You don’t usually find the words “Tupac” and “musical” in the same sentence, but those two things could be coming together to form a Broadway show!
Director Kenny Leon (Fences, The Mountaintop) is on board to direct Holler If Ya Hear Me, a musical set in a fictional industrial Midwestern city “which 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,” 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,” he continued.
Other creative minds behind the play are Todd Kreidler (Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean) and Tony Award-winning choreographer Wayne Cilento (Wicked and Sweet Charity).
Leon worked with another hip-hop head, mogul P. Diddy, during his stint on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun. Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, will be a producer. No casting choices have been publicly announced, as the musical is currently in workshop aimed to debut during the 2013-2014 Broadway season.
