The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark

Nick Wyman, Nancy Anderson and Kevyn Morrow will appear in a reading of a musical based on the creation of the Empire State Building. The original musical, for which Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull share the credit for book, music and lyrics, has already been seen in full productions in Los Angeles in 2003 and Connecticut in 2004 as well as in workshops in 2008, which featured names like Karen Ziemba, Matt Cavenaugh and Michael McCormick.

The original intention was to bring the show to Broadway in the 2009-10 season, but it seems that the show will be launched in London in 2010 instead with a Broadway transfer to follow. The producers are in negotiation with Brooke Shields as a potential star to lead the show.

Set in the Depression and mixing fact with fiction, Empire is being promoted as a celebration of the American spirit embodied by those who built what was then the tallest structure in the world, the Empire State Building. With big dance numbers, pop-driven melodies and captivating spectacle, the producers promise that Empire will put a contemporary spin on the classic musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Joining Wyman, Anderson and Morrow in the latest reading will be Ryan Silverman, Nancy Anderson, Jessica Phillips, Eric Michael Gillett, Nick Wyman, Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Christina DeCicco, Kevyn Morrow, Becca Ayers, Katherine Tokarz, Stacie Bono, Dawn Timm, Aaron Simon Gross, Bill Evans Jeremy Davis, Robert Rokicki, David F M Vaughn, Brian O’Brien and Jeff Williams.

More information can be found at the show’s official website and also at the creators’ website.