The movie-to-musical stage adaptations just keep, uh, coming. Today, the producers of the long-gestating Magic Mike musical — including Channing Tatum, Steven Soderbergh, Gregory Jacobs, Nick Wechsler, Reid Carolin, and Peter Kiernan — announced that the musical will premiere at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre this fall, aiming to eventually transfer to Broadway. Magic Mike: The Musical takes place before both Magic Mike and the masterpiece that is Magic Mike XXL, and “tells the story of college-student-turned-male-entertainer Mike Lane. Struggling to make ends meet, Mike takes a job dancing at an exclusive night club … and winds up loving every minute of it. But as he scrambles to hide his alter ego from his dad and girlfriend, he finds himself needing to make some difficult choices.†As the synopsis cheekily adds, “Can Mike follow his dreams without losing more than his clothes?†Magic Mike: The Musical will run from November 30, 2019, to January 5, 2020.
The musical will be directed by Choir Boy’s Trip Cullman, have music from Next to Normal’s Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, a book from Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, choreography from Camille A. Brown, and abs from actors to be announced. Magic Mike is just one of many movies turned musicals aiming for Broadway, including productions of Tootsie and Beetlejuice premiering this season, a version of Moulin Rouge! premiering next season, and planned versions of The Notebook and Mystic Pizza. Is now the time to pitch a stage version of the movie version of the musical Cats?