'[title of show]' heads to Broadway

Buzz boosts musical's move to Lyceum

By GORDON COX

Heidi Blickenstaff and Jeff Bowen, left, and Susan Blackwell and Hunter Bell will bring '[title of show]' to the Rialto.

Meta-tuner "[title of show]" gets its long-discussed Broadway run, when the musical about writing a musical lands at the Lyceum in July.

A popular offering at Off Broadway's Vineyard Theater in 2006, the small-scale musical by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell plays the Rialto with its original cast -- Bowen, Bell, Susan Blackwell, Heidi Blickenstaff and music director Larry Pressgrove -- intact. Show began life at the New York Musical Theater Fest in 2004.

Broadway version of the four-thesps-and-a-piano production hopes to come in at around $2 million or less, according to producer Kevin McCollum.

McCollum and Jeffrey Seller ("Rent," "In the Heights") have long been attached to the project. Co-producing with them are Laura Camien, Roy Miller (co-producer with McCollum on "The Drowsy Chaperone"), Kris Stewart (founder of NYMF) and the Vineyard.

Tuner has become one of the rare legit properties to have cultivated a following over the Internet with "The [title of show] Show," a series of online video episodes chronicling creatives' attempts to get to the Rialto.

Thesps all play themselves in "[title of show]," struggling with the creative dilemmas and interpersonal pressures of creating and starring in a musical. Broadway incarnation is expected to incorporate self-referential new material to reflect Rialto developments.

The Lyceum is currently home to the Broadway transfer of Patrick Stewart starrer "Macbeth," which ends its brief limited run May 24. "[title of show]" begins previews July 5 ahead of a July 17 opening.