A.C.T. Lines Up Musical Adaptation of Tales of the City for 2011

The musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's groundbreaking series Tales of the City, featuring music by the Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears and John Garden, will be featured as part of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater's newly announced 2010-2011 season. The previously reported Broadway-bound tuner includes a libretto by Jeff Whitty of Avenue Q and direction by Jason Moore of Avenue Q and Shrek. No specific dates or casting for the production have been announced at this time.

Tales of the City will close the A.C.T.'s 2010-2011 season. Based on Maupin's bestselling 1978 novel, the show is both a portrait of the sexually and politically charged 1970s and a comedy of manners. The story began as a serialization by Maupin in the San Francisco Chronicle, following the comic adventures of a young Midwestern woman who moves to 28 Barbary Lane and encounters a host of eccentric characters whose lives intertwine in surprising ways. The Chronicle piece eventually turned into a series of seven books, as well as a television mini-series for both PBS and Showtime. The musical will cover the first novel, Tales of the City, and touch on story lines that continue in the second book, More Tales of the City.

The new musical for is being produced by Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum and Robyn Goodman, the producers of Avenue Q.

Tales of the City joins a season which also features Tony Award winner Bill Irwin directing and starring in his acclaimed adaptation of Moliere's Scapin, Harold Pinter's famed The Homecoming, a live cinematic interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit and Tarell Alvin McCraney's Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet.