When Patrick A’Hearn, producing artistic director of Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, saw the movie “The Bridges of Madison County,” he recalls thinking it would make a wonderful musical.

The movie — which opened in 1995 starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and is based on a 1992 novel by Robert James Waller — tells “such a beautiful love story,” A’Hearn said.

“I always thought to myself, ‘This would make a good musical, and luckily someone else did, too,” he said.