“Empire Records” is moving to Broadway.
The cult 1995 movie, which starred Liv Tyler, Renée Zellweger, Ethan Embry, Robin Tunney, Rory Cochrane and Johnny Whitworth, will be adapted into a stage musical with a targeted 2020 premiere, just in time for its 25th anniversary.
“The film has developed a cult audience over the years, and addresses issues that people of all ages can identify with. It also evokes an interesting period in time, the ’90s, where the music business was changing — and a lot of people remember that as part of their youth,” producer Bill Weiner told Rolling Stone.
“I knew we had something when I would tell people about the show and consistently see faces light up — everyone has a story, whether it’s that they saw the movie 10 times, stole the video cassette from an older sibling or the soundtrack was the first CD they ever purchased.”
Carol Heikkinen, who wrote the original movie, will adapt the script for the Great White Way.
“The movie was really about a family that formed among these minimum-wage record clerks,” Heikkinen said.
“There’s a lot of nostalgia now for those old record stores where you could go and talk to people who loved the same music you loved, and discover new bands. We hope the musical will capture the memory of what it was like to be young in a time before iTunes and Spotify — music is such an important part of the youth experience, and it’s what brings these characters together.”
The movie, which takes place in a single day at a record shop as employees try to save the business from being sold to a large chain, was built around music, featuring popular ’90s rock bands The Cranberries, Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Zoe Sarnak, the 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant winner, will provide new music and lyrics.
“There’s so much to mine and be inspired by,” Sarnak said. “I’m a huge fan of ’90s alt-rock, and it was a really special time when that style intersected with punk, grunge and even pop. These styles can inform a score that is melodic while still feeling organic, visceral and explosive. Needless to say, this won’t be a ‘traditional’ Broadway score. But excitingly, so many new Broadway musicals are playing with more contemporary styles, so I think theater audiences will dig that.”
