Madeleine L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME to be Adapted Into a Stage Musical

Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery Medal-winning classic novel, A Wrinkle in Time, will be adapted for the musical stage for the first time ever - in a production by an award-winning creative team. The new musical will feature music & lyrics by Obie Award-winning composer Heather Christian (Oratorio for Living Things), a book by Horton Foote Prize winner Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band), and direction by two-time Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (Dance Nation).

Celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year, A Wrinkle in Time was a revolutionary work for multiple reasons, not least of which was its prominence as a breakthrough science fantasy adventure written by a woman - featuring a young teen heroine guided in her quest by three wise, celestial women. A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Meg Murry, who is transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother and friend to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet, and threaten our own. The novel has stood the test of time, enchanting readers and viewers in countless formats throughout six decades, with messages of courage, hope, and belonging - that even in the midst of despair, the love we have for each other is enough to save us (and perhaps even the universe).

With her earliest professional work and ambitions in the theater, Madeleine L'Engle was passionate and steadfast in her desire for A Wrinkle in Time to be accessible for adaptation for theaters in schools and communities. With seven current play adaptions available for license, in addition to television and film adaptations, this will mark the first musical version of the novel while also marking the debut of this timeless classic on the Broadway stage. Charlotte Jones Voiklis, Madeleine's granddaughter and director of her literary estate, has shepherded the project and hand-selected the vibrant women of this production's creative team, alongside passionate theatrical producing veterans Diana DiMenna & Aaron Glick, who share a vision for this next evolution of the timeless novel.

"Knowing my grandmother's love of and devotion to theater, I had long envisioned a musical adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time that could transport audiences to a different dimension in a way only music can," said Voiklis. "I am inspired by this creative team who truly love and understand the original novel and yet are ready to explore the possibilities of what it could be on the stage. Heather masterfully layers meaning with her unique voice and story-telling compositions. Lauren's inventive and lyrical plays, many of which explore the relationships between generations, make her the perfect match to write the story for the stage. Lee, who is known for helming emotionally potent new plays and musicals that boldly re-invent familiar story-telling conventions and forms, is ready to bring all the elements together for a deep and magical stage experience."

"We are thrilled to create a truly magical theatrical experience of this beloved story for multigenerational audiences to savor," added DiMenna. "A Wrinkle in Time's themes of fierce love, loyalty, kinship, and friendship are universal balms for the soul, and will draw audiences into a collective adventure of bravery and triumph. This promises to be a musical magic carpet ride absolutely everyone will love!"

"A Wrinkle in Time is a wildly imaginative and deeply emotional story of a young woman searching for her father and discovering that her capacity to love and be connected to the people around her is her superpower," said Yee, Christian, and Evans in a statement. "So much of the book feels gloriously impossible to stage - tessering through time and space, the chilling of world Camazotz and the indescribable ways of communicating on other planets in the universe - which is exactly why we're thrilled to adapt this story into a musical. We're so inspired by this iconic book and can't wait to invite audiences to gather in a theater to experience this moving, bold story told with all the electric magic of live performance."

A Wrinkle in Time has sold over 10 million copies, remains one of "Teachers' Top 100 books for children" (National Education Association), "Top 100 chapter books" of all time (School Library Journal) and L'Engle and the novel have been awarded the Newbery Medal (given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children), the Sequoyah Children's Book Award, and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. The New York Times has proclaimed "Madeleine L'Engle's fanciful science fiction transcends both genre and generation... all of her work was deeply, quixotically personal, but it was in her vivid children's characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for answers to the questions that mattered most."

A Wrinkle in Time is part of a five-book series written by L'Engle named the Time Quintet. The later books include: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. The novels are credited with encouraging many young women, who saw themselves in Meg, to enter the fields of science and math, as well as paving the way for future heroines such as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games. A Wrinkle in Time was adapted by Disney for a television film in 2003, and a major motion picture in 2018, directed by Ava DuVernay, and starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Storm Reid. A picture book biography of L'Engle and the making of A Wrinkle in Time called A Book, Too, Can be a Star, written by Voiklis and bestselling picture-book author Jennifer Adams, was released on October 4, 2022 by FSG Books for Young Readers, an Imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group.

Dates for future productions, as well as additional creative team members, will be announced in 2023.

For more information visit: www.awrinkleintimemusical.com