Long-in-development BULL DURHAM musical will play Paper Mill in Fall 2025

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 8:43pm

The musical adaptation of BULL DURHAM (based on the Kevin Costner movie) premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2014, featuring Will Swenson & Melissa Errico, with its sights aimed on Broadway.

Then, like many shows, it had stops and starts. Until...

In September 2024, it played a production at Theatre Raleigh in Durham, NC, a theatre run by Lauren Kennedy, starring John Behlmann and Carmen Cusack, and directed by Marc Bruni.

Now, it appears to be eying Broadway once again, and has set a production at Paper Mill for this coming fall.

 

Anyone seen one of the various iterations? Is it any good, or has it languished for a reason?

Updated On: 1/21/25 at 08:43 PM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 8:56pm

Papermill continues to produce flops. Outside of Newsies(Disney produced) & Gatsby, nothing else has been a hit from Papermill. Don't see this doing any better.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 9:21pm

ACL2006 said: "Papermill continues to produce flops. Outside of Newsies(Disney produced) & Gatsby, nothing else has been a hit from Papermill. Don't see this doing any better."

While a Paper Mill premiere certainly doesn't guarantee quality, they don't lose anything by producing a show that doesn't make it to Broadway.

When a Broadway-aimed show plays Paper Mill, it comes with millions in enhancement money that lets them mount a bigger production, it brings in higher-profile artists, and they get more media/industry attention. And then if it makes it to Broadway or tours, they get a financial royalty that could pay out for years.

Of their shows have had further commercial life since 2010:

• Newsies -- big hit, big tour
• Honeymoon in Vegas -- flop
• Bronx Tale -- I believe this has recouped thanks to touring, licensing, and its 21-month Broadway run
• Bandstand -- flop
• Great Gatsby -- on track to be a big hit
• plus they probably get some cash out of Hunchback and the 2011-2013 Les Mis tour

They can't be mad at that track record.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 9:39pm

and the amount of new musicals that were DOA after their premiere:

• The Honeymooners
• Hercules (heading to Europe)
• The Wanderer
• Unmasked
• Chasing Rainbows
• My Very Own British Invasion
• The Sting
• Half Time
• The Bodyguard (toured, but flopped)
• Ever After

TBD: Mystic Pizza, Take the Lead, Bull Durham

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 10:00pm

They keep trying to make Bull Durham happen. It’s not going to happen. First Wives Club probably has a better chance of coming back from the dead than this ever reaching a broadway stage.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 10:31pm

I don't know who exactly is clamoring for a musical based on the second-best baseball movie from the late 1980s starring Kevin Costner, but I'll give anything a shot.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 10:33pm

We’ve had one hit baseball musical, one hit groupies musical, and one hit philosophy musical. What are the odds of a hit baseball/groupies/philosophy musical?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/21/25 at 10:46pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "I don't know who exactly is clamoring for a musical based on the second-best baseball movie from the late 1980s starring Kevin Costner, but I'll give anything a shot."

tbh adapting The Costner Baseball Trilogy for the stage and producing them in rep would would be a better idea than pouring more money into future sequels of HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA.

Tom Kitt's Field of Dreams? Matt Sklar & Chad Beguelin's For Love of the Game? As a football bonus, Rajiv Joseph could adapt his own screenplay of Draft Day for the stage.

Updated On: 1/21/25 at 10:46 PM

[scripps]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 1:20am

I sat through a reading of this years ago, like it was catered by Starlite Deli years ago. I remember thinking that it wasn't half bad, so if Cusack winds up being a part of this too, maybe I'll take the train out to Papermill. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 1:55am

If Cusack is in so am I.

[GF21]

Posted: 1/22/25 at 9:35am

We saw this when it played in Raleigh this past fall, mostly because we are huge fans of the songwriter Susan Werner. We liked it a lot, and hope that it can tweak a couple of rough edges and keep moving forward.