Sin-é, was released in December 1993 on Columbia Records. The EP captured Buckley, accompanying himself on electric guitar, in a tiny coffeehouse in New York's East Village, the neighborhood he'd made his home.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.