An American in Paris Stage Musical Headed to Broadway in 2015 After Debut in Paris

A previously announced stage adaptation of Vincente Minnelli's Oscar-winning 1951 musical An American in Paris is headed for Broadway in the spring of 2015 following a world premiere engagement in December 2014 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Featuring music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, the show will be directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and feature a book by Craig Lucas. No casting has been announced.

The creative team for An American in Paris will include sets and costumes by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound design by Scott Lehrer and a score adapted and supervised by Rob Fisher. Lucas’ Light in the Piazza director Bartlett Sher is being billed as “creative consultant” for the show.

Eager to begin his life anew after the brutality of combat, World War II Army veteran Jerry Mulligan (played on film by Gene Kelly) chooses newly liberated Paris as the place to make a name for himself as a painter. With the assistance of fellow ex-pat Milo Davenport, a wealthy American with a past she wishes to forget, Jerry’s life becomes complicated when he meets Lise (Leslie Caron in the film), a young Parisian shop girl with her own secret. Soon it becomes clear that Jerry’s friends—Adam, a Jewish American composer, and Henri, a Parisian aristocrat—also vie for Lise’s love. This romantic tangle can only be untied through the miracle of dance set to some of the greatest music and lyrics ever written.