Deadline London is reporting that there’s a musical version of Helen Fielding’s single-girl bible, Bridget Jones’s Diary, in the works, with Fielding writing the book and Billy Elliot’s director and choreographer, Stephen Daldry and Peter Darling, also attached to the project. The play is in the workshop stages and could open in the West End as early as next year. The twist: Some of the songs are written by British pop star Lily Allen. This pairing certainly works in theory — Allen’s rocky love life informs many of her hits, and with lyrics like, “I wanna be able to eat spaghetti bolognese/And not feel bad about it for days and days and days,†Fielding could easily pick from existing Lily Allen songs to score the story of the lovelorn, calorie-counting Bridget. The questions remain: Is Renée Zellweger ready for another musical? And is she willing to gain back all that weight? We’ll have to wait and see.
[Deadline]