Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous' musical coming to Broadway
Cameron Crowe‘s 2000 film Almost Famous, which was loosely based on his own life as a teenage reporter for Rolling Stone in the ’70s, is being turned into a Broadway musical. “It’s All Happening… Broadway 2022” reads the show’s tagline. Crowe wrote the book for the musical himself, as well as co-writing the songs’ lyrics with Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), who wrote the show’s original music.
Almost Famous premiered at San Diego’s The Old Globe Theatre back in 2019 and this was the synopsis: “It’s all happening… San Diego, 1973. Led Zeppelin is king, Richard Nixon is President, and idealistic 15-year-old William Miller is an aspiring music journalist. When Rolling Stone magazine hires him to go on the road with an up-and-coming band, William is thrust into the rock-and-roll circus, where his love of music, his longing for friendship, and his integrity as a writer collide. Written by Academy Award winner Cameron Crowe based on his iconic film, Almost Famous is about a young man finding his place in the world and the indelible characters he meets along the way.”
According to this review of the San Diego production, the musical mixes new songs with songs from the film, including ones sung by fictional band Stillwater, as well as moments like the tour bus singing along to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”
No word on who will be in the cast for the Broadway production. The original film starred Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Frances McDormand, Zooey Deschanel and more. The film celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020 with new deluxe editions of the the soundtrack and Blu-ray/DVD.
