L.A. musicals Broadway bound

Two L.A.-bred shows are headed for Broadway in the fall of 2005.

The musical known as “Like Jazz” when it was at the Mark Taper Forum last winter is Broadway bound thanks to an investment by Transamerica Capital, according to the show’s book writer, Larry Gelbart.

Gelbart said the show will have a new name because “Like Jazz” misleadingly implied that it would explain jazz or “attempt to be a documentary. We’re a show about jazz artists told in the idiom, rather than being about the subject of jazz.”

Gelbart said he plans to improve his book, but the score -- by the late Cy Coleman -- will remain intact or perhaps be supplemented by additional Coleman songs. Gordon Davidson, who directed in L.A., will not direct in New York. The budget will be “in line with current outrageous costs,” Gelbart said.

Meanwhile, the latest Cathy Rigby version of “Peter Pan,” which opened in La Mirada earlier this year and just closed at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, will open on Broadway around Thanksgiving 2005 and play through the holidays, said producer Tom McCoy.