‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ Coming to Broadway with Emilia Clarke

“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke will play Holly Golightly in the upcoming musical “Truman Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’”

If all goes as planned, this production will mark the first time “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” has ever opened on Broadway. A 1966 musical closed after just four preview performances in what the New York Times calls “one of the most legendary flops in theater history.”

The new version is written by Tony Award-winner Richard Greenberg, known for “Take Me Out.” The new production is based on the Truman Capote short story of the same name, and will begin performances in February 2013. Producers said the play will be staged at a Shubert Organization theater that will be announced later.

Today, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is most widely known for the 1961 film staring Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar for the role, but Greenberg says the new play is based more on the original short story.

“The goal of this version is to return to the original setting of the novella, which is the New York of the Second World War, as well as to resume its tone – still stylish and romantic, yes, but rougher-edged and more candid than people generally remember,” Greenberg said in a statement. “Capote was a great writer and a natural maker of plots and ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ has a drive that makes it very alluring to dramatize.”

The following is how the producers describe the new production:

Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is set in New York City in 1943. “Fred,” a young writer from Louisiana, meets Holly Golightly (Clarke), a charming, vivacious and utter elusive good-time girl. Everyone falls in love with Holly – including Fred. But Fred is poor, and Holly’s other suitors include a playboy millionaire and the future president of Brazil. As war rages in Europe, Holly begins to fall in love with Fred – just as her past catches up with her.