Mystery Solved: Amanda Seyfried Is Doing a 'Thelma & Louise' Musical
Gifted Madonna impersonator Evan Rachel Wood is reportedly joining her
On Tuesday night, Amanda Seyfried was not able to accept her Golden Globe for The Dropout because she was in New York “deep in the process of developing a new musical.” The denizens of Broadway World forums and #theatretok were put into a tizzy. Would she be starring in the upcoming revival of New York, New York? Could she be making her Broadway debut as a queer painter in Lempicka? I myself guessed that she would be part of the team trying to take Working Girl to the Great White Way, but I was just as wrong as everyone else.
It turns out that Seyfried is helming the adaptation of a different Bush Sr. era girl power movie. Variety is reporting that the Les Misérables star is workshopping a Thelma & Louise musical with rumors that Evan Rachel Wood is also on board. Huh. Tell me more.
Per the trade, the show has been in development since 2021, with Neko Case (!) writing the music and playwright Halley Feiffer writing the book. In 2021, director Trip Cullman was also attached — you may know him as the man who directed a mustachioed Chris Evans in Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero. Having crunched the numbers, I’m prepared to say that this is exciting.
Broadway does not really need any more movie adaptations from this era — we’ve already seen Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie, Beetlejuice, Groundhog Day, Pretty Woman, and Sister Act, with Back to the Future coming in the spring — but one more can’t hurt, I guess.
The real question is, do Seyfried and Wood have voices that can withstand eight shows a week? Only time will tell on that one. Seyfried, with her delicate soprano, is a strong maybe. I was not familiar with Wood as a vocalist despite her recent turn as Madonna in the Roku Weird Al fake biopic as well as her impressions of Madge, Alanis Morisette, and Janis Joplin on the Tonight Show, which led me down a rabbit hole of covers she’s done with her duo Evan + Zane. Here’s one where she sings “Umbrella”.
Another strong maybe! I guess we’ll find out in the 2023-24 season, unless the producers are crazy enough to try and mount this in the already crowded current season. Only one question remains: Who will step into the iconic Brad Pitt role? If recent Broadway history is any indicator, my money’s on Gaten Matarazzo.
