Is AUSTIN POWERS Headed to Broadway?

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 9:50am

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/157504-Is-Austin-Powers-Headed-to-Broadway

Austin Powers, the 1960s hipster secret agent created and played by Mike Myers in a series of hit films, may be headed to Broadway.

The New York Post reports that Myers is currently in discussions to turn his trilogy of hits into a musical for the Broadway stage.

Myers, who has also signed a deal for a fourth "Austin Powers" film, will not star in the Broadway production.

The "Austin Powers" trilogy, which included "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," "The Spy Who Shagged Me" and "Goldmember," grossed $676 million worldwide.

No official announcement about a Broadway production has been made.

I certainly hope not!!

[Huss417]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 9:55am

They also talked about this on WCBS 880AM this morning. So publicity is in motion.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 10:07am

I loved the original movie a lot, I'd not be against this.

[rorschach37]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 10:44am

I grew up watching the movies, and am excited to see the fourth film, but I really can't see this as a stage adaptation at all.

[JP2]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 11:16am

Paging Marc Shaiman...

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 11:19am

I actually think that with the right creative team... this has the potential to be an excellent show! kinda excited about it...

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 11:21am

I agree that this has the potential to be a big hit if pieced together correctly. I hope they get the right creative team behind this. Should Myers reprise his role on Broadway??

[Jon]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 11:23am

Which role? Most people enjoyed Myers more as Dr. Evil than as Austin.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 12:28pm

This could either be fantastic...or a piece of garbage. It comes down to the perfect person as Austin and a creative as hell creative team, and not a line by line adaption of the movie.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 12:33pm

God, I hated that movie so much. I don't think there is a creative team on earth that could get me to see a stage adaptation. Just like There's Something About Mary, it's one of those wildly popular comedies that I simply found completely unfunny.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 12:39pm

I think the movies are great, but the people cast in the show are just going to have to do direct rip-offs of the film or else people will be disappointed.

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 12:49pm

They're goign to need to figure out ways to make the show work with 'stage magic' to cancel out the way the film did lots of things with 'film magic:' the clever editing, the unexpected camera shots and transitions, and most of all the quadruple roles Myers played all being onscreen at once... if they are going to keep the main tour de force comic role as one role.

I'm invisioning a scene in which Austin Powers is forced to hide behind some piece of scenery or under a table, before finally pulling down Dr. Evil to duke it out. We hear the scuffle, and Dr. Evil pulls himself to his feet, only to be pulled back down by an unseen Austin, who then emerges... and is pulled down by Evil. Again and again, faster and faster as the costume and wig changes become more and more hectic and begin to blend together.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 1:02pm

I could see this working with the right creative team and a headlining star. If Myers would agree to open the show, it would sell out. Without him ... not sure.

I agree about Shaiman doing the music. It's a great fit.

And bring on the faux-Fosse choreography!

EDIT: Oh, and a helicopter landing, please, and someone sliding down a wire from the balcony onto the stage. Powers can give Spider-Man what for!

Updated On: 12/12/11 at 01:02 PM

[WOSQ]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 1:25pm

I read the blurb in the Post. It is a Page Six featured item, but not a press release nor did it say anything more that what was published. I'd say it is a slow time period for Broadway items and Mike Meyers has a good press agent and wanted to get his name in print. Note that Meyers' name was the only one mentioned.

Wanting to do a property as a musical is not unheard of by someone who would share in the royalty pool. Let's wait and see what pros bite this piece of forgettable-for-the-time-being bait.

[TheHappyPhantom]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 1:58pm

Oh please God no. Those movies were so obnoxious. After Bring it On, Shrek and Legally Blonde, can't we not let this fad die? How much more crap has to come to Bway???

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 2:22pm

After Bring it On, Shrek and Legally Blonde, can't we not let this fad die?

Ignoring the double-negative of "can't we not", the fad will taper off when another fad takes its place. But film adaptations will never really die as they've been going on for a long time (Promises Promises, Illya Darling, A Little Night Music, 42nd Street and Nine spring to mind). The fad is really more about the quantity of recent film adaptations, I suppose. The triple-succession of Tony winners of The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Hairspray paved the way to the current fad (not to mention The Full Monty, Sweet Smell of Success and to a lesser degree of adaptation...Mamma Mia). Or perhaps Sunset Boulevard, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King got the ball rolling. Or maybe it was somewhere in-between with Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Color Purple, The Wedding Singer, High Fidelity, Grey Gardens, Xanadu, Cry-Baby and Billy Elliot?

The point is, it's not about the fad. It's about the show. Some work and some don't. Some are great and some are terrible. Some are artistic successes, or smash hits, or both. Just like any other type of musical. As much as I hate Austin Powers, it could end up being a smash hit and critical success in the right hands.

[philly03]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 2:47pm

I bet Emmy Award winner Marguerite Derricks will be involved. She said during a couple of interviews during WONDERLAND (she got an Astaire nomination, I think she deserved a Tony nod as well) that she was interested in more Broadway, both choreographing and directing.

She did all the choreography for the films!

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 1:57am

"According to the report, Nicholaw will be joined by Colin Callender and partner Sonia Friedman as producers, along with Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, who will be writing the music for the show."

Interesting choice for the score, though I know Bacharach was in all the films and he inspired the music for the film because of his James Bond scores.

Nicholaw would be a good director/choreographer. Or Jerry Zaks, though his work hasn't been too hot lately.

Now...who to play Powers? Michael Cerveris for Dr. Evil? I doubt they'd do any doubling like in the movie.

[TheHappyPhantom]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 2:05am

Yes...I apologize for the typo. I see another fad is being a dick.

Back on topic, it's not that basing them on films is bad exactly, it tends to be the films they're choosing as of late. As I said before, this sounds just as god-awful as Legally Blonde, Shrek and Bring it On. More mindless drivel.

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 2:46am

the success of this will fall with the the creatives. The book, score, and direction will have to be really solid in order for it to find a voice for the stage that can make it a unique theatrical experience and not just a rehash of a popular film comedy. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is a sublime and in my opinion genius movie, but when I saw it on stage I don't think that I even smiled once. I knew what was coming long before it arrived and that managed to kill the joke and insult the original property at the same time. If this show is going to work on stage, they will have to avoid this.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 3:46am

Oh.
Dear.
Lord.


I am not a fan. I cannot imagine too many films you could list that I would be less interested to see on stage.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 9:29am

Bacharach and Costello?

Love it!

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 10:15am

Yeah, can't say I had any interest before I heard "Bacharach and Costello." Now I'm intrigued at the very least.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 10:16am

I see another fad is being a dick.

So, it's not a fad when you do it?

[broadway guy]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 10:36am

ewwww thats awful.i hope this dosen't happen. so many movies are getting turned into musicals these days. I miss the days when their were actually GOOd original musical and not movies put on stage with mediocre songs.

-sister act
-shrek
-ghost


and they're not even all that great. i don't see austin powers working unless mike myers actually was in the broadway show and im pretty sure there isnt a creative team in the world who could make this good. it would just be campy with mediocre songs. ehhh