Sheryl Crow & Barry Levinson's DINER Gets December Workshop in NYC; Broadway Next?

According to an Equity casting notice, a New York City workshop will soon be held for DINER, a new musical inspired by the critically acclaimed 1982 film. With a book by Academy Award and Emmy Award winner Barry Levinson and music & lyrics by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, the project will be directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. The workshop will be held December 2-13 at Pearl Studios.

The project was previously scheduled for an out-of-town run in Summer 2012, with a Broadway opening in Fall 2012. After that was pushed back, it was announced in January 2013 that the show would be postponed indefinitely. Producer Scott Zeiger commented then: "We presented a four week fully-staged workshop of Diner in New York last November at which we received positive feedback from investors and theater owners. 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."

It's Christmas 1959 in Baltimore and six high school buddies, now in their twenties, reunite as the second member of the group is about to tie the knot. Trying to deal with their new responsibilities, the group has awkwardly stumbled into adulthood and the only place they can make sense of their new lives is at their old hangout, The Fells Point Diner.

Released in 1982, DINER was Barry Levinson's screen directing debut, and he received an Academy Award nomination for his original screenplay. The bittersweet comedy starred Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, Tim Daly, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke and Daniel Stern.