Jon Batiste to pen songs for Broadway musical on artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jon Batiste, recording artist and bandleader of  "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," will write the music and lyrics for a Broadway-bound musical about the life of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, producers Alan D. Marks and Barbara Marks announced Tuesday.

"I want people to leave this show inspired to create," said Batiste in a statement, adding that he hoped the project would help people gain a better understanding of Basquiat, an influential artist known for raw, edgy work whose career was cut short when he died of a drug overdose in 1988 at only 27. Batiste, who's scheduled to open the renovated Krasnoff Theater at LIU Post in Brookville on Friday, added that he hoped audiences would "feel the visceral thrill of the creative process." John Doyle, who won a Tony Award in 2006 for his Broadway debut "Sweeney Todd," will direct. 

In other Broadway news, producers announced that Cameron Crowe's 2000 semiautobiographical film "Almost Famous" is being developed for the stage. The movie, about a teenage music writer who worked for "Rolling Stone," starred Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Crowe will write the book, based on his Academy Award-winning screenplay, Tom Kitt will do the music and Jeremy Herrin will direct. Both musicals are in early stages, with production schedules and casting to be announced later.