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The producers of FLASHDANCE – THE MUSICAL, the stage adaptation of the 1983 smash hit movie that defined a generation, have just announced that the production will arrive on Broadway in August 2013 with a theater, dates and casting to be announced.
As previously announced, FLASHDANCE will launch a separate national touring company in January 2013 at the Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, the steel town that serves as the musical's setting, and will continue to play over 25 markets in North America.
FLASHDANCE has been substantially rewritten and completely restaged under its new producing team following its London world premiere.
FLASHDANCE will be produced on Broadway beginning in August 2013 by Steven Baruch, Tom Viertel, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, Terri and Timothy Childs, Transamerica with executive producer Tom Hedley in association with Paramount Pictures.
On behalf of the producers, Marc Routh said: "We are thrilled to be bringing Flashdance to Broadway. The new work we've already seen Sergio create in the studio is downright brilliant. He's come up with new ways of storytelling through dance that bring you immediately to the heart of this iconic story of a girl with a dream in a way I've never seen. And we all remember where we were when we first heard these hit songs, they bring you back to a place in time. But what's also exciting is how sixteen new original songs fit so seamlessly into the score, and will surely become standards of their own. We can't wait to for audiences to embrace this new musical across the country on tour and then in the separate flagship production on Broadway."
FLASHDANCE tells the inspiring and unforgettable story of Alex Owens, a working-class girl from Pittsburgh with a dream of becoming a professional dancer. She works by day as a steel mill welder, and a bar dancer at night while aspiring to be accepted at a prestigious ballet academy. When Alex catches the eye of her boss Nick Hurley, their romance shows her the meaning of love and drives her ambition to pursue her dream.
FLASHDANCE features a book by Tom Hedley (co-writer of the original screenplay with Joe Eszterhas), and Robert Cary, music by Robbie Roth, lyrics by Robert Cary and Robbie Roth and direction and choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys, Memphis).
The original Paramount Pictures film was a worldwide smash hit that became a pop culture phenomenon, grossing over $150 million and featuring a Grammy Award-winning soundtrack. FLASHDANCE – THE MUSICAL features a score including the hit songs from the movie, all of which became Top Ten hits on the radio around the world including the Academy Award-winning title song "Flashdance – What a Feeling," "Maniac," "Gloria," "Manhunt," "I Love Rock & Roll." In addition to these hits, 16 brand new original songs have been written for the stage by Robbie Roth and Robert Cary.
Tom Hedley (Book, original screenplay for the Flashdance movie). As editor-in-chief of Toronto Life, Tom Hedley turned it into the "magazine of the year" and published, among others, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies and won national magazine award for fiction by Alice Munro. He was the youngest ever editor of Esquire Magazine during the magazine's golden age, working for the legendary Harold Hayes in New York. During his four-year tenure, he worked with important writers and artists of the time including Tom Wolfe, Michael Herr, Diane Arbus, Jean Genet, William Burroughs, Gay Talese and Robert Coover. He produced a number of celebrated cover-sections including: The Decline and Fall of the American Avant Garde in which he commissioned a play by Sam Shepard that was eventually performed at Lincoln Center, Claes Oldenburg's last happening and a photographic essay on The New Theater by Andy Warhol. He commissioned and published essays by Fedrico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, Michelangelo Antonioni among others, and asked the great directors to direct their own self-portraits. He produced and directed four documentaries for the CBC's flagship current affairs program and wrote a number of produced screenplays including, among others: Circle of Two, directed by Jules Dassin, starring Richard Burton and Tatum O'Neil, Mr. Patman, starring Kate Nelligan and James Colburn, Double Negative, starring Michael Sarrazin, Tony Perkins and John Candy, Fighting Back, starring Patti LuPone and Tom Skerrit and Flashdance, an international hit which won an Academy Award for best-song and has since become a film classic. He has written screenplays for Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, David Geffen, Jean-Paul Goude, Sean Penn, among others. In 2001 he completed a three-year period in London as an editor and publisher of Duckworth, the venerable publishers of Virginia Woolfe and D.H. Lawrence. His titles were generally well received and garnered both awards and books-of-the-year status in leading British journals and newspapers. He also created a new imprint called Duck Editions. Tom Hedley received the Humanitas Prize 2002 award as executive producer of the movie Iris, directed by Richard Eyre, starring Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet. The film won any number of international awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award. He is currently President of The Hedley Media Group LLC in New York City. He will both write and direct The Last Laugh, an independent film centered around the 1980's comedy scene in Los Angeles.
