Atlantic Theater to Produce a New Musical by Patty Griffin

The Atlantic Theater Company will end its 2006-2007 season with the world premiere of a new musical featuring music and lyrics by Grammy-nominated recording artist Patty Griffin, book by Keith Bunin and direction by Michael Mayer. Although the company announced that the show will begin previews on May 9, 2007, and open in June 2007, it does not yet have an official title, and no casting has been set. In a feature story published today, The New York Times reported that Sutton Foster, Matthew Morrison and Linda Emond participated in a workshop of the unnamed musical.

The musical tells the story of Duane and Molly's road trip in a beat-up Chevy pick-up truck from the southern tip of Florida to the Northwest corner of New York, with many detours along the way. It follows the pursuit of love and family and the geography of the American dream in our time.

This show will be the second world premiere of a musical in the history of the Atlantic, following its production this summer of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's Spring Awakening, also directed by Mayer. Spring Awakening has announced a Broadway transfer in the coming season, but no date or theater has been set.

Griffin's recordings include Living With Ghosts 1996, Flaming Red 1997, 1000 Kisses 2002 and Impossible Dream 2004. The later two discs received Grammy nominations. Her songs have been included in films and television and most recently appeared on the soundtrack of Elizabethtown.

Bunin's play The Busy World is Hushed was produced this summer at Playwrights Horizons, starring Jill Clayburgh. His other plays include The World Over, The Credeaux Canvas, The Principality of Sorrows, The King of Clocks and A Joke. Currently he is writing screenplays for Sony Pictures and Radical Media/Open City.