Trump Developing ‘Apprentice’ Musical

NEW YORK – Move over Max Bialystock. Broadway’s foremost wheeler-dealer in “The Producers” could be joined by another man enamored by big money. Producers Barry and Fran Weissler and Mark Burnett, with an assist from real-estate mogul Donald Trump, are developing a musical based on “The Apprentice,” Trump’s hit NBC television series.

“Donald Trump is a larger-than-life character, and the Broadway musical stage may be the only medium large enough for him,” Weissler, producer of the current revivals of “Chicago” and “Sweet Charity,” said Friday in a statement.

The show is being planned for a spring 2006 New York opening. Weissler currently is assembling a team to create the musical.

Said Burnett, creator and producer of such reality shows as “The Apprentice” and “Survivor”: “I had a vision for a dramatic story within `The Apprentice’ that I knew would work on a Broadway stage. This is not a spoof or a satire. It is a love story set to `The Apprentice’ as a backdrop.”