Starfighter Onstage, LLC Announces New Productions in Developement

Starfighter Onstage, LLC has announced its new projects in development for 2010. 

First, it will start developing a new musical adapted from the comic novel VIVA MAX! by Jim Lehrer (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer). VIVA MAX! is a satire about a Mexican general who tries to impress a woman who spurned him, embarking on a quest to cross the border into the United States and recapture the Alamo. Jim Lehrer's novel was the source of a 1969 film comedy in which Peter Ustinov played the general. Fred Landau (who wrote the book for the LLC's LAST STARFIGHTER musical) is writing the book, and is developing the novel-to-stage adaptation of the story with Julie Miller. The composer and lyricist will be announced soon.

The LLC will also produce (with Julie Miller co-producing) a short-film musical of PLAISIR D'AMOUR, a screen adaptation of the one-act musical with book by Terrence McNally and songs by Skip Kennon, which was directed by Elizabeth Lucas to great acclaim at New York's 59E59 in summer 2008. Sam Thielman in Variety called the one-act "an extravaganza," noting that "the prize goes, no contest, to Plaisir D'Amour, mostly because of the amazing synchronization of all its disparate elements." It is anticipated that Elizabeth Lucas (director of Clear Blue Tuesday, Red Hook, Fade To White) will direct, and also adapt Terrence McNally's book for the screen.

Also announced by the LLC are plans to be an associate producer of a developmental reading of Bruce Kimmel's musical THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL, which will be directed by Bruce Kimmel in NYC, most likely in late spring or early summer.