PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES Coming Back to Broadway in Spring 2013!

Abby Lee, David B. Brode and Executive Producer Tom Viertel just announced that the hit 1982 Tony nominated Best Musical Pump Boys and Dinettes will return to Broadway this spring at a theatre to be announced. Conceived and written by the original company, John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Tony Award winner Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann, Pump Boys and Dinettes will be presented in a new production with direction and musical staging by Tony Award winner John Doyle.

"The folks in Pump Boys and Dinettes are facing tough economic times and hurting financially but are hopeful for a brighter future. Sound familiar? They find balance and great joy in the music in their lives and they take us along for the ride," said producer Abby Lee. "We are thrilled to bring this musical back for today's audience in a fully interactive and immersive experience with on-stage seating and a bar to boot. Come and let the good American folk on Highway 57 melt your troubles away with a generous serving of great music and foot-stomping fun."

This new production of Pump Boys and Dinettes, John Doyle's visionary tribute to life by the roadside, takes place on Highway 57. Somewhere in America's heartland, between Frog Level and Smyrna, North Carolina, stands a rest stop, for those who need a good rest. The four hard-working fellas at the gas station, Jim, Jackson, Eddie and L.M., have been known to do some auto repairs, but only when aided by ample quantities of time, great tunes and a few beers while they're at it. Just a few feet away, there's also a roadside eatery, the Double Cupp Diner, where the Cupp sisters, Prudie and Rhetta, celebrate their famous home cooking and gift for song with the same zeal they bring to their kinship with the boys. With joy, heartbreak and hilarity, these Pump Boys and Dinettes also play a stunning variety of musical instruments including guitar, piano, bass, fiddle, banjo, ukulele, harmonica...and yes, even kitchen utensils.

An exuberant mixture of heartland-pop concert and musical theatre, Pump Boys and Dinettes premiered at the Chelsea West Side Arts Theatre on July 10, 1981, transferring to the Colonnades Theatre in October of that year. The production became a sensation, immediately plugging into the zeitgeist and galvanizing audiences with soul-grabbing hits like "Be Good or Be Gone," "Pump Boys" and "Vacation." The success of the Off-Broadway production led Pump Boys and Dinettes to open on Broadway at the Princess Theatre on February 4, 1982, where it went on to play 573 performances and was nominated for both Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical. The New York Times called the show, "Both musically and theatrically, a triumph of ensemble playing. It doesn't merely celebrate the value of friendship and life's simple pleasures, it embodies them," while Newsweek called the show "Totally delightful," and the New York Post, "Such fun!"

Set design for Pump Boys and Dinettes is by Tony Award-winner David Gallo (Memphis, Radio Golf), costume design is by Tony Award-winner Ann Hould-Ward (A Catered Affair, Beauty and the Beast), lighting design is by Mike Baldassari (Cabaret, As Long as We Both Shall Laugh) and sound design is by Dan Moses Schreier (Cyrano de Bergerac, A Little Night Music). Mary-Mitchell Campbell also serves as musical supervisor.

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