Nice Work If You Can Get It,
a new Gershwin musical, starring Harry Connick, Jr,
to bow on Broadway in Feb 2009

Grammy Award and Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Harry Connick, Jr. will return to Broadway in Spring 2009 in Nice Work If You Can Get It, a new musical comedy with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, and book by Joe DiPietro.

Two-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall will direct and choreograph. Rob Fisher will serve as Music Arranger/Supervisor.

The musical will begin previews in Feb 2009, opening in Mar 2009 at a theatre to be announced. Nice Work If You Can Get It will arrive on Broadway following a pre-Broadway engagement at Boston's Colonial Theatre from 16 Dec 2008 - 11 Jan 2009.

Harry Connick, Jr. stars as a Long Island playboy in this new musical comedy filled with bootleggers, golddiggers, and some of the greatest songs from the legendary Gershwin hit list.

Nice Work If You Can Get It will reunite Connick, Jr. with Kathleen Marshall, who last collaborated on the 2006 Tony Award-winning production of 'The Pajama Game.'

Nice Work If You Can Get It will feature scenic design by Tony Award nominee Derek McLane (The Pajama Game), costume design by two-time Tony Award winner Martin Pakledinaz (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Kiss Me Kate), lighting design by Tony Award winner Kenneth Posner (The Coast of Utopia, Wicked) and sound design by Acme Sound Partners.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

The musical is being produced by Scott Landis, Broadway Across America, Ira Pittleman, Tom Hulce, Roy Furman, Maberry Theatricals, Ann Marie Wilkins, and Emanuel Azenberg.

Harry Connick, Jr. made his Broadway theatrical debut in 'The Pajama Game.' (2006) for which he was nominated for a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. Connick achieved widespread success as a musician when director Rob Reiner asked him to contribute the score to his 1989 smash When Harry Met Sally, leading to Connick’s first multi-platinum album (also his first big band recording.) At the same time, Connick has built a successful film career, appearing both on screen and soundtracks. After making his acting debut in Memphis Belle in 1990, he has also been seen in Little Man Tate, Copycat, Independence Day, Excess Baggage, Hope Floats, Life Without Dick, and John Grisham’s Micky. As a television performer, Connick has starred in two holiday specials built around his best selling holiday albums “When My Heart Finds Christmas” (CBS) and “Harry for the Holidays” (NBC), and two Great Performances/PBS concert specials “Swingin’ Out Live” and “Harry Connick, Jr.: Only You In Concert” for which he won a 2004 Emmy. In addition, he starred opposite Glenn Close in the ABC TV adaptation of the musical “South Pacific” and played the recurring role of Dr. Leo Markus on the NBC hit series “Will & Grace.”

Kathleen Marshall (Director/Choreographer) On Broadway, she directed and choreographed Pajama Game (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for choreography; Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations for direction; Tony for Best Revival of a Musical), Wonderful Town (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Astaire Awards for choreography; Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for direction) and choreographed 'Little Shop Of Horrors,' 'Follies' (Roundabout; Outer Critics nomination), 'Seussical,' 'Kiss Me Kate' (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Astaire nominations), 'Ring Round The Moon' (Lincoln Center Theater), '1776' (Roundabout) and 'Swinging On A Star' (Drama Desk nomination). In the West End, she choreographed 'Kiss Me Kate' (Olivier nomination).

Joe DiPietro (Book) Broadway: 'All Shook Up.' Off-Broadway: 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change' and 'The Thing About Men '(both with composer Jimmy Roberts), 'Over the River and Through the Woods.'. He has also written new books to Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro (Signature Theatre) and Rodgers & Hart's Babes in Arms (Goodspeed Musicals).

George Gershwin (Music) was born on 26 Sep 1898. In 1919, theatregoers heard his first full Broadway score (La, La Lucille) and Al Jolson popularized "Swanee" with lyrics by Irving Caesar, his first big song hit. In 1924, George composed 'Rhapsody in Blue,' the same year he formed the songwriting partnership with his older brother, Ira. By the mid-thirties, as America's premier composer, he had written the 'Concerto in F,' 'An American in Paris' and the 'Second Rhapsody.' 1935 saw the debut of 'Porgy and Bess,' written with DuBose Heyward and Ira. In his last year George wrote the scores to three films: 'Shall We Dance, ''A Damsel in Distress' and 'Goldwyn Follies.' He died of a brain tumor on 11 Jul 1937 at the age of 38.

Ira ershwin (Lyrics) (1896-1983), the first songwriter to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize (Of Thee I Sing), wrote lyrics for the scores to more than 40 stage and screen musicals. He received three Academy Award nominations. Although he wrote with many illustrious colleagues, the collaboration with his brother George (climaxing in the opera Porgy and Bess), is fixed in America's cultural consciousness as representing the sounds and style of the Jazz Age.

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