Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman’s musical adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County will be heating things up on Broadway this winter. The new musical is slated to open at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in January 2014. Directed by Bartlett Sher (South Pacific), the new musical is set to open in February. Casting has not yet been announced.
Based on Robert James Waller’s 1992 bestselling novel, The Bridges of Madison County features a score by Brown and a book by Norman. The musical tells the story of photographer Robert Kincaid and his life-changing, four-day love affair with Iowa farm wife Francesca Johnson. The novel was adapted into a 1995 film starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, who also helmed the movie.
The Bridges of Madison County premiered in August 2013 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, starring Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale, who are currently headlining the off-Broadway production of Far From Heaven. Brown’s musical Honeymoon in Vegas, premiering this fall at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, is also reportedly Broadway bound.
Brown earned a Tony Award for Best Original Score for Parade, and composed 13 on Broadway. His off-Broadway composing credits include The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World. Norman earned the Pulitzer Prize for her play ’night, Mother, and a Tony Award for the book of A Secret Garden. She garnered a Tony nomination for the book of A Color Purple. Her additional Broadway writing credits include The Red Shoes (book and lyrics).
The creative team for The Bridges of Madison County will include scenic designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber and lighting designer Donald Holder.