The Princess Bride Musical - To Premiere in Chicago

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 9:34am

The long awaited musical adaptation of The Princess Bride is expected to premiere in Chicago as part of Broadway in Chicago’s upcoming subscription series.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 10:47am

Is David Yazbek still doing the score for this? Between Dead Outlaw, The Roommate, Buena Vista Social Club, The Bedwetter, and now The Princess Bride, he has been working this last year like someone's coming to take his piano.

[DaveyG]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 10:57am

Alex Kulak2 said: "Is David Yazbek still doing the score for this? BetweenDead Outlaw, The Roommate,Buena Vista Social Club, The Bedwetter,and now The Princess Bride, he has been working this last year like someone's coming to take his piano."

Not Yazbek. He was let go. 

Updated On: 2/24/25 at 10:57 AM

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 11:03am

Wow. Can't imagine who they got if they FIRED Adam Guettel and David Yazbek.

Yazbek seems pretty perfect for the material, on paper at least.

Updated On: 2/24/25 at 11:03 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 11:15am

This has been in and out of development for so long, it's hard not to be extremely wary. And the Yazbek / Rick Elice / Bob Martin team up was announced as being in early development in 2019, which isn't even that long ago.

Updated On: 2/24/25 at 11:15 AM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 11:34am

Nah.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 11:37am

To be clear — is this an unsubstantiated rumor you’ve posted? Because I see no press release, and it would be unwise to put any weight on a rumor that doesn’t even include the creative team.

It’s a great property for a musical. But maybe this property is just cursed. 

[ChiDoc]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 11:51am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "To be clear — is this an unsubstantiated rumor you’ve posted? Because I see nopress release, and it would be unwise to put any weight on a rumor that doesn’t even include the creative team.

It’s a great property for a musical. But maybe this property is just cursed."

From what I know, and I trust my ear, this is absolutely unsubstantiated.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 12:18pm

Adam Guettel wasn't fired. After James Goldman demanded 50% of the profits or something, Guettel said "f*** it" and stopped writing. This was like fifteen years ago.

I love the movie, and think it could make a great musical. It could also end up like Spamalot, which I like to describe as "the screenplay onstage with sh*tty songs inserted into it."

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 12:22pm

Goldman demanded 75% of the author's share.

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 12:29pm

So the project was only "mostly dead".  We will have to see whether Miracle Max has indeed revived it. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 1:01pm

Losing Yazbek is a major blow. Very few people understand making a good quirky movie into an even better musical as well as he does.

The hit list of dismissed or disgruntled ex-writers on this one is growing! David Yazbek, Adam Guettel, Andy Karl...

[dramamama611]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 1:14pm

I've been dying for this to come to fruition, as I think it could be brilliant, but I agree that skepticism that should be heeded. 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 1:54pm

Yazbek's musical style never felt right (in my head at least) for this material, which feels like it wants to be something lyrically shrewed but melodically sweeping, and more traditionally romantic.  Adam Guettel felt like such an ideal choice once upon a time ago.

I just hope they don't enlist someone from the pop music world with little understanding of musical theatre to write this.

[Kad]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 2:53pm

Sondheim would've been perfect way back when, but of course Into the Woods already hits a lot of the same thematic and tonal elements.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 3:26pm

QueenAlice said: "I just hope they don't enlist someone from the pop music world with little understanding of musical theatre to write this."

It’ll be this.

[darquegk]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 7:13pm

I think it’s the shrewdness more than the romance that this one requires. 

[SingingEachtoEach]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 7:20pm

I'm confused by the talk about Goldman.  William Goldman wrote the original book, but he's been dead since 2018.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 7:23pm

It's admittedly not a far walk from what they've done before, but Tim Minchin & Matthew Warchus feel like the ideal combination for this show.

But David Yazbek, Rick Elice & Bob Martin also felt like an ideal combo.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 7:24pm

SingingEachtoEach said: "I'm confused by the talk about Goldman. William Goldman wrote the original book, but he's been dead since 2018."

Yep.

This musical has been in development for twenty years with at least two entirely different writing teams.

https://playbill.com/article/goldman-and-guettel-part-ways-on-princess-bride-musical-com-138615

The last producer attached to it was Disney.

Updated On: 2/24/25 at 07:24 PM

[Anastasia_Beaverhausen]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 10:11pm

Score is Bobby and Kristen-Anderson Lopez. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 10:21pm

Anastasia_Beaverhausen said: "Score is Bobby and Kristen-Anderson Lopez."

Look, if that's true, I'm at least a little interested......

Who wrote the book and who's directing?

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 2/25/25 at 1:56pm

Anastasia_Beaverhausen said: "Score is Bobby and Kristen-Anderson Lopez."

Can't wait to hear Buttercup's power ballad that ends act one. Five dollars says it's titled "As You Wish" and contains such lyrics as "They don't see the me inside/But I'll prove I'm no one's princess bride."

[darquegk]

Posted: 2/25/25 at 3:11pm

Buttercup is going to be a hard character to write for, because her character arc in the movie was greatly removed by giving her less dialogue and less scene work (not that Robin Wright wasn't brilliant with what she was given). Buttercup, on paper, is vacuous and stupid, slightly befuddled by the chaos her beauty has thrown her and the kingdom into. It's intended to be satirical, a mockery of the "Disney damsel in distress" archetype, but... will that kind of satire play onstage without seeming cruel? Will they make her more active and intelligent? Or will they follow the film's lead and make her something more of a cipher, at the risk of making her the McGuffin of her own story?

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 2/25/25 at 3:49pm

Yeah, that's basically the problem I am alluding to - the movie somewhat parodies old fashioned stock characters, and in "times such as these" the children are not going to accept Buttercup being a passive damsel in distress. 

Really, the best time to have done this was in the late 00's and by Adam Guettel. It would have been great. Sigh.