Possible choices for NBC’s next production included The Music Man and A Few Good Men, but according to the network’s chairman Robert Greenblatt, Hairspray’s focus on race relations and diversity was a major factor in its selection-thanks, Wiz!
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Network head Bob Greenblatt announced Wednesday morning that NBC is working to nab the rights to Hairspray, the beloved musical following Tracy Turnblad and her desire to be a performer in Baltimore, Maryland.
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who produced NBC’s other musicals, will be returning to spearhead the new project.
You might remember the 2007 film, starring Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley…we could go on and name more of the wonderful stars who sang and danced their way through the film, but we’d be here for quite a while.
A “Hairspray” live musical is set to air on NBC sometime later this year. Beginning as a John Waters movie, then adapted into a musical, then (like the Producers) adapted back into a film based on the show, it seemed there was little else that could be done with Hairspray.
“The Wiz Live!” became a massive success for the network, bringing in 11.1 million viewers in December, also garnering a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
The announcement of the new show means NBC has a big casting job ahead of them. Peter Pan and The Sound Of Music felt stuffy and somewhat awkward because they were odd mixtures of a movie and a play. It also generated more than 1,600,000 tweets.
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“People have been saying to me since “The Wiz“, ‘Do this show, do that show, ‘” Greenblatt told Entertainment Weekly.
