Deaf West Theatre to Adapt Best Picture Oscar Nominee CODA Into a Stage Musical

Vendôme Pictures and Pathé Films today announced they are partnering with Tony Award® winning Deaf West Theatre (DJ Kurs, Artistic Director) to develop the stage musical adaptation of the Academy Award® nominated, smash hit film CODA.

Directed by Siân Heder and starring Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, and Eugenio Derbez, CODA premiered on Apple TV+ in August 2021, having sold for a record-breaking $25 million in a bidding battle at the Sundance Film Festival. It has since earned three Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Writing (Adapted Screenplay), and Actor in a Supporting Role (Troy Kotsur), and taken multiple nominations and wins at the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, and Writers Guild of America Awards, as well as being crowned Movie of the Year at the AFI Awards.

The film also made history being the first predominantly deaf cast to win the coveted ensemble prize at the SAG Awards and Kotsur the first deaf actor to win Best Supporting Actor at the SAG, BAFTA, and Critics Choice Awards.

PGA award-winning producers Philippe Rousselet and Fabrice Gianfermi of Vendôme and Jerome Seydoux of Pathé Films co-produced the film alongside Patrick Wachsberger. Vendôme also played an integral role in kick starting CODA's journey, having co-produced the French original film, La Famille Bélier. Alongside Deaf West, Vendôme and Pathé are currently out to stage directors, composers, and writers for the stage project.

CODA follows 17-year-old Ruby, who is the sole hearing member of a deaf family - a CODA, child of deaf adults. Her life revolves around acting as interpreter for her parents and working on the family's struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and older brother. But when Ruby joins her high school's choir club, she discovers a gift for singing and soon finds herself drawn to her duet partner Miles. Encouraged by her enthusiastic, tough-love choirmaster to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams.

Vendôme Pictures' Philippe Rousselet says: "We, with Pathé, have been humbled and honored to see the success of CODA from Sundance, through its premiere on Apple TV+ and awards buzz this season. This is a timeless story that we've always believed in and knew would resonate with audiences far and wide. For this reason, we are looking forward to continuing our incredible journey and bringing this universal story to life from screen to stage. We are excited at the caliber of Broadway talent interested in collaborating with us on the project."

DJ Kurs, Artistic Director of Deaf West Theatre, said: "In the movie there is a scene where the Deaf members of the Rossi family, confronted with an inaccessible school performance, take in Ruby's song through the joy of others in the audience. This is an opportunity, then, to bring the story full circle by bringing it back to members of the Deaf community and by making the music accessible through our signed and sung live adaptation of the movie. It is in the mission of our organization to be the artistic bridge between the Deaf and hearing communities and we are truly excited and honored to embark on this live iteration of a story that brings together both sides of the aisle and addresses the ways that we move throughout the world."

CODA was the result of a long-standing exclusive production partnership between Vendôme and Pathé. The companies also have a long-term collaboration on a slate of French-language films, having recently co-produced Farewell Mr Haffman, Promise at Dawn, and The Lost Prince. Several other projects are also in development between the two companies.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1991, Tony Award®-winning Deaf West Theatre (Artistic Director, DJ Kurs), engages artists and audiences in unparalleled theater experiences inspired by Deaf culture and the expressive power of sign language, weaving ASL with spoken English to create a seamless ballet of movement and voice. Committed to innovation, collaboration and training, DWT is the artistic bridge between the Deaf and hearing worlds. DWT is currently collaborating with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel to present a new production of Beethoven's only opera Fidelio at Walt Disney Hall, featuring a star-studded cast of Deaf actors, Deaf performers, and hearing singers; in addition to many other projects in development. DWT recently partnered with Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf/Sunshine 2.0 for the 2022 National Deaf High School Theatre Festival.

Recent and past productions include The Solid of Life of Sugar Water by Jack Thorne; Our Town, in a co production with The Pasadena Playhouse; Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo, in a co-production with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; Spring Awakening the Musical, which transferred from Inner-City Arts to the Wallis and then to Broadway (three Tony Award nominations including Best Revival of a Musical); American Buffalo (Los Angeles Times "Critic's Choice"); Cyrano, a co-production with The Fountain Theatre (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production); Big River the Musical (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Backstage Garland awards for Best Musical in its L.A. premiere, Tony nomination and four Drama Desk Awards on Broadway); Pippin, produced at the Mark Taper Forum in a co-production with Center Theatre Group; Sleeping Beauty Wakes, also a co production with CTG, presented at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Oliver! (Ovation Award for Best Musical); and A Streetcar Named Desire (Ovation Award for Best Play).

In 2005, DWT was selected to receive the Highest Recognition Award by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for its "distinguished contributions to improve and enrich the culture lives of Deaf and hard of hearing actors and theater patrons."

Watch the trailer for the film, now streaming on Apple TV+, here: