Music mogul Tommy Mottola is getting into the theater business by producing a trio of upcoming Broadway shows, including a musical adaptation of “Super Fly.”
Other projects coming to the Great White Way through the former Sony Music head include a musical version of Chazz Palminteri’s “A Bronx Tale” directed by Robert De Niro, in what will be the actor’s Broadway directorial debut.
We hear that a third, hush-hush project will be a show about “a super-famous celebrity.”
Based on the 1972 blaxploitation film that had a hit soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield, “Super Fly” will be directed by Bill T. Jones, the MacArthur “Genius” Award-winning choreographer and director. Michael David — of theater partnership The Dodgers, which has produced “Jersey Boys,” “Urinetown” and the musical “Tommy” — is producing “Super Fly.”
They are still casting the lead roles, we hear, and will have a final workshop in June before heading to Broadway.
“Super Fly” follows a cocaine dealer who tries to make one last score before getting out of the drug business. Two Mayfield songs from its soundtrack hit top 10 on the charts.
Meanwhile, “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas” legend De Niro, a recent Oscar nominee, will direct a musical version of “Bronx Tale,” Palminteri’s early 1990s off-Broadway one-man show.
De Niro and Palminteri starred in a 1993 indie-film version that De Niro also produced, and Palminteri later revived the play on Broadway.
Palminteri will write the book for the new stage version, and David Bryan, the Bon Jovi keyboardist and “Memphis” composer, will write the music. Sergio Trujillo will choreograph the show about a Bronx boy torn between his blue-collar dad and a local crime boss.
The third show being developed by Mottola is being kept under wraps, though we hear it’s a about a current celebrity.
However, don’t get your hopes up for a juicy tell-all: Sources insist that it’s not about his ex-wife Mariah Carey.