Revisiting the original announcement of the revival of TheMusicMan, via HollywoodReporter, provides some interesting insights on how this production is going --
www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hugh-jackman-lead-broadway-revival-music-man-1194075
>
>
>
"The idea of bringing The Music Man back to Broadway has been lurking in the back of my brain for a long time, maybe even for 35 years," continued Jackman. "When Scott Rudin called me with that very idea, I was floored. To finally be doing this is a huge thrill."
"There is just no way to accurately describe the level of excitement I feel about the opportunity to present Hugh in what I think is the best role ever written for an actor in all of Broadway musical theater," added Rudin.
>
>
>
With premium pricing having significantly pumped box office earning potential in the five years since the most recent of those productions, a Jackman-led revival of a canonical property like the 1957 Meredith Willson musical promises to be massive, particularly given that the actor has signed on for a full year.
>
>
>
"These are great American works of art that deserve to be put on stage with as much love as you can give them," Rudin told The Hollywood Reporter. "What I learned on Dolly was that there is an enormous hunger for them from the theatergoing audience. But the hunger I think is to see these Golden Age musicals done in a Golden Age way."
"When you take on one of the 10 or so great, beloved titles, you're trying to do the urtext version of it," he continued. "That's what I think we did with Dolly and what we're going to do here. We're going to do it in a way that no one has ever seen it before. It's going to be big and beautiful and super-luxe and gorgeous and incredibly romantic, and very much in the world of why the show has lasted for 60 years."
>
>
>
Rudin said Jackman thought long and hard on the right musical-theater project to bring him back to Broadway, and the conversation that led to this project has been going on for about three years.
>
>
>
"When we did Dolly, my desire was to put 1964 onstage," said Rudin. "That's what we want to do here. We want basically to put onstage an experience that is our version of what we believe people felt when they walked in to the Majestic to see The Music Man in 1957, which is that blow-the-roof-off-the-theater, blow-the-doors-off-their-hinges musical-theater hysteria that only a handful of shows have ever generated. That's the job."
>
>
>
Like Jackman, Rudin also has connections to the show that go way back. The Broadway premiere was a huge hit for influential producer Kermit Bloomgarden, in whose offices Rudin got his start in the theater business at age 14.
"I was obsessed with The Music Man when I was a kid," said Rudin. "I would ask him endless questions about it and spend months and months poring through his files for every single document I could find that related to The Music Man. A ton of what I learned about being a producer I learned from Kermit, and in a way, for me personally, this is kind of a valentine to him."
***************************************************************
The production plans for the revival did revolve around Scott Rudin's passion project objectives and Hugh Jackman's total interest in it. They were discussing the project for a number of years ( see above) before a final agreement ( especially on Hugh doing a full year's run). Looking forward to this revival especially given the attention and care that Rudin et al is giving to it.
