Sheryl Crow & Barry Levinson Will Talk DINER in POST:POV Series

Virginia's Signature Theatre will soon present the world premiere of Diner, the musical adaptation of the landmark film with a book by the movie's Academy Award®-winning screenwriter and director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Bugsy, The Natural) and an original score by nine-time Grammy Award® winner Sheryl Crow. Directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award® Winner Kathleen Marshall (Broadway's Anything Goes, Nice Work If You Can Get It), the production begins performances at Signature Theatre's MAX Theatre December 9. It will play for six and a half weeks, through January 25.

According to the Washington Post, later today, Crow and Levinson will both take part in Post: POV, a series hosted by Peter Marks, at which the duo will discuss putting the new musical together.

The ensemble piece will feature Whitney Bashor (Barbara; Broadway's Bridges of Madison County and Signature's The Hollow), Bryan Fenkart (Modell; Broadway's Memphis), Aaron Finley (Billy; Broadway's Rock of Ages),Josh Grisetti (Shrevie; Off-Broadway's Enter Laughing), Erika Henningsen (Beth; Show Boat: Live from Lincoln Center with the NY Philharmonic), Derek Klena (Boogie; Broadway's Wicked, The Bridges of Madison County and Second Stage'sDogfight), Adam Kantor (Eddie; Broadway's Rent, Next to Normal and Second Stage's The Last Five Years), Tess Soltau(Elyse; Broadway's The Addams Family), Matthew James Thomas (Fenwick; Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,Pippin), and John Schiappa (Older Boogie; Broadway's Rocky, The Other Place, Wicked).

Set in Baltimore during Christmas of 1959, a circle of childhood friends reunite for the upcoming wedding of one of them. From the comfort of their all-night Diner, the men, now in their early-twenties, confront the realities of adulthood: marriage, careers, money and the ever-mysterious opposite sex.

When Diner premiered in 1982 it was heralded as "fresh...Energetic...Honest [and] entertaining" by The New York Times. In March of 2012, Vanity Fair claimed that Barry Levinson's comedy "caused a tectonic shift in popular culture. It paved the way for Seinfeld, Pulp Fiction, The Office, and Judd Apatow's career."

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