Xanadu Now an Off-Broadway Play

Posted on April 9, 2006

A report in Playbill says Xanadu is being made into an Off-Broadway musical play. The play is being directed by Christopher Ashley and written by playwright Douglas Carter Beane.

All Shook Up's Christopher Ashley is set to direct a new musical production of Xanadu - based on the 1980 film of the same name - Off-Broadway in spring 2007.

Douglas Carter Beane will pen the book for the production, which will be produced by Robert Ahrens. The musical will utilize songs from the movie's soundtrack. The film featured tunes by John Farrar and Jeff Lynne, including "Xanadu," "All Over the World," "I'm Alive," "Magic" and "Suddenly."

Playwright Douglas Carter Beane is the author of The Little Dog Laughed, As Bees in Honey Drown, The Country Club, Music From a Sparkling Planet, Advice From a Caterpillar, White Lies and Devil May Care and Old Money. Director Christopher Ashley has directed All Shook Up, The Smell of the Kill, Voices in the Dark, Princesses, As Thousands Cheers, The Country Club, Rude Entertainment, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Jeffrey, Blown Sideways Through Life, Fires in the Mirror, Bunny Bunny and Das Barbecu.

The original Xanadu was a 1980 movie starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. The screenplay was written by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel. The Xanadu film was not a box office success but the soundtrack was very successful. The name Xanadu comes from a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem called, "Kubla Khan."



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