Public to bear 'Baby' tuner
Show about late artist skedded to bow in January
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"Radiant Baby," a new musical by Debra Barsha, Ira Gasner and Stuart Ross, looks at the last 10 years of the artist's life, up to his death from AIDS in 1990. Haring achieved notoriety in the early 1980s when he was arrested for illegally drawing illustrations of barking dogs, dancing men and squirming "radiant" babies in the New York subways and other public places.
The show's world premiere is skedded for January at the Public's downtown space.
Giving the show immediate commercial cache is the participation of George C. Wolfe, who is on board to direct. "Topdog/Underdog" and "Elaine Stritch at Liberty" are the most recent Wolfe-helmed projects to make successful transfers to Broadway from the Public, where he is producer.
The "Radiant Baby" creatives share co-lyricist credits on the Haring project, for which composer Barsha won the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award. Ross ("Forever Plaid") also wrote the book.
"Radiant Baby," the title of one Haring's best-known illustrations, is based on John Gruen's 1993 bio "Keith Haring." Gruen is an artistic consultant on the musical.
Barsha said her score references the dance music, new wave and hip-hop of the 1980s. Choreographer is Fatima (Macy Gray's "Sexual Revolution" vid).
