As Cy Coleman busily preps the long-awaited The Life for its Broadway opening at the end of the 1996-97 season, word has it his next project will be a Really Useful Company stage production of A Star Is Born.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has long held the rights to the material, which was made into three Hollywood films (with Janet Gaynor (1937), Judy Garland (1954) and Barbara Streisand (1976). Peter Brown, spokesperson for Webber's Really Useful Company, confirms that Coleman and lyricist David Zippel (City Of Angels, contributions to A...My Name Is Still Alice) are working on the project, about a rising young star and a middle-aged actor who withers in her shadow. No time frame has been set for the stage-bound Star, nor have any stars been mentioned for the leads.

The project was originally announced as having a Larry Gelbart book with a score of trunk songs by Harold Arlen.

Coleman, who wrote the score for the Tony-winning City Of Angels, also composed the tunes for Little Me, Sweet Charity, I Love My Wife and On The Twentieth Century.

--By David Lefkowitz