Maltby and Shire Musical, Set During Thai Political Upheaval, Aims for Broadway | Playbill

News Maltby and Shire Musical, Set During Thai Political Upheaval, Aims for Broadway Waterfall, a new romantic musical set during the changing political landscape of Thailand in the 1930s, is aiming for a 2016 Broadway arrival following out-of-town engagements at the Pasadena Playhouse and Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre next year.

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Richard Maltby Jr. Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Based on the Thail novel "Behind the Painting" by Sriburapha, the new musical will be directed by Tak Viravan, who also staged an earlier musical incarnation of the novel in Thailand.

The team has been workshopping the musical Behind the Painting over the past year. A February 2014 lab production in New York City starred Sierra Boggess. The creative team has since changed the name of the property to Waterfall.

Waterfall has book and lyrics by Tony Award winner Richard Maltby Jr. (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Miss Saigon) and music by Oscar winner and two-time Tony Award nominee David Shire (Baby, Big). Tony nominee Dan Knechtges (Xanadu) will choreograph.

Thai recording artist Bie Sukrit Wisetkaew, who rose to fame on the Thai television talent contest "The Star," has been cast in the production that will first arrive at the Pasadena Playhouse June 2, 2015, with a fall 2015 run at the 5th Avenue to follow. A 2016 Broadway arrival is planned.

According to the creators, "Waterfall is an epic love story, set in Bangkok and Tokyo between the turbulent years of 1933 and 1939, as a monarchy falls in Thailand and Japan is on the brink of war. A young Thai student falls in love with the American wife of a Thai diplomat, and the story of their forbidden love parallels history as the new democracy of Siam moves into the vortex of the increasingly anti-American Japan. With a gloriously romantic score, Waterfall is a modern love story of timeless scale."

The musical will be produced on Broadway by Scenario Company Ltd. and Jack M. Dalgleish.

 
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