A newly revised iteration of “Pal Joey” will have a Broadway run during the 2022-2023 season, producer Jeffrey Richards announced Monday.
Tony Goldwyn, who most recently appeared on Broadway in “The Inheritance,” and Savion Glover, choreographer of “Shuffle Along,” will co-direct the production. Glover will also serve as choreographer. The creative team, which includes writer Richard LaGravenese, will revise the book to the 1940 musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and add in more songs from their catalogue.
The score, which features the songs “Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book,” will now include “Where or When,” “The Lady is a Tramp,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “Falling in Love With Love” and “There’s A Small Hotel.” These changes have been approved by the Rodgers & Hart estate.
The book, originally written by John O’Hara, has been revised to set the musical in a nightclub in the South Side of Chicago and to change the role of Linda, played by Kim Novak in the 1957 film, from a stenographer to an aspiring singer. Casting for the revival has not yet been announced.
The original Broadway production starred Gene Kelly as lead Joey Evans. The 1957 film adaptation of the musical starred Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Novak, and Sinatra won a Golden Globe Award for his performance. There have been several revivals of “Pal Joey,” including the 1963 City Center production, starring Bob Fosse and Gardner and a 2008 Roundabout Theatre Company production at Studio 54.
The creative team for the new “Pal Joey” includes Derek McLane as set designer, Emilio Sosa as costume designer, Natasha Katz as lighting designer and Daryl Waters as orchestrator, arranger and music supervisor.
Richards is the production’s lead producer, alongside co-producers Funny World Productions, Willette Klausner and Irene Gandy.
