Rosebud Group Announces 'Figaro,' a Musical After Rossini's Barber

The Rosebud Group will stage a paid reading of "Figaro," a new musical based on Rossini's "The Barber of Seville," in New York City in October and November.

The reading runs three days — Monday, Wednesday and Friday — from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at a Midtown Manhattan studio. Producer Dennis Kelly Higgins, who also directs, sets the action in Miami Beach, Florida.

Higgins describes the piece as a cross between a Broadway musical and a classical opera. That framing places the project in a long line of attempts to carry operatic material into the commercial theatre, and it arrives with a résumé behind it.

Who is Dennis Kelly Higgins?

Higgins began his producing career working with Sherwin Goldman on the Broadway production of Houston Grand Opera's "Porgy and Bess." His other credits include Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Bombay Dreams," Georges Bizet's "Djamileh" and the New York premiere of Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw."

The range is notable. It spans Gershwin on Broadway, Lloyd Webber spectacle, French opéra comique and British black comedy. A hybrid of musical theatre and opera sits squarely within that experience.

What does the reading change for the project?

A paid reading is an early development step. It gives the creative team three afternoon sessions to test the material in front of an audience, without the costs of a full staging. No cast, ticketing details or future production plans have been announced.

The Rosebud Group has not said whether "Figaro" will move beyond the reading stage. The October and November sessions in Midtown will offer the first indication of whether Higgins's Miami Beach take on Rossini's barber can make the leap from studio to stage.