The new musical will first premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in August. It will arrive on Broadway Jan. 13, 2014 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. An opening night has been set for late February.
Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher (Golden Boy, South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza) will stage the project that has a score by Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World) and a book by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman (The Secret Garden, 'Night Mother).
The Bridges of Madison County centers on a brief, four-day love affair between a National Geographic photographer and an Italian-American housewife in 1965 Iowa. Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep starred in the 1995 film adaptation.
Casting for the Broadway production has not been announced. The Williamstown premiere will star Steven Pasquale (Far from Heaven, Reasons to Be Pretty, "Rescue Me") and Elena Shaddow (The Light in the Piazza). Four-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara had originally been attached to star in Bridges of Madison County at Williamstown, but is expecting her second child later this summer.
The Williamstown and subsequent Broadway production will reunite Sher with his Tony Award-winning South Pacific creative team, including scenic designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber and lighting designer Donald Holder. Sound design will be by Jon Weston.
