Musicals have been having a pretty good run in the year of our Lord 2023. Broadway is slowly becoming more and more prominent in pop culture again, while new adaptations of musicals new and old are being announced daily. Thanks to major stars attached, everyone’s aware that there’s a Wicked movie on its way, while the filmed-on-stage trend has been kicking up immensely since the days of the groundbreaking-ly accessible Hamilton pro-shot. The currently playing Dicks: The Musical is even showing how easily parodied the genre can be (though please do your research before seeing that one, it’s not necessarily…traditional). Bottom line is it’s a good time to be a fan of both Broadway and cinema, and we’re about to break down every little bit of info we can find about all upcoming releases in the musical genre.
2023
Titanic: The Musical – November 4th
Released as a two-night only Fathom Event (Nov 4th and 8th), the next “filmed on stage” production (but not the last to appear on this list) will be Maury Yeston’s Tony-winning musical about the famous American tragedy of the same name. The musical, which opened in 1997, won the Tony for Best Musical and has been a favorite of regional theaters, especially due to its built-in challenge of re-creating the famous ship. This particular production is being released for the 10th anniversary of the show’s London premiere and was directed by Thom Southerland. Fun fact: the musical premiered the same year as the famous James Cameron movie, but the productions had nothing to do with each other!
Waitress – December 7th
See? I told you there were more of these.
Sara Bareilles’ smash Broadway hit – itself based on the 2007 film of the same name – premiered in 2015 and gathered a ton of Tony nominations (though it didn’t win any…it had the misfortune of going up against an aforementioned founding father rap musical). The show, about an unhappily married waitress who decides to enter a contest to try to change her life, had an excellent four year run on Broadway, closing in 2020. However, the show bounced right back, with the announcement of a limited engagement revival, starring the show’s original composer Sara Bareilles, an excellent actress in her own right who recently received a Tony nomination for her performance as the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods. It is this revival that was filmed for the upcoming movie, capturing a unique moment in Broadway history. Similar to Titanic: The Musical, Waitress is being released through Fathom Events so it may be a little harder to track down.
The Color Purple – December 25th
An almost sure-fire player at next year’s Oscars, this big budget film is the latest in adaptations for Alice Walker’s classic Pulitzer-prize winning novel. The book – about a group of powerful, embattled black women in the early 1900s – has been adapted into Steven Spielberg’s classic 1985 film, a Tony-winning musical in 2005 (and a Tony-winning revival in 2016), and now this film, which is an adaptation of that musical. The talent in front of and behind the camera is stellar. Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, who starred in the original film, are back on board to produce. Blitz Bazawule, director of Beyoncé’s Disney+ release Black is King is in the director’s chair this time. But what really sets this film apart is the cast.
American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino will play the lead role of Celie, reprising the role she played on Broadway, while Danielle Brooks will reprise her Tony-nominated performance as Sofia. New to the property are Oscar-nominee Taraji P. Henson, who recently showed off her singing chops in NBC’s Annie Live!, taking on the complicated role of Shug Avery, and Halle Bailey, who dazzled critics in audiences earlier this year as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Rounding out the cast are Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, and Grammy Award-winning singers H.E.R. and Jon Batiste. To put it simply, this is one not to be missed.
2024 (We Think)
Note: At the time of this writing, the SAG-AFTRA strike is still on going, negotiating for rightful pay for screen actors. This means that some of these films slated to be released next year may be pushed back, especially as all filming has stopped. We’ll report to the best of our ability.
