broadway

Pretty Woman Is the Latest Movie Turned Musical to Head to Broadway

How hard will it be to dance in that dress? Photo: Getty Images/Buena Vista Pictures

Pretty Woman, that classic romantic comedy about prostitution and investment banking, is becoming a musical. Samantha Barks, best known as the Les Misérables movie’s Éponine, will star in the Julia Roberts role as Vivian, with Once Tony winner Steve Kazee as Edward, the part played by Richard Gere. Bryan Adams and his songwriting partner Jim Vallance are writing the music and lyrics for the show (though, of course, they could just repurpose the songs from My Fair Lady, which is being revived this spring anyway), which will have a book by the late Garry Marshall and the film’s screenwriter J.F. Lawton, and be directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell (La Cage aux Folles and Kinky Boots). The show’s planning a five-week out-of-town tryout at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre starting in March 2018, before premiering on Broadway that fall. Congrats to whomever gets cast in musical theater’s most important salesgirl role since Legally Blonde gave the world salesgirl No. 2.

Big, Huge News: A Pretty Woman Musical Is Bound for Broadway