Robert Cary (Book and Lyrics) is the director of the feature films Ira and Abby, Save Me, and Anything But Love. Ira and Abby received the Audience Favorite award following its premiere at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures in 2007; Save Me, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the US 2008. Robert Is also the director and co-writer of Anything But Love, starring Andrew McCarthy, Isabel Rose and Eartha Kitt, released by Samuel Goldwyn in 2003. Anything But Love appeared in over a dozen film festivals internationally, and received numerous audience and jury awards. In addition to his film work, Robert Is co-book writer with ZZ Top of the musical Sharp Dressed Man, directed by Andy Fickman and the lyricist and co-librettist of Palm Beach, produced in 2005 by the La Jolla Playhouse and directed by Des McAnuff, and he is also the co-author and lyricist of musical adaptations of The Thomas Crown Affair and Heartbreakers, both commissioned by MGM On Stage.
Robbie Roth (Music and Lyrics). Robbie Roth's music has been heard on stage, screen, and radio all around the world. His songs have graced the Billboard charts in America, and appeared on record alongside Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, and many others. His work has been featured on "Good Morning America," NBC's "Last Comic Standing," and in a number of films and documentaries. Robbie is most often hired to write and produce for established and upcoming recording artists. In the theatre world, Robbie has been hired as composer on a number of new musicals, and has written and produced records for Tony Award® nominee, Gavin Creel.
Sergio Trujillo (Director and Choreographer) Broadway: Choreographed the 2010 Tony Award® winning Best Musical Memphis (OCC Award, Astaire and Drama Desk Award Nominations); 2006 Tony® and Olivier Award winning Best Musical Jersey Boys (Olivier, Drama Desk, Dora, OCC Award nominations.); The Addams Family; 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal; All Shook Up, Guys and Dolls (Astaire Award nomination) and Leap of Faith. Off Broadway: Saved (Playwrights Horizon, Lucille Lortel Nomination); The Capeman, Romeo & Juliet (Public); A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Kismet (Encores!); Salome (NYC Opera). Regional: The Wiz, Zhivago (La Jolla); Mambo Kings; The Marriage of Figaro (L.A. Opera); Chita and All That Jazz. International: Disney's Tarzan (World Theatre Award Nomination); West Side Story, The Sound of Music (Stratford); Peggy Sue Got Married (West End); Kiss Me, Kate (Japan). TV: Judging and choreographing on "So You Think You Can Dance: Canada" (CTV), "Broadway: The American Musical" (PBS), "The 14th American Comedy Awards" (ABC), "Triple Sensation" (CBC). Ovation Award for Empire: A New American Musical and four Dora Award nominations in Canada. Upcoming: Director/Choreographer: Havana; First National Tours: Memphis, Next to Normal and The Addams Family.
THE FRANKEL/VIERTEL/BARUCH/ROUTH GROUP (Producer) Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steve Baruch and Marc Routh have produced and managed a wide range of productions for more than 26 years including A Little Night Music, Hairspray, The Producers, Stomp, Burn the Floor, The Norman Conquests, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Company, Little Shop of Horrors, The Weir, The Sound of Music, Smokey Joe's Café, Angels in America, Oleanna, Love Letters, Driving Miss Daisy, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Penn and Teller and many others. Their shows have been awarded 36 Tony Awards®, 47 Drama Desk Awards, 38 Outer Critics Awards, 4 Grammy Awards, 8 Olivier Awards and 2 Pulitzer Prizes. They have the rare distinction of having won Tony Awards® in all four "Best" categories – play, musical, revival of a play and revival of a musical.
TERRI AND Timothy Childs (Producer).For the past 23 years, Terri and Timothy have produced or co-produced 25 shows on Broadway, in London's West End, and for tours in North America and the United Kingdom. Known for innovative producing, they presented Patrick Stewart's one-man A Christmas Carol, James Mapes (hypnotist), The Flying Karamazov Brothers do the Impossible, Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical, and the La Cuadra de Sevilla's version of Carmen, complete with a dancing horse. Their most recent productions include Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical, Kim Cattrall in Private Lives (both Broadway), and Ralph Fiennes in The Tempest (London). In addition to Flashdance, future productions include The Conjuror (U.K. 2013), and Richard Bean's Honeymoon Suite (Broadway, 2014).Timothy has directed an even dozen productions, in New York, London, and regionally. He has written a novel, Cold Turkey (Harper & Row), and new a stage adaptation of One Touch of Venus.
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