Just In: THE FLAMINGO KID Musical to Hit Broadway Spring 2018!

BWW has learned that producers Bob Israel and Larry Hirschhorn have announced that Garry Marshall's iconic movie The Flamingo Kid is being developed as a musical, with sights set on a Spring, 2018 Broadway opening. The sexy and romantic summertime coming-of-age story will feature book and lyrics by Tony Award winner Robert L. Freedman and feature music by Scott Frankel. It will be Mr. Freedman's first musical since 2014's Tony-winning Best Musical, A Gentlemen's Guide To Love and Murder and Mr. Frankel's next after his highly acclaimed, War Paint. (now in Chicago).

Based on the hit Garry Marshall film that solidified Matt Dillon as a leading man, The Flamingo Kid takes place in the summer of 1963 and follows an 18-year-old Brooklynite who leaves his humble roots behind in favor of the sexy and alluring world of The El Flamingo - a private beach club for well-to-do Long Islanders. Torn between his father's blue collar values and those of his new, cocky mentor, Phil Brody, he finds consolation in Brody's niece, Carla, a girl with radical ideas of her own. He soon learns that there's no shortcut to lasting success, and there's no substitute for family.

The score will feature all the most iconic sounds of the era, from Do-Wop and R&B, to the Cha Cha and the Watusi. The scenic design will recreate the look and feel of summertime at The El Flamingo Beach Club, complete with a pool center stage.

"Robert and Scott are passionately drawn to this timeless story. By reinterpreting it for the stage, and making it sing, they're finding new ways to layer the emotional content, and imbue it with a new vibrancy," said Mr. Israel.

"It's a valentine to the shimmering beach clubs of a bygone era," added Mr. Hirschhorn.

Additional information, including casting and production dates, will be announced shortly.

Robert L. Freedman (Book, Lyrics) won Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Book of a Musical for A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, the 2014 Best Musical Tony winner. He was also nominated for a Tony for Best Score with composer and co-lyricist Steven Lutvak, with whom he shared the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Best Lyrics, a 2015 Grammy nomination, and the Kleban and Fred Ebb awards. For his television work, Robert won the Writers Guild Award for HBO's A Deadly Secret, and was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild Award for the miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. His other teleplays include Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Writers Guild nomination), What Makes A Family (GLAAD Award, Humanitas Finalist), What Love Sees (Silver Plaque, Chicago International Television Festival), and the true crime dramas Honor Thy Mother (Edgar Award nomination from Mystery Writers of America), Murder In The Hamptons, The Pastor's Wife, Woman With a Past, and the miniseries In The Best ofFamilies (aka Bitter Blood). Robert is co-author, with Faye Greenberg, of the play The Beast of Broadway: The Life and Times of David Merrick, and book writer and lyricist for the musical Grand Duchy, with composer John Bayless. He is currently writing a film for Robert Redford for HBO. Robert has a B.A. in Theatre from UCLA, and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing and Musical Theatre from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He was recently honored with the Tisch Big Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatrical Arts, and the Distinguished Alumni Award at UCLA's Theatre, Film, and Television 2016 Commencement. Robert has taught screenwriting at NYU and USC. He is married to actress and singer Jean Kauffman. Their son, Max Freedman, is a writer, educator, and community activist in New York City.

Scott Frankel (Music) was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his work onGrey Gardens, which ran at Playwrights Horizons before moving to Broadway. Since then, the show has been performed regularly across the country including an acclaimed production in Los Angeles starring Betty Buckley & Rachel York-- as well as internationally. He has also written the music for War Paint (Goodman Theatre), Far from Heaven (Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival), Finding Neverland (UK premiere, 2012),Happiness (Lincoln Center Theater), Doll (Ravinia Festival, Richard Rodgers Award) and Meet Mister Future(winner, Global Search for New Musicals), all with lyricist Michael Korie. Frankel is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and the Frederick Loewe Award. He was the 2011-2012 Frances and William Schuman Fellow at The MacDowell Colony and a graduate of Yale University.

