News broke out this summer that Tupac Shakur‘s music will reincarnate as the score for a musical fit for Broadway, and now theatre director Kenny Leon confirms that a cast is in place.
“We had to have a group of actors that could sing, that could rap, that could dance — that could do hip-hop dance as well as straightforward Broadway musical dance. We had to have a good mix of 24 people who could do it all, but above all we needed actors who could tell the story,” Leon, whose notable Broadway productions include Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, told Wall Street Journal.
Titled Holler If Ya Hear Me the musical is, as Leon calls it, an “unconditional love story” and an “anti-violence story” – not based on late West Coast rapper’s life but based around his music, touching the subjects of “honour, betrayal and family.”
With the blessing of Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur, who is a producer on the show, Holler If Ya Hear Me is ready for Broadway but still searching for a home.
We’ll keep you posted.