'Sleepless in Seattle' stage musical hires new composer, lyricist

The long-gestating stage musical adaptation of the classic Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks rom-com Sleepless in Seattle looks like it's nearly ready for its first curtain raise — assuming it doesn't change its songwriting team for a third time.

The show's producer, David Shor, announced today that they've hired composer Ben Toth and lyricist Sam Forman for the production, expected to open in Pasadena, Calif. in June 2013. Toth wrote the score for one of this year's Sundance hits, Liberal Arts. Among Forman's credits is the lyrics for 1999 musical I Sing!

They replace former songwriting team Michelle Citrin, Michael Garin and Josh Nelson, who in turn took over the job in spring 2010 for veteran musical writers Ian Fraser (Scrooge) and Leslie Bricusse (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory).

"It was our conclusion that we didn't feel that the music team we had was the horse we could ride to the end of this," Shor told the Los Angeles Times. "They wrote some great music, but it wasn't a whole show's worth of great music."

Based of course on the 1993 tearjerker written and directed by the late Nora Ephron, Sleepless in Seattle was originally scheduled to open this summer at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, Calif.

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