Kennedy Center Producing Musical 'Little Dancer'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new musical inspired by a Degas sculpture at the National Gallery of Art will make its premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

The center announced Wednesday that it is producing "Little Dancer" with a Tony Award-winning Broadway team. The musical features a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty and direction and choreography by Susan Stroman.

The musical premiering in October 2014 is a historical fiction inspired by a young ballerina who posed for Edgar Degas and inadvertently becomes the world's most famous dancer. The sculpture is entitled "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen." It's the only sculpture Degas ever exhibited.

Ahrens and Flaherty collaborated on the Kennedy Center's Tony Award-winning revival of "Ragtime" that moved to Broadway in 2009. Stroman won two Tonys for "The Producers."

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