By Kenneth Jones
28 Jul 2009

Director Tina Landau

Director Tina Landau, who will stage the Broadway premiere of Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts this fall, is attached to the developing new musical Clueless, based on the film comedy about a shallow, rich, beautiful California high-schooler.

The latest draft of the script by John Dempsey (The Witches of Eastwick, Saved) and score by Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and Peter Yanowitz will be tested in an August reading, Variety reported.

Chicago producers Barry and Fran Weissler are behind the project, although there has been no official announcement about its future. The weeklong Equity reading will be in Manhattan Aug. 11-18.

Alicia Silverstone starred as Cher Horowitz in the Amy Heckerling-directed film comedy that was inspired by Jane Austen's "Emma." It was re-set in a Beverly Hills, CA, high school. There, Cher and her pal, Dionne, give a new student a makeover, and Cher ends up growing up and finding unexpected love. The film was packed with high-context pop culture references that proved popular with younger audiences (and is part of a slew of SoCal-set teen film comedies that began with "Valley Girl," a property which is also being turned into a musical). Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy, Donald Faison, Stacey Dash, Jeremy Sisto and Breckin Meyer were also in the film "Clueless."

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Ensemble Member Landau recently directed Steppenwolf's The Tempest and the 2008 Steppenwolf world premiere of Superior Donuts. She made her Broadway directorial debut staging the revival of Bells Are Ringing starring Faith Prince. Other Steppenwolf directing credits include The Diary of Anne Frank, Cherry Orchard, The Time of Your Life (also Seattle Rep, A.C.T.), Theatrical Essays, Maria Arndt, The Ballad of Little Jo, The Berlin Circle, Time to Burn and her own play, Space (also at The Public Theater, Mark Taper Forum). As a writer-director, her original work also includes Floyd Collins with composer Adam Guettel (Playwrights Horizons, Goodman, Old Globe, AMTF), Dream True (Vineyard) and States of Independence (AMTF) with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, Stonewall (En Garde) and 1969 (Humana Festival).

Silverstone, too grown up to play teens, is one of the stars of Donald Margulies' Broadway-bound drama Time Stands Still.