Taylor-Corbett Set to Helm Lawnchair Musical

Broadway.com has learned that Lynne Taylor-Corbett is now the director of the developing musical The Flight of the Lawnchair Man, which will be part of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival this fall and then head to Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terris Theater in April 2005. Legendary director Harold Prince, who worked on the tuner when it was part of 3hree and helmed a workshop of the expanded piece in the winter, is no longer attached to the project.

Taylor-Corbett first came to prominence as a choreographer. She staged moves for Broadway productions of Shakespeare's Cabaret, The Boys of Winter, Chess, Sally Marr …and her escorts and Jackie before landing a gig as director and choreographer of Swing!. Her work on Swing! earned Taylor-Corbett Tony nominations in 2000 for Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical. The musical revue was her last major New York project, although she is credited as being involved with casting the current off-Broadway production of Cookin'.

The Flight of the Lawnchair Man features music and lyrics by Robert Lindsey Nassif and a book by Peter Ullian. The tuner centers on Jerry Gorman, a not-very-special guy from Passaic, New Jersey, who longs to find his "Jerriosity." Then, he gets the idea to tie 400 helium-filled balloons to a Wal-Mart lawnchair and launches himself 13,000 feet into the air, where he encounters some pretty famous folks.

The show premiered, with Prince at the helm, as part of an evening of one-acts entitled 3hree at the Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia in November 2000. Rumored for Broadway, 3hree never made it to Gotham, but did play California's Ahmanson Theatre for a short run in the spring of 2001. Since then, the creative team has been working to expand The Flight of the Lawnchair Man into its own full-length musical.

When Lawnchair Man was part of 3hree, the cast included Eddie Korbich as Jerry, Anne Bobby, Donna Lynne Champlin, Roger E. DeWitt, Will Gartshore, Herndon Lackey, John Scherer, Rachel Ulanet and Valerie Wright. Despite the director switch, many of these stars are expected to remain in place for subsequent mountings of the show.