Rapper Tupac Shakur may be heading to Broadway, no holograms required.
Kenny Leon (Fences, The Mountaintop) is directing the new musical, Holler If Ya Hear Me, which is in workshop now with the hopes of being ready for the 2013-2014 Broadway season.”Tupac was a prophet and I want everyone to see that,” Leon told Broadway.com. “[Holler] is a present day musical using all of Tupac’s music, but Tupac is not a character in the musical.” While the musical does feature Shakur’s music, as Leon said, it is not a biography of the late rapper. Instead, Holler If Ya Hear Me is set in a Midwestern industrial city and tells the tale of two childhood friends “as they struggle to reconcile the challenges and realities of their daily lives with their hopes, dreams and ambitions.”
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The creative team behind the new musical includes Todd Kreidler (Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean) and choreography by Tony Award-winner Wayne Cilento (Wicked and Sweet Charity). Afeni Shakur, the late artists’ mother, is a producer. No theater or casting information has been announced.