Ride 'Em Urban Cowboy: New Film-Based Musical Opens in Florida, Nov. 16 | Playbill

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News Ride 'Em Urban Cowboy: New Film-Based Musical Opens in Florida, Nov. 16 Urban Cowboy, the new Broadway-bound musical based on the 1980 honkytonk-set film, will open at the Coconut Grove Playhouse on Nov. 16, after previews from Nov. 7. The musical was to have begun on Nov. 5, but was delayed so difficulties with the set could be worked out.

Urban Cowboy, the new Broadway-bound musical based on the 1980 honkytonk-set film, will open at the Coconut Grove Playhouse on Nov. 16, after previews from Nov. 7. The musical was to have begun on Nov. 5, but was delayed so difficulties with the set could be worked out.

Producer Chase Mishkin said at the time, "It's just glitches with the mechanical parts of the set that the theatre has built that has kept us from starting previews."

Sally Mayes, Leo Burmester, Jodi Stevens, Rozz Morehead and Marcus Chait, and newcomers Matt Cavenaugh and Jenn Colella, are in the cast. Lonny Price, who co-wrote, staged and starred in Broadway's A Class Act, directs.

Price entered the show after the death of co-librettist and original director Phillip Oesterman. Oesterman, 64, was found dead of a heart attack in his home in Ft. Myers, FL, the morning of July 30. He co-wrote the Urban Cowboy libretto with Aaron Latham, screenwriter of the original movie.

Like Price, musical theatre composer Jason Robert Brown was a late addition to the creative team. He became the new musical director and arranger in late October and penned some songs for the show, which draws much of its score from the pop soundtrack of the 1980 flick. "He has already written a new song for our leading man, Bud," producer Chase Miskin said Oct. 28, talking from Florida. "It is musically sophisticated and lyrically sensitive."

If the show reaches New York, it will be Brown's second Broadway credit, after Parade, for which he won a Best Score Tony Award. Since then, New York has seen his The Last 5 Years Off-Broadway. It will be musical actress Mayes' first Broadway credit since 1993's revival of She Loves Me.

Price's other directing credits include an Off Broadway revival of The Rothschilds and The Matchmaker at the Roundabout Theatre Company. He also directed the 2000 production of Finian's Rainbow which toured the U.S. but failed to come into New York. On stage he has acted in Falsettos and Merrily We Roll Along (in a performance preserved on the cherished-by-fans cast album). He also appeared in the Broadway musical, Rags.

"The story takes place in Gilley's bar, the evening watering hole of the newly prosperous rig workers during the oil boom of the '70s," according to the Coconut Grove announcement. "It's a place rife with lots of laughs, personal drama and sexual tension — and as the song depicts — it's the place where everyone goes 'Lookin' For Love.'"

Songs in the show include "Could I Have This Dance," "Orange Blossom Express" and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." The original soundtrack went triple platinum.

For more information, visit www.cgplayhouse.com.

 
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