`Ha’penny’ replaces `Wiz’

SHN/Best of Broadway has announced that a new Irish musical will make its U.S. debut in San Francisco this summer.Ha'penny Bridge is a love story set against, according to press materials, "a backdrop of political unrest and divided loyalties.'' The show plays the Golden Gate Theatre July 6 through Aug. 10 and replaces the previously announced revival of The Wiz.Set in Dublin during the Irish civil war of the early 1920s, Ha'penny Bridge is written and composed by Alastair McGuckian. The show, billed as the "most lavish Irish musical ever," is several years old and is named for a pedestrian bridge built in 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin.The show has its North American premiere in Toronto in May prior to the San Francisco run. There is an official Web site, but at present it is a work in progress: www.hapennybridge.comDonna Feore directs and choreographs.