Producer Karl Sydow and director Federico Bellone are working on an original piece which will feature Hungarian folk-inspired music and 20 never-seen-before illusions to tell the story of History’s greatest escapologist. Set during the great magician’s last performance, the show which narrate his rise to fame as well as his love affairs. Titled The Impossible Man, it will undergo its first workshop next year, before opening its firts previews in the United States, followed by its Broadway and West End transfer.
They often say it’s magic when a show comes to life onstage. But what happens when that show is all about magic? That’s what we’ll soon find out when one of the most acclaimed illusionists in History will be resurrected (at least in fiction), thanks to a brand new musical which will combine songs and never-before-seen effects to tell his story. Enter The Impossible Man, an upcoming production which centers around the life of Harry Houdini, an American Budapest-born showman who started wowing audiences from a very young age – earning a name as an invicible escapologist and a corageous daredevil.
Produced by Karl Sydow (The Last Ship, Dance of Death, Red Joan) and directed by Federico Bellone (Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins in Milan and West End’s new productions of Dirty Dancing and Sugar), the plot is set in the autumn of 1926, where the great magician’s last show took place. From that point, the audience will travel across his life, loves and rise to fame – all of them told through a series of flashbacks set to a score influenced by the Hungarian folk music of Houdini’s birthplace. On the other hand, the production will also include 20 different illusions, many of them have never been presented neither onstage or in film.
Though still in development, the musical has already undergone several successful readings and recording sessions in London. Its next step will land in 2020, when the first workshops will be held. Those will be followed by full scale previews in Detroit (exact location to be confirmed) the year afterwards, as well as sights both on Broadway and in the West End.
You can check more information about the upcoming production on the following link.
First Night Magazine 
2 responses to “New musical magic show based on Houdini’s life in development”
A new musical based on the life of Harry Houdini is setting its sights on a world debut in Detroit, where the magician and stuntman performed his last show.
This isn’t the first time a Houdini musical has gone into development; at one point Hugh Jackman was pursued in a Scott Sanders and David Rockwell production, but the show never fully materialized. Nathan Allen’s musical