David Cromer to Direct Broadway's Yank! A WWII Love Story

By Andrew Gans
and Adam Hetrick
10 May 2010

David Cromer
David Cromer
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

David Cromer, who is currently represented in New York by his Obie and Lortel Award-winning production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at The Barrow Street Theatre, will helm the upcoming Broadway production of the new musical Yank! A WWII Love Story.

Igor Goldin directed the acclaimed Off-Broadway production, which ended its extended run at the York Theatre Company April 4.

Cromer will make his Broadway musical debut with Yank!, which will arrive during the 2010-11 season. Cromer also received Obie and Lucille Lortel awards for his direction of the musical Adding Machine and a third Lucille Lortel Award for his direction of When the Rain Stops Falling at Lincoln Center Theater. He also directed last season's Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, and is currently at work on his production of A Streetcar Named Desire at The Writers' Theatre in Chicago. His productions in Chicago have won a total of 16 Joseph Jefferson Awards, including Best Production and Best Director for The Cider House Rules, The Price and Angels in America.

Yank! A WWII Love Story has music by Joseph Zellnik with book and lyrics by David Zellnik. Set during World War II, Yank!, according to press notes, "chronicles the relationship between two servicemen long before Don't Ask Don't Tell was part of the national discussion. With a lively score inspired by the pop sounds of the 1940s, Yank! captures the spirit and exuberance of the era as it explores questions of prejudice, courage and survival."

Although no official casting has been announced, Bobby Steggert, the young actor enjoying his first Tony Award nomination for his work in the short-lived Broadway revival of Ragtime, will likely reprise his performance in the Broadway transfer of Yank! "Absolutely. I'm committed until the ship goes down," Steggert told Playbill.com of his involvement in the announced Broadway transfer of the World War II-set musical about a romance between two gay soldiers.

The Off-Broadway production of Yank! received seven Drama Desk nominations, including Outstanding Musical; two Outer Critics Circle nominations, including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical; and two Lucille Lortel Award nominations, including Outstanding Musical.

The producers of the upcoming Broadway production of Yank! include Maren Berthelsen, Pamela Koslow, Stuart Wilk, Matt Schicker, Hugh Hayes, Jim Kierstead, Sondra Healy, Shidan Majidi and Karl Held and Craig Haffner of Held-Haffner Productions.