Sounds like a hard one. Acclaimed director Spike Lee is attached to an untitled Studio Entertainment One movie musical about the breakthrough of the Pfizer drug Viagra. According to Deadline, Lee will direct from a screenplay he has written with British playwright and director of the Young Vic Theater in London, Kwame Kwei-Armah. The original songs and music will be written by the songwriting duo Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald. (Lee adapted their Tony-winning musical Passing Strange into a film in 2009.) The Viagra musical is based on an Esquire article by David Kushner titled “All Rise: The Untold Story of the Guys Who Launched Viagra,†detailing the true events surrounding the discovery and production of an erectile dysfunction drug. The medicine (sildenafil) was originally created as a treatment for heart-related chest pain. Researchers would soon find out the little blue pill offered a different kind of healing.
“The Viagra Monologues†or whatever it ends up being titled will be Spike Lee’s next joint. It follows his Netflix film Da 5 Bloods, starring Chadwick Boseman, and the HBO Max special David Byrne’s American Utopia. Needless to say, Lee is excited. “So Finally Going Into My 4th Decade As A Filmmaker I Will Be Directing A DANCIN’,ALL SINGIN’ MUSICAL Spike Lee Joint And I Can’t Wait,†Lee said at the end of a very Spike Lee statement to Deadline. “My Moms Has Been Waiting TOO!!! And Dats Da Rodgers And Hammerstein Truth, Ruth.â€