Composer Neil Berg, lyricist Nick Meglin and playwright Dan Remmes have been tapped by producer Jeff Gardner to convert the 1993 hit movie "Grumpy Old Men" into a Broadway musical, it was announced. Gardner previously stated that he hoped to bring the show to Broadway in spring 2008. An actor whose credits include The Wild Party, Gardner is new to the producing game. He previously produced Night Out in San Diego. Berg is perhaps the best known of the three. He scored the Off-Broadway musical The Prince and the Pauper, which opened in New York at the Lamb’s Theater in 2002. He is also the author of the family-oriented musicals, Fiona: The Mother Goose Musical and Threads. Meglin collaborated with Berg on the musical Tim & Scrooge, which played at the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival, and will play at Queens Theater-in-the-Park this winter. Humor fans will know him for his 30 years of work as editor of Mad magazine.
Playwright Remmes, who will pen the libretto, is the author of Night Out, Three Tables and a musical adaptation of Pinero’s The Enchanted Cottage in collaboration with composer Scott Singer and 1980s pop diva Martha Davis of The Motels. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau had a late career hit with "Grumpy Old Men," in which they played two crotchety neighbors whose intense dislike for each other only grows when they begin competing for the affections of sexy new neighbor Ann-Margret. The film produced a sequel, "Grumpier Old Men," in 1995.
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