Mean Girls – Jan 12th
If you went to your local AMC to sing and dance to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, you may have been pleasantly surprised by a trailer that began with “my name is Regina George.” Similar to The Color Purple (what a comparison), Mean Girls started out as a non-fiction book, which was adapted into a modern classic comedy film by Tina Fey, and was then adapted into a Tony-nominated musical, which is where we get the basis for this film. Originally set for release on Paramount Plus, the film stars an incredible cast including The Nice Guys’ Angourie Rice as Cady, A Strange Loop star Jaquel Spivey as Damian, and Moana herself, Auli’i Cravahlo as Janis. And while Tina Fey and Tim Meadows will be reprising their roles from the original film, the most exciting casting is arguably Reneé Rapp as Regina George. Rapp not only played the role to great acclaim onstage, but has also launched an incredible music career since then, which will undoubtedly put butts in seats on the 12th. Tina Fey’s story about a girl comically learning the ropes of a typical American high school is already iconic, and this looks to be a worthy inclusion to the Mean Girls canon.
Wicked – Nov 27th (Possibly)
The long-awaited film adaptation of the iconic musical was days away from wrapping filming when the SAG-AFTRA strike began, meaning its fate (at least as far as release dates go) is up to the timing of when the strike ends. The show, which started out as a novel by Gregory Maguire telling the “misunderstood backstory” of The Wizard of Oz’s classic Wicked Witch character, became an incredible, still-running musical in 2004. Because of its immense popularity, a Wicked movie has been long-anticipated (and long in development) for years, but things really kicked into gear a few years ago when it was announced that Jon M. Chu, director of 2021’s excellent In the Heights film, would be helming the project.
What followed was a series of polarizing news. The casting of Tony winner Cynthia Erivo as main character Elphaba was relatively well-received, while the casting of Ariana Grande as Glinda was met with accusations of stunt casting (Grande does have a background in musical theatre). It was then announced that the film’s studio Universal Pictures had decided to split the film into two parts – Part One in 2024 and Part Two in 2025 –, a move that was met with a resounding “whyyyyy” from fans of the show. And then as the rest of the casting lined up, including Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard, Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey as love interest Fiyero, and recent Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, drama ensued with reports that Ariana Grande and co-star Ethan Slater (the original Spongebob in Spongebob Squarepants: The Musical) had begun a relationship during their respective separations. The strike halt was the latest in a long list of chaos for the production. Prayerfully, the final product will put all worries to rest.
2025 and Beyond
Besides Wicked: Part Two, few films have been slated past 2024, but we still have announcements of projects with unknown release dates.
Merrily We Roll Along – 2041 or Beyond (Like, Actually)
Stephen Sondheim’s musical, which is currently experiencing a successful revival on Broadway, was announced to be on the slate of director Richard Linklater, who plans to film the show over a 20+ year period (similar to the 12 year filming of his film Boyhood). The film is still set to star Dear Evan Hansen’s Ben Platt and Funny Girl’s Beanie Feldstein, but former cast member Blake Jenner has now been replaced by Hollywood’s favorite sexy Irishman Paul Mescal. Filming has already begun but…sit tight for this one.
Girl from the North Country – TBA
Conor McPherson’s Bob Dylan jukebox musical had a relatively successful (and relatively recent, opening in 2020) Broadway run, but after rumors of a filmed-on-stage production, it was announced that McPherson himself would direct a film adaptation of the show instead. The film, which tells the story of several townspeople in Great Depression-era Minnesota, is set to Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, Oscar-nominee Woody Harrelson, and Chlöe Bailey, singer and sister of the aforementioned Halle Bailey.
Others
In 2021, we mentioned announced adaptations of Gypsy, Once on this Island, and a Glenn Close-starring Sunset Boulevard, to name a few. While none of these films have been canceled, there have been no movement on them since.
Like the aforementioned Dicks: The Musical, there are also plenty of original movie musicals coming up in the next couple of years. To name a few: the rest of 2023 will give us animated musicals Trolls Band Together and Disney’s Wish (starring Broadway’s own Ariana Debose), as well as the Timothée Chalamet-starrer Wonka. 2024 is set to give us Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to Disney’s 2019 Lion King remake that you surely did not know was happening, as well as the sequel to 2019’s Joker. That’s right, the Lady Gaga-starring sequel Joker: Folie a Deux is all but confirmed to be a musical.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated if anything interesting happens. ‘Til then, you’ve got plenty of exciting musical selections to choose from.
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