If you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention to last Sunday's Golden Globe results, you'll know that one movie won the evening by a landslide. Damien Chazelle's romantic musical dramedy took home a whopping seven statues- winning every single category it was nominated for. The glorious cinematography, original music, and fantastic performance by both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone resulted in major wins, but how will La La Land live on after it movie theaters stop playing it? Well, a stage musical of course!
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erik Feig recently (via THR) made an appearance at the studio's Investor Day presentation. La La Land's success and ultimate future were eventually brought up, where Feig revealed that a touring stage version may be in the cards for the awards season favorite. He said simply:
If we want to do a stage show, we can do a stage show.
There we go, folks. Sebastian and Mia's complicated love story and career journey might just be coming to a local theater near you. And while it won't contain some of the movie magic that made La La Land so beautiful, it seems like the groundwork is all set up for a bonafide theater hit.
To start, the original music and choreography are already set in place. The jazzy score has already been widely praised by critics, and "City of Stars" won the Golden Globe for best original song. La La Land's music was composed by Justin Hurwitz, who previously collaborated with Damien Chazelle in 2014's Whiplash. The lyrics were written by accomplished Broadway songwriting duo Pasek and Paul, who currently have new hit Dear Evan Hansen running on the great white way.
Additionally, it's entirely possible that film star Emma Stone could reprise her role in a stage version- although those bets are probably higher if it makes a Broadway transfer. Stone made her Broadway debut replacing Michelle Williams in the recent revival of Cabaret; it was actually her stint playing Sally Bowles that inspired Damien Chazelle to approach the actress about La La Land. As such, the music was tailored to her voice and the role was essentially written with her in mind. Seeing Stone return to Mia on the stage is sure to be marketing dream for whoever would handle the play's PR.
The adaptations of popular films into Broadway musicals has become a regular practice in the past few years. Very few wholly original musicals are produced on Broadway, and having the audience already connected to a pre-existing property helps generate hype and ticket sales. This season a musical version of the classic mob movie A Bronx Tale opened on Broadway, while movies turned musicals like School of Rock, Waitress, and Kinky Boots are all still running.
We'll just have to wait and see if a La La Land stage play is ever produced. I personally believe this would only really work with a Broadway budget and house, but that's just me.
La La Land is currently playing in theaters.
