Busker Alley Aims for Broadway Bow in 2008-2009 Season; Jim Dale to Star

Will Busker Alley finally make it to Broadway? The musical version of the 1938 British film St. Martin's Lane that was once bound for the Great White Way is aiming for a bow during the 2008-2009 season, with Tony Award winner Jim Dale in the lead role and Tony Walton as director and designer.

With music and lyrics by Richard and Robert Sherman and a book by A.J. Carothers, Busker Alley was set to arrive in Broadway in 1995 as a vehicle for Tommy Tune. After a 16-city tour, Tune dropped out of the production with a broken foot, and the planned Broadway premiere at the St. James Theatre was off. A musical adaptation of the 1938 British film St. Martin's Lane, Busker Alley concerns a busker one who entertains in public on Londons' famous streets who falls in love with a much younger woman who longs to be a big star in the theater and leaves him to follow her dreams.

Walton directed a benefit concert version of the show last year featuring Dale, Glenn Close, Jessica Grove, Simon Jones, Noah Racey, Greg Mills, Krista Rodriguez, Ann Rogers, Michael Lane Trautman and Jeff Williams. A recording of that concert was released on November 13 on JAY Records.