Robert Israel (Producer). Proclaimed by the LA Times as the "Trailer Titan" and placed on Entertainment Weekly's Top Creative People in Hollywood "It" List, Bob Israel has had a legendary career in entertainment. His achievements include producing blockbuster films that launched major careers, creating the largest entertainment advertising agency in Hollywood, overseeing prestigious star-studded award shows and, now, developing and producing theater for Broadway. Bob was born into the business: his father and mother were actors who met performing in the Broadway musical, Pins And Needles. In 2012, Bob created the Broadway & Vine Fund (along with Jed Bernstein and Rich Battista), for the purpose of optioning the underlying rights to existing properties and developing them for the stage. He is currently adapting the movie The Flamingo Kid as a musical for Broadway. His collaborators include Tony-winning producer, Larry Hirschhorn, A Gentlemen's Guide Tony-winning book writer and lyricist, Robert Freedman, and Grey Garden and War Paint's Scott Frankel. He will be co-lead producing with Fox Theatricals (Kristin Caskey and Mike Isaacson) and Amanda Dubois, an adaption of the movie, Mad Hot Ballroom. Also, in development is a play, Circling, written by Allen Barton, about a man who takes the measure of his life while building his own coffin, inspired by a true story. Bob's feature film producing credits include the box office smash Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which helped launch Jim Carrey's movie career. He produced the cult classic, Bachelor Party, based on Bob's original story, which starred a 27 year-old Tom Hanks. Both films evolved into highly profitable franchises for their respective studios. Live shows include a run as Lead Producer of The Hollywood Reporter's Key Art Awards from 2000-2008, held at the Kodak Theater. Featured hosts and presenters included Sarah Silverman, Clint Eastwood and Sharon Stone. Bob also produced a live musical in Las Vegas for Sony Pictures at Showest starring Robert Goulet, Leslie Nielsen and Ben Stein. Bob is also the Co-Founder and former CEO and Creative Director of Aspect Ratio,one of Hollywood's premier advertising agencies. Among the hundreds of campaigns created by the agency during Bob's time there are Forest Gump, Philadelphia, Ghost, Groundhog Day and Spiderman. When he (and partner Ron Moler) sold the company, Aspect had grown into the largest entertainment advertising agency in Hollywood, a family of companies creating trailers, main titles, and print campaigns for every major studio. Bob left the company in 2004 and, shortly thereafter, helped launch another prestigous agency, Workshop Creative. Bob is a member of the Motion Picture Academy (AMPAS) and the Directors Guild of America. He serves on the Board of Directors of A Place Called Home (2000-Present), Skylight Theater Company (2012-peresent) and University Synagogue. Bob has also won several CLIO awards, Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards and film festival honors. He is extremely grateful to have two incredible children, Jesse and Rachel, and his supportive life partner and wife, Gail. He resides in Los Angeles.

Larry Hirschhorn (Producer) is a three time Tony Award winning theatre producer with credits on Broadway, Off-Broadway, National Tours and the West End of London. He was one of the lead producers of the multi-award winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang. Starring Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce, it went on to win every major theatre Award for Best Play in the 2013 Season, including the Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Since closing in NY, there have been over 100 productions of it around the country, and was named the most produced American play of 2014. It will be opening in London's West End in the very near future. More recently he is a co-producer on Broadway of On Your Feet (The Gloria Estefan Musical), The Elephant Man, starring Bradley Cooper, (Drama Desk Award for Best Revival 2015), and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder which also won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Musical 2014. Other Broadway credits include: Peter and the Starcatcher (5 Tony Awards); Gore Vidal's The Best Man(Starring James Earl Jones, John Laroquette, Angela Lansbury, Eric McCormack, and Candice Bergen); Driving Miss Daisy (w/ James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave); The Addams Family (w/ Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth); Hair (Broadway/London/ National Tour- winner of Tony & Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival); The Seagull (w/ Kristin Scott Thomas); Passing Strange (Drama Desk Award for Best Musical); Butley (w/ Nathan Lane); and Well. Earlier in his career he was the Founder/Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's Melting Pot Theatre. Highlights there include Cobb, which one the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble, and was co-produced with Kevin Spacey; the NY Premiere of Miss Evers' Boys and Woody Sez.

Watch the film's original trailer below: