Not every film that crashed and burned at the box office in the 1980s goes on to become a cult hit. But that’s exactly what happened to Martin Scorsese’s The King Of Comedy**, which is adding another impressive achievement to its legacy: A Broadway musical.
Yes, the story of stage-door autograph hunter and aspiring stand-up comic Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) who sees a chance to make his career dreams come true by kidnapping successful comedian and talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) and holding him until the authorities wrangle him a guest spot in Langford’s TV stage, is headed to the Great White Way.
Hedwig And The Angry Inch lyricist Stephen Trask and Rock Of Ages writer Chris D’Arienzo are on hand to adapt Paul Zimmerman’s script, which chronicles Pupkin’s misadventures. There’s no word yet on when it might be making its debut, since it’s still at an embryonic stage, but it’ll be interesting to see what the pair makes of the dark, screwball story. The producers of the show, meanwhile, will be hoping that it’s a little more financially successful than the film, which had a roughly $20 million budget and ended up making about $2.5 million in the US on its original release.