NEW YORK — Opera star Renee Fleming will make her Broadway debut this spring, playing – what else? – an opera star.

The four-time Grammy Award-winning soprano will star in the comedy “Living on Love” at the Longacre Theatre beginning April 1. She’ll only sing a little in the play – some improvised a cappella.

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“Sometimes the most interesting things come out of the blue,” opera’s Renee Fleming says of her upcoming debut on Broadway. The Associated Press

“I’ve spent my life singing tragic characters, so to be able to make people laugh is an extraordinary joy,” said Fleming.

The comedy was written by two-time Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro (“Memphis”), adapted from “Peccadillo” by Garson Kanin (“Born Yesterday”) and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Marshall and DiPietro worked together on Broadway’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”

In “Living on Love,” Fleming plays an opera diva whose conductor-husband starts to fall for a woman hired to ghost-write his long-delayed autobiography. She retaliates by hiring her own ghostwriter, but also gets romantically attached.

Fleming never anticipated making her Broadway debut because opera singers are trained very differently than Broadway belters, so she never had it on her bucket list.

Before she tackles the comedy, Fleming is practicing her waltzing skills to be ready to perform “The Merry Widow” with The Metropolitan Opera, directed by Broadway’s Susan Stroman with five-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara.

“In one four-month period, to be acting while dancing and singing is definitely a test,” Fleming said.

–From news service reports

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