Text Box:   Book: Elizabeth Diggs,  Based on Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully Music: Harvey Schmidt        Lyrics: Tom Jones Thirty years after the opening of their last Broadway hit, I Do! I Do!, Jones and Schmidt are again crossing their fingers, holding their hearts, and doing rewrites for a new musical. This one is one based on Emily Arnold McCully's Caldecott Award-winning 1992 children's book Mirette on the High Wire. The story introduces Mirette, a strong-minded young girl who helps her mother run a boarding house for actors in Paris at the turn of the century. Mirette becomes fascinated with the tragic figure of one of the boarders, Bellini, a former tightrope-walking star who has lost his nerve. Watching his attempts to regain his air lets, she discovers her own latent talent to balance on the high wire. She Bellini resists the girl's interest at first, then decides he cannot let her down. He arranges for a big comeback by walking a tightrope stretched across a plaza in the city. But when the big moment comes, he freezes, and it's up to Mirette to leap into the sky and give him back his courage. “We also decided Bellini would be almost like a Heathcliffe: dark and brooding and rude, and almost cruel to the girl at first. He doesn't want to be bothered. He once danced with the gods, but now is nothing. Fear is the one thing he can't admit to. Walking on a tightrope is a very arrogant thing to do. It's really tempting the gods. Also, one could assume by implication that it's something you accomplish totally on your own, no team work. Because of the danger and dedication, Bellini cut off all else in his life. His fixation is in being able to do this thing. When that's taken away, he has nothing, and that produces great anger. For the little girl, he becomes like a missing father. For him, reluctantly beginning to open up to her, he becomes impressed with her determination and talent."

      Playbill On Line Announcement

Text Box:    See Bob as Bellini in a  reading of this new musical  Box Office: (212) 935-5820 The Theatre at Saint Peter's 54th Street just east of Lexington Avenue  New York, NY 10022-4610 Enter St. Peter's church on 54th Street, (just east of Lexington Avenue) go past the reception desk, and take the elevator to the theatre level (L).