Martin Scorsese’s ‘The King of Comedy’ Set for Broadway
Martin Scorsese’s scabrous showbiz satire “The King of Comedy” is one of the director’s oft-unsung masterworks, even if it took a box office hit in 1982. Now, it is getting the Broadway musical treatment.
Composer and lyricist Stephen Trask (“Hedwig & The Angry Inch”) and Chris D’Arienzo, book writer of the Tony-nominated jukebox musical “Rock of Ages” (which later became the 2012 film flop) will pen this stage version of the cult classic about a desperate comedian who stalks and kidnaps his idol, a late-night TV host. New Regency, whose founder Arnon Milchan produced the original movie starring Robert De Niro, will back the project.
Broadway’s Hollywood nostalgia has not always paid off. (This year’s Tony Awards, however, gave Hollywood the cold shoulder.) “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark,” Julie Taymor’s beleaguered comic book musical, had one of the longest preview runs in Broadway history, but it did end up scoring big bucks, unlike Hollywood to Broadway flops “Doctor Zhivago,” “Big,” “Ghost,” and “9 to 5.” An upcoming James Bond musical, with music and lyrics by country singer Jay Henry Weisz, already spells disaster.
READ MORE: When Hollywood Met Broadway: Screen Stars Hit the Stage as Stage-to-Screen Musicals (and Vice-Versa) Move Through the Pipeline
Other upcoming screen-to-stage retreads include “Misery,” starring Bruce Willis, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “School of Rock,” plus “The Color Purple” and “The First Wives Club.”
