The Broadway producer Stephen C. Byrd, who mounted a multiracial “Streetcar Named Desire†last season and an all-black “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof†in 2008, is developing a new stage musical based on the 1959 film “Black Orpheus,†which won the Academy Award for best foreign-language picture in 1960.
Having acquired the rights to adapt the film, which retells the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown, Mr. Byrd said on Tuesday that he had hired two prominent Brazilian theater directors and writers â€" Claudio Botelho and Charles Moeller â€" to finish a script by the end of the year. The show would incorporate the music of the film, which includes acclaimed samba and bossa nova songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá.
Mr. Byrd said he hoped to bring “Black Orpheus†to Broadway in the 2013-14 season, but acknowledged that musicals can take years to develop and that he had not started raising money from investors. Mr. Byrd said that no director was attached to the project, but that among those on his wish list were the Tony Award winners Bill T. Jones, Julie Taymor and Rob Ashford. Mr. Byrd is working with the Brazilian entertainment company Geo Eventos and the New York theater company Base Entertainment as co-producers. The film, made by the French director Marcel Camus, is based on a popular Brazilian play from the 1950s by Vinicius de Moraes.
“I've seen the movie 25 times, at minimum, and always thought the story was highly theatrical and the music was transfixing,†Mr. Byrd said. “I'm hoping to cast at least the principal roles with well-known Brazilian singers and actors, because I think this show will su cceed as long as it's as authentically Brazilian as possible.â€
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