New Musical Pure Country Coming to Broadway Next Season

Pure Country, a new musical based on the 1992 film of the same name, is aiming for Broadway in Spring 2009. The show will feature a score by Grammy-nominated songwriters Steve Dorff music and John Bettis lyrics and a book co-written by Pure Country screenwriter Rex McGee and Peter Masterson, best known as co-writer and co-director of the hit Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Masterson will also direct. Exact dates, theater and casting have not been set.

In Pure Country, Rusty is a country music superstar at the height of his career. When the high-stakes pressures start to take their toll and he walks out of a concert tour, Rusty begins to find himself and the love he left behind. The feature film version, which featured country star George Strait as a character called Dusty, Lesley Ann Warren, Kyle Chandler and Rory Calhoun, included a soundtrack that went to #1 on the country charts and spawned two #1 singles, “Heartland” and “I Cross My Heart.” Both songs will be part of Dorff's otherwise new and original score for the musical Pure Country.

The creative team for Pure Country will include scenic designer Derek McLane, costume designer Ann Roth, lighting designer Kevin Adams, sound designers Acme Sound Partners, with choreography by Seán Curran James Joyce's The Dead and Lincoln Center's Cymbeline; founder and artistic director of the Seán Curran Company. Music Director will be Eugene Gwozdz.

Pure Country will be produced on Broadway by Randall L. Wreghitt, Chris Presley and Ellen Rusconi.