Despite Livent's bad luck and Disney's "Aida" setbacks, corporate inroads into Broadway continue. Warner Brothers is developing plans to bring the comic strip character Batman to the boards as a musical. Composer Jim Steinman, lyricist of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind, has reportedly been approached to write the score.

"This is a very exciting project that Jim was born to write," Steinman's manager David Sonenberg told The Daily News (Dec. 9). Sonenberg said that talks were in progress. Time Warner exec Gregory Maday has been assigned to the project. Maday, formerly a theatre director, was not available for comment.

Should Warner Brothers bring the dark knight to the Great White Way, it will be following in the tracks of several corporate colleagues. Disney has produced two musicals on Broadway -- Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King -- and has two more in the works (Elaborate Lives, Hunchback). Additionally, Cablevision Systems Corp. recently took control of the struggling musical The Scarlet Pimpernel . Another musical producing corporation, Livent, recently declared bankruptcy and had to relinquish control of its Ragtime tour.

For the past decade, Batman and his sidekick Robin has been the subject of a series of highly popular event movies, such as "Batman and Robin" and "Batman Forever." Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney have played the Caped Crusader.

Batman: The Musical could reach Broadway in 2000 or 2001, said the News.