Boardwalk Empire Musical Headed To Broadway, Buscemi, Scorsese Team Up
Boardwalk Empire, listed as one of the ten best programs on television, is headed to Broadway as a big-budget musical. The critically acclaimed HBO series ended last year and will again star Steve Buscemi as corrupt Atlantic City treasurer Enoch âNuckyâ Thompson. Martin Scorsese, who directed the Boardwalk tv pilot is said to direct. Musicals are not outside of Scorceseâs wheelhouse. In 1977 he directed Robert De Niro and actress-singer Liza Minnelli in the movie musical New York, New York. Although Steve Buscemi is not known as a song-and-dance man, the stage-trained actor, more famous for his film work, is eager to bring Nucky to a new audience. âAtlantic City and Broadway are a perfect fit,â says theater critic Lanny Brice. âJersey Boys has been âstanding room onlyâ for the past ten years. This oneâs going to be bigger.â After a three-week tryout in a city to be determined â Boston most likely â the show will open in June 2015. âIf they time the movie that Mark Walhberg wants Martin Scorsese to produce, Boardwalk will be everywhere!â added Brice. Set in Atlantic City at the start of Prohibition and the rise of bootlegging, Boardwalk Empire gained a huge audience that investors and producers hope will carry over to New York theater audiences. âA big part of New York theater depends on tourists,â says Brice. âOpening the show in June is a very smart move, because itâs right at the start ofÂ summerÂ when everyone comes to the City.â During its five-season run, Boardwalk Empire won a number of awards from The Writers Guild of America, The Screen Actors Guild and The Directors Guild of America. Steve Buscemi won a Golden Globe in 2011 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series. Will Broadwayâs Tony Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical be next? âThat all depends,â says Brice. The cast of the TV show was outstanding. My sources tell me every effortâs been made to get as many original cast members involved as possible. Stephen Graham (Al Capone) has a background in live theater, and heâs in as far as I know. As for Kelly Macdonald (Margaret), Shea Whigham (Eli), and Vincent Piazza (Lucky Luciano), weâre still waiting. Thereâs been no official press release yet.â Boardwalk Empire â The Musical, presentedÂ by the New York Theater Consortium, based on an original television series produced by HBO and Stephen Levinson, Martin Scorsese, Timothy Van Patten, Mark Wahlberg, Ivana Tappitt, and Terence Winter.