posted 04-10-2008 12:05 AM               

Homer Hickam's Memoir Rocket Boys In Musical Premiere

The "rocket's red glare" will illuminate Huntsville, AL this Memorial Day weekend as Rocket Boys, a new musical based on the NY Times #1 bestseller by Homer Hickam, presents its first full concert reading at Merrimack Hall Performing Arts Center. Actors from both New York and Alabama will participate in the launch of this new work. Included in this special theatrical experience will be a brief welcome by Mr. Hickam just prior to the reading. The cast and creative team will also meet and greet the audience afterward.

Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam's 1998 memoir of his life growing up in a West Virginia coal mining town is considered a classic, assigned in nearly every school system across the country, one of the most picked books nationally for community/library reads, translated into many languages, and adapted into the award-winning movie October Sky. In the memoir, Homer (called Sonny then) is inspired as he watches Sputnik, the world's first space satellite, streak across the 1957 October sky. To the consternation of the citizens of the little mining town of Coalwood, he and several boyhood friends decide to join the space race by building rockets, thus launching themselves and the entire community on an unexpected and dramatic trajectory. Mr. Hickam not only became a NASA engineer but the author of many highly-successful novels. "I never imagined," he says, "that my memoir of teenage rocket building in the mountains of West Virginia would not only be a hugely successful book but then be adapted into a movie and now a theatrical musical. Clearly, it is a story that has touched millions of people in many different and powerful ways."

Mr. Hickam and his wife Linda are long-time residents of Huntsville, and are thrilled that the musicalized stageplay of his memoir will reach an entirely new audience of people around the world looking not only for good foot-stomping entertainment but the inspiration and courage to follow their dreams.

The musical adaptation of Rocket Boys has already ignited an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the theatre community. With a score by Dan Tramon and Diana Belkowski, stage adaptation by Christopher Budinich, and direction by Carl Anthony Tramon, it has already received numerous awards. It was one of just three winners to receive the coveted ANMT Search for New Musicals Award in Los Angeles, and was recently a winner of the ASCAP / Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, with Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Rags, Pippin) at the helm. It was the Composer/Lyricist team's second consecutive win (unprecedented for this award), having won the previous year with their show Flyer, about the lives of the Wright Brothers.

NY Producer John O'Boyle (Radio Golf, A Catered Affair, Is He Dead) is an active member of the team and is guiding the show's progress. "This project has absolutely unlimited commercial potential," observes Mr. O'Boyle, who has been a cheerleader for the show from the start. The show is especially fueled by the commitment of the author himself, and the script is being developed in close consultation with Mr. Hickam.

This early concert rendition will be an exciting "sneak-peek" of the coming full production, which will undoubtedly inspire countless rocket boys and girls for light years to come. For more information visit the production's website.

posted 04-14-2015 05:54 PM               

I am thrilled that The Legacy Theatre will soon present "Rocket Boys: The Musical." Opening night (already sold out) is on April 17. After that, shows will be presented on April 18-19, April 24-26, May 1-3, and May 8-10. We hope that you will make plans now to see this amazing presentation of our musical.

If you haven't heard about the musical yet, go here for a taste of the music and a little about the background of how it came to be. This much I can tell. I had always thought my book would make a good play and had it in the back of my mind to someday get around to it. Other writers thought so, too, and sent in several adaptations, all of which I tossed without reading because I felt it was up to me to write it if anyone was. Then, one day, a package arrived and in that package, I found a CD explaining that it was music for a musical about the Rocket Boys of "October Sky."

A musical! About the Rocket Boys! Who woulda thunk it? I hadn't so I was intrigued enough to listen to the CD.

It was amazing! I was nearly reduced to tears listening to the haunting melodies and made to laugh at the vigorous, joyful songs! The composers were geniuses! So I reached out and contacted this talented team, Diana Belkowski and Dan Tramon, the composers, and Carl Tramon, writer, actor, and singer, and told them I was in!

Since then, we have developed the musical on a shoestring with little or no financial backing and just kept going. We are David to the Goliaths of Broadway and Hollywood! But that, after all, is the Rocket Boys way.

Now, after a three year developmental run at Theatre West Virginia, we are able to take the next step and that's this presentation in the magnificent Legacy Theatre located just southwest of metro Atlanta in Tyrone, Georgia. After that, who knows? We're aiming for Broadway and/or a national tour. Hey, could that be any harder than winning a gold medal at the National Science Fair or writing a #1 New York Times best-seller? As I like to say, the only person who can tell you that you can't do something is yourself. And you'd be wrong.

So please come and join us. Linda and I will be there opening night and several other presentations. We are also pleased to announce that Broadway star Melissa van der Schyff will be taking the role of Elsie Hickam! She's an amazing star and when she sings "Myrtle Beach," your heart will melt.

posted 06-04-2016 11:42 AM               

The author of New York Times bestseller "Rocket Boys" is suing Universal Pictures for overstepping the life rights he granted in the '90s and shutting down a musical adaptation of his book in favor of launching its own, according to a complaint filed Thursday in L.A. County Superior Court.

Homer Hickam Jr. says he agreed to give Universal the rights to one book to adapt into one film, "October Sky."

Now he is suing Universal, and its president James Horowitz and VP of live theatricals Christopher Herzberger, for a host of claims including breach of contract, fraud, misappropriation and unfair competition. He's seeking at least $20 million in damages, an injunction to shut down the "October Sky" musical and a declaration from the court that Universal does not have any rights to Hickam's life story other than the right to make the original film.

...Hickam developed and produced "Rocket Boys" into a live stage musical with the approval of Universal, according to the lawsuit. In 2015, Universal decided to create an "October Sky" musical, purportedly based on the film and Hickam's memoir, and has shut down the author's stage show.