Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman’s Dark Peter Pan Musical Fly Set for Dallas Theater Center

Fly, a dark musical retelling of Peter Pan written by playwright Rajiv Joseph and Tony-winning musician Bill Sherman, will premiere at Dallas Theater Center from July 2 through August 18, 2013, according to The New York Times. Playwright Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin) will serve as co-lyricist with Joseph. Tony-winning producer Jeffrey Seller (Rent, Avenue Q) will make his debut as director. No casting has been announced.

The new musical will feature a more sinister look at the story of Peter Pan. “I felt the darker elements of the original novel had always been leached out of the theatrical and cinematic versions of the story,” Joseph said of prior adaptations. “Fly brings those back. It’s a story about how every child but one grows up. Which is fun, scary, sad and magical. That’s what we’re playing with here.”

Joseph’s drama Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His plays include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Huck & Holden and All This Intimacy. Sherman won a Tony for Best Orchestrations for In the Heights. He has served as the musical director for TV’s The Electric Company and Sesame Street.

The 2012-13 season will also include The Dracula Cycle, a new play by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Glee) and Fly By Night, a new rock musical about three New Yorkers during the ’65 blackout by Kim Rosenstock (Tigers Be Still), Will Connolly and Michael Mitnick.