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Big Screen Take on Broadway Musical 'Memphis' is in Development

by Ben Pearson
October 16, 2012
Source: NY Times

The path from Broadway often leads from the stage to the screen when you have a successful show, and the Tony Award-winning musical Memphis is the latest to pack up and head from NYC to Hollywood for a film adaptation. The New York Times reports that the show, which won best musical, best score, best book, and best orchestration at the 2010 Tonys, is making the jump to the big screen and one of the film's writers is coming along with it. Joe DiPietro, who co-wrote the book and lyrics with David Bryan, will be writing the screenplay, so fans of the stage production can rest easy about this one getting a faithful adaptation on film.

Here's a taste of one of the musical numbers from Memphis performed at the Tony Awards:

The story follows a white radio DJ named Huey Calhoun in the 1950s, who breaks convention by playing what was then considered to be black music on the radio. He becomes a massive success, and starts a relationship with an up-and-coming black female singer, and the musical chronicles their difficulties being together through societal prejudices of the times. Reminds me a little of the 2007 Don Cheadle film Talk To Me, and this beloved Broadway tale sounds as if it has good crossover potential for the big screen. Alcon Entertainment, a company based at Warner Bros., is set to produce along with Mark Gordon and Molly Smith. Christopher Ashley directed the Broadway version, but no film director or cast are attached yet.

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