Back in December 1998, before he became Broadway's Tony Manero, James Carpinello participated in a reading of a new musical based on the hit film "Urban Cowboy." Little has been heard about the project since, but the Daily News reports (Aug. 15) that librettist Aaron Latham and producer Phillip Oesterman are currently in Tennessee visiting the Nashville Songwriters Association, hoping to find original songs to plug into the show. "We are not just looking for one composer," Oesterman told the Daily News (Aug. 15), "but a series of songwriters who will contribute to the musical. We expect to have a workshop in New York in October." The target is Broadway this-coming February, though that sounds extremely quick for a show has yet to cast its leads, try out, or integrate new songs into its book. Tunes from the movie may also make it into the show, with Johnny Lee's "Lookin' for Love" a definite.

James Bridges' 1980 film starred John Travolta as a construction worker whose machismo doesn't quite jibe with real life. He also winds up in a love triangle (with the other points played by Debra Winger and Scott Glenn). The movie's best-known aspect is the mechanical bull customers ride at the pub Gilley's, a machine that sparked something of a craze for the nuts n' bolts bronco in bars across America.