The Princess Bride Musical - To Premiere in Chicago- Page 2

[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.

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 6/25/25 at 11:46pm

A casting notice was just posted with the creative team listed:

Director: Alex Timbers
Producer: Jeffrey Seller
Book: Bob Martin & Rick Elice
Music: Robert and Kirsten Lopez
Music Supervisor: Tom Kitt

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 12:37am

that's a lot of big names listed there!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 12:53am

seaweedjstubbs said: "A casting notice was just posted with the creative team listed:

Director: Alex Timbers
Producer: Jeffrey Seller
Book: Bob Martin & Rick Elice
Music: Robert and Kirsten Lopez
Music Supervisor: Tom Kitt"

Interesting that Disney is no longer producing and they handed it off to Jeffrey Seller. 

[devonian.t]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 1:14am

Ooh, the book is going to be as good as Smash and Boop!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 8:46am

devonian.t said: "Ooh, the book is going to be as good as Smash and Boop!"

Not too concerned about the book here.

The source material is 1000000 times better than Smash and Boop.

The composer and director have also written books, and with Jeffrey Seller at the helm it feels like it will actually happen, instead of Disney spinning the wheels. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 8:50am

Cannot wait to see what Timbers does! 

[DaveyG]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 9:33am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Interesting that Disney is no longer producing and they handed it off to Jeffrey Seller."

It's been a bumpy road for this one. We'll see if they stick the landing. 

 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 9:35am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Interesting that Disney is no longer producing and they handed it off to Jeffrey Seller."

I believe that this is a situation much like Sister Act. While it is a property owned by the Disney Company, it does not fall under the "Disney on Broadway" brand. Sister Act was "produced by Whoopi Goldberg, Stage Entertainment, Joop Van Den Ende, Bill Taylor & Rebecca Quigley. Produced in association with Disney Theatrical Productions". I'm sure the billing will say something similar.

Also, Shakespeare in Love was produced by Disney Theatrical and Sonia Friedman. Moulin Rouge and Mrs. Doubtfire were "Presented by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical (which is code for Disney). You also can't forget the two productions where they let other theatres basically use their IP: Jungle Book at the Goodman in Chicago, and Pinocchio at the National Theatre in London.

[DaveyG]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 10:19am

fashionguru_23 said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Interesting that Disney is no longer producing and they handed it off to Jeffrey Seller."

I believe that this is a situation much like Sister Act. While it is a property owned by theDisney Company, it does not fall under the "Disney on Broadway" brand. Sister Act was "produced by Whoopi Goldberg, Stage Entertainment,Joop Van Den Ende, Bill Taylor & Rebecca Quigley. Produced in association with Disney Theatrical Productions". I'm sure the billing will say something similar.

Also, Shakespeare in Love was produced by Disney Theatricaland Sonia Friedman. Moulin Rouge and Mrs. Doubtfire were "Presented by special arrangement withBuena Vista Theatrical (which is code for Disney). You also can't forget the two productions where they let other theatres basically use their IP: Jungle Book at the Goodman in Chicago, and Pinocchio at the National Theatre in London."

My understanding is that William Goldman's estate controls the stage rights and he granted those rights to Disney Theatricals (post-first attempt with Adam Guettel) when he was still with us. Disney developed it over the last ten years or so with the late Steven Lutvak writing the score and then David Yazbek. Neither version worked, so Disney decided not to move ahead and the rights reverted back to the Goldman estate. Jeffrey Seller then took on the project and hired the Lopezes. I could be wrong, but that's the gossip I heard.

 

 

Updated On: 6/26/25 at 10:19 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 1:44pm

Take my money.  Take my retirement fund.  

 

Please don't suck.   Or even be only "good".   I've waited far too long for this and have been a very good girl.  I deserve this.  

[Dolly80]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 1:51pm

When is this happening?

[Chip27]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 2:24pm

Well, that’s a shame that Disney no longer owns The Princess Bride musical. It’s The Man In the Ceiling all over again! Oh well, there other things are in development at Disney Theatrical Productions anyway. Like The Greatest Showman, Coco, and if possible Tangled. I’m not going to expect Hercules coming to Broadway. I mean, I love Hercules, it’s a great film, but I’m afraid the creative team screwed it up.

