HERE COMES J. EDGAR! Musical Eyes Broadway Transfer
After first airing on the radio in 1994, the musical was "close" to coming to Broadway with Kelsey Grammer and John Goodman.
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As Here Comes J. Edgar's long-awaited stage debut starts to sell out in the UK, Harry Shearer and Tom Leopold are already eyeing a Broadway and West End run. The musical is set to premiere at the King's Head Theatre, after first airing on the radio in 1994, starring Kelsey Grammer, John Goodman and Christopher Guest.
Shearer and Leopold first wrote both the book and the lyrics alongside Peter Matz, Barbara Streisand’s musical director, three decades ago. In a new interview with Variety, they state that the show was "close" to coming to Broadway with Grammer and Goodman, but plans never came together.
"We came close," Leopold said. "Both Kelsey Grammer and John [Goodman] wanted to do it on Broadway, and it just didn’t seem to come together. We had other fish to fry, as the President sings in the show."
Here Comes J Edgar! tells the public and private story of J. Edgar Hoover who, as director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, secured his position as the most powerful man in America by gathering information on the private lives of others. Yet, behind all the machismo, was his concealed sexuality, his secret partying and his lifelong love affair with his deputy, Clyde Tolson. This was a man who stopped at nothing to use the secrets of others to build and exert his control … yet underneath the petticoats of power lay his own secrets … hidden … in plain sight.
They now feel that the musical, which is set to star Marc Elliott and Bryan Batt, appeals most to a British audience.
"I just thought that a show with this degree of edginess would initially appeal more to British audiences than to American theater audiences," Shearer. "I mean, there are American audiences that would dig it, but I think the Broadway audience is little tame."
The pair also revealed that the show is opening in the UK first "partly because it’s so much cheaper to do theater here than in New York."
The show is directed by Josh Seymour, with choreography by the celebrated Bill Deamer. The musical supervisor is Benjamin Ferguson, musical director is Luke Holman, scenic design is by Sophia Pardon and costume design by Tom Paris. Lighting design is by Jamie Platt, sound design by Nick Lodge and the casting director is by Harry Blumenau CDG CSA. The associate director is Jessica McKenna, associate choreographer is Aimee Leigh and production manager is Adam Jefferys. Arthur Spivak and David Burns produce, with general management handled by James Quaife for Luminous Entertainment Group.
This weird and twisted tale is told in the style of a 1950s musical romantic comedy. What emerges is a sharp and irrepressible comic musical about the love of power and the power of love … and what a simple black dress and a single strand of pearls can do for a guy!
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