Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Aaron Sorkin has dropped out of the Broadway production of Houdini, on which he was to make his librettist debut for a musical slated to star Hugh Jackman as the famous magician. Sorkin has put a lot of work into the musical, but had to drop out because of scheduling. He had to go back and write the second season of his HBO series creation The Newsroom, which will be broadcast in the summer. He’s also hard at work adapting the Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs for a feature film for Sony Pictures on the Apple genius.

That left him pressed to have enough time to finish the musical in time for the producer’s plan to open on Broadway during the 2013-2014 season. Sorkin’s reps are in conversations with the Houdini producers for them to continue developing the musical utilizing Sorkin’s initial concepts and other materials. Stephen Schwartz is writing the music and Scott Sanders and David Rockwell are producing.