Lynn Nottage Will Pen Stage Adaptation of "Black Orpheus"; George C. Wolfe to Direct | Playbill

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News Lynn Nottage Will Pen Stage Adaptation of "Black Orpheus"; George C. Wolfe to Direct The playwright and director for the musical stage adaptation of the award-winning film "Black Orpheus" have been announced.

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George C. Wolfe Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

As previously reported by Playbill.com, producer Stephen Byrd, of Front Row Productions, will bring the musical adaptation of the film to Broadway. The 1959 film, a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, was directed by Marcel Camus.

Producers also include Alia Jones-Harvey and Paula Marie Black.

Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, who penned Ruined, a play about the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, will write Black Orpheus. Her works also include Fabulation, Intimate Apparel and Las Meninas. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will present the premiere of her play Sweat in 2015.

The production will be helmed by George C. Wolfe, a Tony winner for his direction of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. His directing credits also include Lucky Guy; The Normal Heart; Caroline, or Change; and Angels in America: Perestroika.

The score will include many of the Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and Vinicius de Moraes themes from the motion picture.

"Originally based on the play Orfeu de Conceição by the great Moraes, 'Black Orpheus' resets the classic Greek love story of Eurydice and Orfeu against the back drop of a Rio de Janeiro favela during Carnival," press notes state. "Equal parts celebratory, erotic, haunting and tragic, 'Black Orpheus' became an instant classic, winning the Cannes Palme d'Or and the 1959 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and introduced the world to Bossa Nova." 

"We are so thrilled to bring this classic piece of Brazilian popular culture to life on stage," Byrd said in a statement. "The World Cup is providing a wonderful international platform for Brazil right now, and we look forward to further spotlighting this legacy on Broadway."

 
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