Murphy says he's also working on another musical for the streaming service.
Mey RudeRyan Murphy does not sleep. This year he's release countless projects, announced a slate of upcoming ones, and even welcomed a third son to his family. This week alone he teased the tenth season of American Horror Story and shared the poster of the spinoff, American Horror Stories. Now, while chatting about his first musical film, The Prom, the groundbreaking writer-director-producer is detailing other projects he has in the pipeline. In an interview with Deadline, the megashowrunner says he’s currently developing the classic Broadway musical A Chorus Line as a limited series for Netflix.
A Chorus Line tells the story of 17 Broadway dancers auditioning for a chance to be in the chorus line of a Broadway show. Throughout the play we get to not only see their auditions, but learn about the life events that led to them becoming dancers and performers. The original Broadway production, directed by Michael Bennett, won nine Tony Awards in 1976.
But even with that success, Murphy is aware that the original film adaptation was both a commercial and critical flop. That sort of explains why he wants to take a different approach with his version, which will be a series instead.
“My favorite Broadway director of all time, producer, whatever, is Michael Bennett,” Murphy told Deadline. “So, it’s going to be A Chorus Line with all that wonderful music, but also the idea of how did he make A Chorus Line?”
Murphy wants to explore that process in his version of the musical. He said that Bennett interviewed veteran dancers from his office in Times Square, and from those interviews, came the music for the show, and that he secured the rights not only to the play, but to those interviews as well.
“I have all of those tapes,” he said, “I have all of that material about how was ‘What I Did for Love,’ what is that about? How was ‘Dance: Ten, Looks: Three?’ So that’s a very interesting process that I’m going to start working on next year.”
A Chorus Line isn’t the only musical Murphy is working on for Netflix. He’s also making The Legend of Georgia McBride for the streaming service. Written by Matthew Lopez, The Legend of Georgia McBride follows a young dad who gets fired from his job as an Elvis impersonator and turns to drag to make ends meet. Frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator Jim Parsons is set to produce, and also star in, the musical as Miss Tracy Mills, a veteran drag queen who helps the young Elvis impersonator come into his drag persona.
Lopez’s latest play, The Inheritance, about gay men in New York City after the AIDS crisis, is up for 11 awards at this years Tony Awards.
With A Chorus Line and Georgia McBride following this year's The Prom, Ryan Murphy is becoming Netflix’s go-to musical maker. His movie version of hit Broadway musical The Prom starts streaming on the platform this December 11.
RELATED: Watch Netflix’s ‘The Prom’s Addictive First Trailer from Ryan Murphy
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