First Look: Zach Braff Is The New John Cusack In Broadway's 'Bullets Over Broadway'

In an entirely appropriate twist, Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway is now itself headed to Broadway. At the helm of the new show is Susan Stroman, who just so happens to have previous experience directing Broadway plays about Broadway plays — she previously directed and choreographed The Producers and picked up a couple of Tonys for her trouble.

Leading the musical production as naive playwright David Shayne is Zach Braff, of Scrubs and Garden State fame. How does he measure up to John Cusack, who played the role in Allen's 1994 movie? See for yourself with a first-look image after the jump.

The stage show follows more or less the same plot as the movie did. The Great White Way and the criminal underworld collide when idealistic playwright Shayne is forced to cast Olive, the woefully talentless girlfriend (Masters of Sex's Heléne Yorke, in the Jennifer Tilly role) of mobster investor Nick Valenti (Vincent Pastore in the Joe Viterelli role).

Bullets Over Broadway marks Braff's Broadway debut, but he'll be surrounded by plenty of veteran talents. The colorful cast includes Marin Mazzie as boozy leading lady Helen Sinclair (played by Dianne Wiest in the film); Brooks Ashmanskas as gluttonous star Warner Purcell (formerly Jim Broadbent); Lenny Wolpe as producer Julian Marx (played onscreen by Jack Warden); Betsy Wolfe as Shayne's patient girlfriend Ellen (the Mary-Louise Parker part); and Nick Cordero as Olive's gangster companion Cheech (Chazz Palminteri's character).

The show is set to begin previews on March 11, with the official debut planned for April 10 at the St. James Theatre. Allen himself adapted the film, and Stroman is choreographing as well as directing. The score will consist of existing music from the 1920s.