Sheryl Crow’s ‘Diner’ Musical Delays Broadway Debut

NEW YORK – Diner is temporarily off the menu.

The Broadway musical previously scheduled to open on April 10 has now been pushed back to target an early fall start, producers Scott Zeiger and Brian Becker of BASE Entertainment announced on Monday.

With a book by Barry Levinson and music and lyrics by Sheryl Crow, the show is adapted from Levinson’s popular 1982 film, a bittersweet comedy about six former high school buddies negotiating the transition into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore, who reunite in their twenties at their one-time favorite diner hangout.

“We presented a four-week fully staged workshop of Diner in New York last November at which we received positive feedback from investors and theater owners,” said Zeiger in a statement. “We are excited about our progress and it has become very clear the direction in which we need to continue to take this new American musical.”

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The announcement marks the second significant change of plans for Diner, which had previously set a pre-Broadway tryout to play San Francisco’s Curran Theatre last fall, with a scheduled run of Oct. 23-Nov. 18.

That engagement was dropped when the creative team decided to rethink the show, scaling it down into a more intimate presentation and ditching the out-of-town tryout in favor of further workshop development. Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes, Nice Work If You Can Get It) remains attached as director-choreographer.

Levinson’s debut feature not only put him on the map as a writer-director, it also helped launch the careers of its young cast, which included Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, Tim Daly, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke and Daniel Stern.