Championship Vinyl On Broadway

We don't kow whether to cheer or chastise after hearing that a musical of Nick Hornby's book, High Fidelity, will be coming to Broadway this December. We can see it now: A recurring song called "Top Five List," a ballad about Laura, an ensemble dance piece at the end when Rob opens the club. The musical will be set in New York City, which makes it the third stop for the concept (book was in England, movie was in Chicago), which makes us wonder if songs mentioned in the book, like Katrina and Waves' Walking on Sunshine (in both the book and movie) or anything Bruce Springsteen-related, will make it to the Great White Way. The record for rock/pop on Broadway is pretty mixed - for every Mamma Mia or Movin' Out, you've got a Lennon, Good Vibrations and All Shook Up. Hmm, the more we think about it, what with bringing The Wedding Singer to Broadway, it seems like producers are desperately trying to reach the 18-34 - heck, the 25-45, year old male demographic. But will it work?

High Fidelity, the musical, will preview in Boston, and we're very curious about the cast. We thought John Cusack was too good-looking to play Rob (we're thinking that Norbert Leo Butz, who won a Tony for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, or Hunter Foster would be good), but Hornby liked the movie adaptation. And the show will be directed by Walter Bobbie whose most recent musical direction was for Sweet Charity (eh) but he did direct Chicago (woo). But he will forever be in our head as Nicely Nicely Johnson in the revival of Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane, Faith Prince and Peter Gallagher, which is a cast album we insist on listening to every so often.