© Mark Seliger
You’re going to have to wait a little longer on that order. Diner, the musical originally scheduled to open on Broadway on April 10, has been postponed until autumn 2013 in order to give the creative team more time to improve the script and producers more time to gather investors.
Based on the eponymous 1982 film by Academy Award-winning Director Barry Levinson (Rain Man), Diner features seventeen original songs by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Sheryl Crow. Set in 1950s Baltimore, it follows the story of six high school friends who reunite at a diner and sing about the challenges of adulthood. Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall (Nice Work If You Can Get It) directs.
The musical had announced a four week run at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre (October 23 – November 18 2012), only to cancel that engagement last August in favor of a fully-staged workshop in New York City. Unfortunately, the final week of that workshop directly coincided with Hurricane Sandy, a Category 2 storm that shut down much of the mid-Atlantic region and left millions of New Yorkers without power or transportation. With limited time to make changes or rehearse, the actors soldiered ahead with closed-door performances for potential investors, the results of which obviously fell short of producers’ expectations.
Speaking to The New York Times, lead producer Scott Zeiger (The Who’s Tommy) said, “I’m not using Sandy as an excuse, but sometimes the unexpected happens, and you have to adjust. So, in our case, one of the adjustments is moving opening night to the fall.”
Presently, no casting has been announced for the Broadway run. The show has also not announced a theater, although it has been retooled for a more intimate space after it was initially envisioned for a big Broadway house.
In an official statement, Zeiger said, “We are excited about our progress and it has become very clear the direction in which we need to continue to take this new American musical. Early fall dates work better for all involved and an announcement of Broadway theater and dates will be forthcoming.”
