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Is Harry Connick’s New Musical Already Falling Apart?
It’s not even scheduled to open on Broadway until February, but Nice Work If You Can Get It — the Harry Connick, Jr. musical set to classic Gershwin songs — seems to be hitting a rocky patch. Michael Riedel trains his gimlet eye on the show in this morning’s Post, reporting that director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall — who last led Connick to glory in The Pajama Game — has quit the musical, taking her creative team (including producers and the set designer) with her. The usual juicy backstage drama this time has Marshall’s boyfriend — who also happens to be Connick’s agent, Scott Landis — feuding with Connick’s longtime manager, Ann Marie Wilkins.
But is the show as doomed as Riedel seems to imply? (He writes that the musical “may be fatally derailed,†and says he’s hearing Marshall’s departure may be “a lethal blow, largely because she and Connick have such great chemistry as collaborators.†The Post also illustrates the story with a hilariously awful photo of Connick.) As Riedel points out, there’s big money behind the show, and given that putting Harry Connick Jr. on Broadway is basically a license to print money, we’d be shocked if the show doesn’t recover soon — even if, as Riedel reports, it’s “a pale imitation of Crazy for You†that needs “tons of work to be done on the book.†Hell, given the state of the American musical these days, we’d totally go see a pale imitation of Crazy for You.
’NICE WORK’ HAS IT BAD [NYP]
Earlier: Harry Connick and Kathleen Marshall Say ‘Oh, Kay!’ to Broadway