When we last spoke with Jed and Bronna Canaan, their first Broadway show was about to open—a little musical called Matilda, which they co-produced and which went on to earn a staggering 12 Tony nominations (and won four Tonys). Can they make lightning strike twice? The Armonk couple is teaming up with producers Julian Schlossberg and Letty Aronson for Bullets Over Broadway, a musical based on the Woody Allen movie. We caught up with them shortly after one of the first run-throughs.
What made you want to get involved in Bullets Over Broadway?
JC: Woody Allen is one of our favorite writer/directors, and he’s never done a musical comedy on Broadway. I think he’s only done one or two short plays. But we were a little apprehensive at first, simply because we had a good thing going with Matilda and we wanted to feel 100 percent confident in our next one. But we just pulled the trigger. We started an LLC called Don’t Speak, LLC, with our partner, Sharon Carr, and became associate producers on this venture.
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You said you were hesitant to jump in at first. What tipped you over the edge?
BC: We loved the movie, and the more we learned about the show and who was involved—for example, Susan Stroman [of The Producers] is the director…
JC: …Santo Loquasto is set designer; William Ivey Long, who just won a Tony for Cinderella, is costume designer; Woody Allen wrote the show, but I also think he helped pick the music for the show…
BC: All of these things just kept giving us more and more confidence in the show’s potential success.
What’s the music like? Is it jazz like the music that Woody Allen plays with his band, or does it have the pop-rock thing like Matilda?
JC: It’s a period piece. It takes place in 1929, I believe, and the music is of that time period. There’s no real original music in this. It’s all songs from the 1920s.
What are your other favorite Woody Allen movies?
JC: Oh, there are so many. Sleeper, Hannah and Her Sisters…
BC: …Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo. We love them all.
The movie is about the thorniness of the artistic process, with everyone getting their opinions in. Can you relate at all?
JC: This is something we totally can relate to. The arguments, the aggravation, the back-and-forth, the deals that are made. It’s all in the show, and we think it’s going to make people laugh.
Bullets Over Broadway previews begin on March 11 before the official opening on April 10. For more information, visit bulletsoverbroadway.com.
