'Tales of the City' from Whitty & Moore of 'Avenue Q' Eyes Broadway 2009

Tales of the City, based on Armistead Maupin's best-selling novel, will be a new musical for Broadway it has been announced by producers Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum and Robyn Goodman, the Tony Award-winning producers of Avenue Q.

Jeff Whitty, who won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Avenue Q, will write the libretto for Tales of the City, while music will be written by Jason Sellard and John Garden of the disco, glam rock and pop band Scissor Sisters.  Mr. Sellards -- aka Jake Shears, well-known for the wit of his songwriting with Scissor Sisters -- will write the lyrics to Tales of the City.

Tales of the City will be directed by Jason Moore, who directed Avenue Q and the upcoming Shrek: The Musical

According to the producers, they anticipate Tales of the City will come to Broadway during the 2009-10 season.

Both a deeply-felt portrait of the sexually and politically-charged 1970's and a wry comedy of manners, Tales of City began as a serialization by Mr. Maupin in the San Francisco Chronicle.  It follows the comic adventures of a young Midwestern woman who moves to 28 Barbary Lane and encounters a host of eccentric characters whose lives intertwine in surprising ways.

Maupin's wildly popular Tales eventually turned into a series of seven books, as well as a television mini-series for both PBS and Showtime.

According to Mr. Whitty, who came up with the idea for this adaptation of Maupin's beloved book, the musical will cover the first novel Tales of the City and likely touch on story lines that continue in the second book, More Tales of the City.