Theater News

Zach Braff, Vincent Pastore, Betsy Wolfe, and More to Star in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway

The new Broadway musical will begin previews on March 11 at the St. James Theatre.

New York City
<i>Bullets Over Broadway</i> stars Zach Braff, Hélene Yorke, Vincent Pastore, and Betsy Wolfe
Bullets Over Broadway stars Zach Braff, Hélene Yorke, Vincent Pastore, and Betsy Wolfe
(© David Gordon, Joseph Marzullo, Tristan Fuge)

Zach Braff (Scrubs), Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos), Hélene Yorke (Grease), Betsy Wolfe (The Last Five Years), Brooks Ashmanskas (Clive), and Lenny Wolpe (Old Jews Telling Jokes) will lead the cast of the upcoming Broadway musical adaptation of the classic Woody Allen film Bullets Over Broadway. Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, the production is set to begin previews March 11 in advance of an April 10 opening, at the St. James Theatre.

Set in the 1920s and featuring existing music of the period, Bullets Over Broadway tells the story of David Shayne (Braff), an aspiring young playwright who, in order to get his work produced, must cast Olive Neal (Yorke), the talentless girlfriend of mobster Nick Valenti (Pastore). Wolfe will play Ellen, David’s girlfriend, with Ashmanskas as leading man Warner Purcell and Wolpe as Julian Marx. Additional casting for the principal roles and ensemble will be announced in the coming months.

For the stage adaptation, Allen adapts the screenplay he co-wrote with Douglas McGrath. The creative team includes Santo Loquasto (scenic design), William Ivey Long (costume design), Donald Holder (lighting design), Doug Besterman (orchestrations), Glen Kelly (musical arrangements and supervision), and Peter Hylenski (sound design). Producers are Letty Aronson and Julian Schlossberg.

The original 1994 film featured John Cusack as David Shayne, Jennifer Tilly as Olive Neal, Joe Viterelli as Nick Valenti, Jim Broadbent as Warner Purcell, Mary-Louise Parker as Ellen, Jack Warden as Julian Marx, Chazz Palminteri as Cheech, and Dianne Wiest, who won an Academy Award for her performance as leading lady Helen Sinclair.

Click here to visit the show’s official website.