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

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 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.

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.

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?

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.

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.