Aretha Franklin in Talks with Marsha Mason to Bring Her Life Story to Broadway

The Queen of Soul wants to bring her life story to Broadway. Please, producers, jump to it!

Billboard writes that Aretha Franklin is in discussions with Academy Award-nominated actress and regional and off-Broadway stage director Marsha Mason to develop a production for the Great White Way. Mason, who has starred on Broadway in IMPRESSIONISM, STEEL MAGNOLIAS and THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, as well as helmed JUNO'S SWANS off-Broadway, is reportedly "very amenable and would love to do it."

"I would like to see it be a dramatic musical," Franklin told Billboard. "I loved The Motown Musical; it was so great. I think the timing is very good now, especially behind Jersey Boys, Carole King [Beautiful]. Gloria Estefan has come to Broadway now [On Your Feet] and why not Aretha?"

Aretha had planned on working with Clive Davis on the project but was forced to cancel her follow-up to ARETHA FRANKLIN SINGS THE GREAT DIVA CLASSICS due to exhaustion.

Rumor is Jennifer Hudson (who will soon make her Broadway debut in THE COLOR PURPLE) could be playing the music icon in a new biopic from Universal Pictures, featuring the legend's "transition from gospel singer to mainstream artist in the early sixties to mid-seventies."

Franklin, also known as "The Queen of Soul", is best known for her mega hits "Respect" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." She was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and placed first on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list. She will be honored at the National Portrait Gallery's American Portrait Gala this November in Washington, D.C.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride