Put on Your Top Hats & Tails! Craig Zadan and Neil Meron Developing Funeral Home-Set Musical TV Series

Song and dance at a funeral? Why not? Musical memorial services will be offered in avid producer team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron's latest project: a funeral home-themed TV drama in development for NBC.

According to Deadline, the untitled "hourlong workplace soap with musical elements" was created by screenwriter and playwright, ABOUT A BOY's Julia Brownell.

Also producing alongside Storyline Entertainment is Jason Katims' True Jack Productions. Brownell has collaborated with True Jack on PARENTHOOD, ABOUT A BOY and coming up -- THE WAY. She also wrote for Zadan & Meron's cult musical drama SMASH.

Based on the real-life Boyd Funeral Home in South Central Los Angeles, the series will follow "a funeral home business with a dynamic mother/daughter duo at the helm who approach funeral services as positive celebrations of life, not death -- complete with song and dance."

The real Boyd Funeral Home is "located in one of the toughest areas of Los Angeles known for its high rates of gang violence" but "made a name for itself with its unusual services that feature music blaring from the hearse and pallbearers dressed in top hats and tails dancing the casket down the church aisle."

Zadan & Meron's THE WIZ LIVE! is currently in rehearsals and will air this winter on NBC. The duo also produced PETER PAN LIVE! and THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE! They hosted the OSCARS three years running and have produced countless Broadway shows and film projects. BOMBSHELL, the musical at the center of their series SMASH, is also being adapted for the stage.

Photo courtesy Boyd Funeral Home.