Updated On: 6/26/25 at 02:24 PM

[willep]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 2:28pm

Dolly80 said: "When is this happening?"

They are casting for a workshop the last week of August/first week of September.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 2:46pm

We’re approaching twenty years since the Goldman & Guettel adaptation was initially announced. This has had quite the long and winding road. 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 3:12pm

I’m choosing to be cautiously optimistic. It’s great source material - I’m surprised it took this long. Still wish it had been Guettel though.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 4:13pm

I'm kind of surprised by all of the folks who think Guettel would have been ideal for this. The music would have been ravishing, but I don't think he's ever demonstrated the lightness of touch as a storyteller needed for this particular property. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 9:15am

SonofRobbieJ said: "I'm kind of surprised by all of the folks who think Guettel would have been ideal for this. The music would have been ravishing, but I don't think he's ever demonstrated the lightness of touch as a storytellerneeded for this particular property."

This.

The Lopezes feel like a great fit for it, maybe even more so than Yazbek, because while their work can be silly and raunchy there is always a beating heart underneath it. (They’re also the most “commercial” of the composers who’ve been attached, and some of those commercial successes haven’t been obvious on paper.)

[inception]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 9:35am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: 
The Lopezes feel like a great fit for it, maybe even more so than Yazbek, because while their work can be silly and raunchy there is always a beating heart underneath it. (They’re also the most “commercial” of the composers who’ve been attached, and some of those commercial successes haven’t been obvious on paper.)"

Huh? I don't understand what you mean by not obvious?  Have they done commercial jingles that are not listed with their stage & film work?

I'd say BOM & Frozen put them among the leading commercial composers of our time. 

But surprisingly when you look at their resumes, they don't put out as much as Pasek & Paul - so much of whose recent work had been somewhat disappointing. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 9:47am

I’m so confused with who owns this property. Originally it was in association with Fox (now Disney) but was later acquired by MGM who I thought still owned it. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 9:53am

inception said: "Huh? I don't understand what you mean by not obvious? Have they done commercial jingles that are not listed with their stage & film work?"

Badly worded - I’m saying BOM and AVE Q were not obvious commercial properties on paper, and Bobby L helped to make them commercial despite having a unique point of view.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 9:54am

I still wish I could have heard what Yazbek did with the material: he hasn't turned in anything that isn't "at least as good as the source material, sometimes better" yet. Guettel strikes me as possibly being not in on the joke, and the Lopezes are going to be good but they might be a little TOO in on the joke.

The funny thing about Princess Bride is that it actuates one of the original concepts for Into the Woods: the transgressive insertion of Jewishness and Jewish perspective into an extremely Anglo folk tradition. Half a century later, assimilation is MUCH more forward than it was in the eighties, and a thing "being Jewish" is more about its being explicitly Jewish; the idea that a postmodern perspective with wry humor, cynicism and a love of nuance and debate is explicitly Jewish had gone out the window by the end of the Seinfeld era.

Goldman inserted Miracle Max and his wife, two Catskills-esque comic side characters, to be the more explicit example of this phenomenon in the story, but even that doesn't stand out as out-of-place the way it would have, since Mel Brooks and many others have used the "unexpected alter-kocker" character trope so much it's not pointed anymore. I guess what I'm wondering is, where will the tone for this piece sit, so many decades on? The essential philosophical culture clash that drove the original doesn't exist anymore and won't be perceived the same way. Will it be played too straight? Not straight enough? 

[DaveyG]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 11:53am

Jordan Catalano said: "I’m so confused with who owns this property. Originally it was in association with Fox (now Disney) but was later acquired by MGM who I thought still owned it."

I believe Bill Goldman himself retained the stage rights so his estate can option them to whomever they please.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 11:58am

I agree about Guettel not seeming suited to this. He seems a little too... I suppose serious is the word I want. If Princess Bride were a straightforward ravishing romance, he'd be a good fit, but it's a romantic comedy fantasy sendup. It takes its silliness seriously, but it's still fundamentally a comedy. 

The Lopezes seem like a good fit- Frozen is pretty close to Princess Bride tonally. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/27/25 at 1:56pm

The Hygge sequence in the Broadway show feels VERY Miracle Max in tone.