De Felitta's BUDDYS TAVERN to Receive Reading in January

Filmmaker Raymond De Felitta penned the book to "Buddy's Tavern," a musical with songs by composer Kim Oler and lyricist Alison Hubbard, based on his 2000 film "Two Family House." Now, the show is gaining momentum, winning a development slot at the summer's National Music Theater Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center. Shows including AVENUE Q and IN THE HEIGHTS have previously performed at the center.

BUDDY'S TAVERN also won a Richard Rodgers award, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award comes with funds for a staged reading of BUDDYS TAVERN which is set for January. Warren Carlyle (FINIAN'S RAINBOW) is set to direct, with Shuler Hensley (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) said to be set for the title role, according to an article from Variety.

The film "Two Family House," which starred Michael Rispoli, Kelly Macdonald and Kathrine Narducci, won the prize at Sundanc and was released by Lionsgate at the end of 2000. According to De Felitta, it "vanished almost immediately." However, thanks so the advice of his lawyer, he held on to the stage rights and when he was approached by Oler and Hubbard, he accepted.

Like the film, BUDDY'S TAVERN focuses on a wannabe singer's dream to open a bar in the lower half of a two-story house on Staten Island in the 1950s.

"Writing a musical was very helpful in writing a 60-page pilot," De Felitta said. "You have very little space to accomplish a lot, and working in the five-act structure is a lot like having to build to the moments when people sing."

BUDDY'S TAVERN will receive a reading in January by new-musical development company Premieres.
With his previous experience raising money for indie films, De Felitta is considering acting as a producer for BUDDY'S TAVERN. According to the article, he even attended a Commercial Theater Institute seminar to see how it works.

"They said that every show is like a startup business, and that was very encouraging to me," he said. "I thought, Well, I can raise money for movies, so why can't I do it for a musical??"
"I feel like I don't need to see the movie again now," he says. "Now when I watch it, I miss the songs."

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