Vanities Musical, Directed by Judith Ivey, Headed for Broadway

A musical version of Jack Heifner's 1976 play Vanities is aiming for Broadway in fall 2008, according to Variety. The production will be directed by Judith Ivey, who presided over a recent presentation of the show.

Vanities, which features a book by Heifner and music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum Summer of '42, Party Come Here, follows the lives of three women from their days as high school cheerleaders and best friends in Texas in the early 1960s through college and into their 30s in the mid-1970s. The original off-Broadway production played more than 1,300 performances and starred Kathy Bates, Susan Merson and Jane Galloway.

The musical received its first production at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA, in June 2006, direced by Gordon Greenberg and starring Megan Hilty, Leslie Kritzer and Sarah Stiles. Ivey's presentation featured Stiles, Mary Faber and Kate Wetherhead. No theater or casting has been announced for the forthcoming Broadway production, to be produced by Junkyard Dog Productions and Bartner/Jenkins.

Ivey, who won two Tonys in the 1980s for her performances in Steaming and Hurlyburly, will make her Broadway directing debut with Vanities. She directed the off-Broadway productions of Southern Comforts and Fugue as well as a regional production of Steel Magnolias.