Broadway.com has learned the Chicago tryout of Masada, originally scheduled for a September 19 start date at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts' Oriental Theatre, has been delayed until the winter. The musical, directed by Timothy Sheader and choreographed by David Parsons, is now expected to begin performances in the Windy City on February 20, 2005.
Masada was previously described in a release as "a powerful love story with a contemporary resonance inspired by the historic events that took place at Masada." Those historic events took place in 74 CE when a group of about a thousand Jewish rebels killed themselves rather than be captured by the Romans. Masada, which is Hebrew for "fortress," is now the name for the ruins, which are located on a mountaintop in the Judean Desert in Israel.
Masada features music by Shuki Levy best known for composing songs for small screen shows such as She-Ra: Princess of Power and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, lyrics by David Goldsmith and a book by Glenn Berenbeim. The tuner has a show-within-a-show format, as a group of thespians in a 1940s Warsaw ghetto protest the Nazis by staging a musical about the Masada suicides.