Producer Aaron Harnick is developing the musical that will receive a private industry reading in December. The new musical is based on McCarthy's film, which starred Richard Jenkins in an Academy Award-nominated performance as the widowed professor who makes the unlikely decision to allow two illegal immigrants to live in his Manhattan apartment.

According to the creators, "The Visitor is the poignant and urgent story of Walter, a lost soul who gets a new lease on life with the arrival of Terek, an undocumented immigrant who challenges Walter's capacity for acceptance, change, and even intimacy in the wake of his wife's passing. In it, Walter connects with Terek over a shared appreciation of music, a bond that slowly builds into a soul-stirring, unexpected friendship. Set in a culturally-divided post-9/11 New York City, The Visitor suggests that the ties that bind us--music, passion, love--are far more powerful tools for healing than the things that tear us apart."

Kitt and Yorkey are currently represented on Broadway with the new musical If/Then, starring Tony Award Idina Menzel. They were Tony-nominated for their score to the musical. The collaborators earned Tony Awards for Best Original Score for Next to Normal, which was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Kitt and Yorkey are also at work on a stage adaptation of the film comedies "Magic Mike" and "Freaky Friday."