A by-invitation-only reading of the new musical Xanadu — based on the 1980 film of the same name — will be held in Manhattan Aug. 3. Tony Award winner Jane Krakowski will play Kira, the role created on screen by Olivia Newton-John.Christopher Ashley is directing the reading of Xanadu, which utilizes songs from the movie’s soundtrack; Eric Stern is musical director. Douglas Carter Beane, whose acclaimed play The Little Dog Laughed is headed to Broadway in the fall, has penned the book for the new musical.Playwright Beane previously told Playbill.com that Xanadu "uses the movie as a springboard for a musical comedy about creativity and mortality." In Xanadu, Kira (Krakowski) is a muse sent to earth. There are eight other muses who arrive, says Beane, "[ready] to create havoc in early eighties America." "From the last reading," Beane now says, "I have been pushing it more into the wonderful worlds of Greek mythology and the early eighties. All of the eighties political figures have been cut."
Playbill (Thanks Dlisted)
