The stage musical ‘La La Land’ is coming to Broadway
Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul return to write new music for the stage musical.
“City of Stars” takes you to the city that never sleeps. Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning film La La Land is getting a Broadway musical, it was announced Tuesday.
The premiere of the production has not yet been announced. The musical comes from Lionsgate, the distributor of the 2016 feature film, with original film composer Justin Hurwitz returning to write new music for the stage musical, along with songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Bartlett Sher, Tony winner of the 2008 revival of “South Pacific,” directs from the book by Pulitzer Prize winners Ayad Akhtar and Matthew Decker. Marc Platt, producer of the original film and two-time Tony Award winner for “A Strange Loop” and “The Band’s Visit,” is executive producing the project.
“I am thrilled to be reuniting with Lionsgate and the incredible team behind ‘La La Land’ to adapt the film for the Broadway stage, which is the next exciting chapter in its development,” Platt said in a statement. “We have assembled a world-class team to create a musical that will delight millions of current ‘La La Land’ fans and introduce the property to a whole new audience.”
“La La Land” stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as Sebastian and Mia, a Los Angeles jazz musician and actress who meet and fall in love. The musical, heavily inspired by genre classics such as “The Young Girls of Rochefort” and “An American in Paris,” charts the two’s career struggles and how their failures and successes affect their relationship.
“La La Land” received critical acclaim upon release and was a huge commercial success, grossing $448 million worldwide on a $30 million budget. It was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six, Stone won Best Actress and Chazelle became the youngest Best Director in history at age 32. Infamously, the film was mistakenly declared Best Picture during the ceremony when Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” was actually the top prize winner.
The Broadway debut of “La La Land” is not the first live-action sequel to the film; Since 2017, the “La La Land in Concert” experience featuring the Oscar-winning score has toured the world. Current Broadway productions based on popular films include ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Some Like It Hot’ and Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Aladdin’, while ‘Back to the Future’, ‘New York, New York” and “High Noon” adaptations are expected to hit the Great White Way soon.
“With ‘La La Land in Concert’ marking its sixth year on the world tour and the original film a timeless and globally revered cultural touchstone, we are excited to give fans another opportunity to experience the nostalgia of the original film,” said Lionsgate VP. and its head of global products and experiences, Jenefer Brown, said in a statement.
Brown, VP of business and legal affairs Eva Feder and Stefan Schick at Loeb & Loeb negotiated a stage adaptation of “La La Land” for Lionsgate.
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