Shaiman’s love for Poppins is DEEP!
Disney just announced it is developing a new original, live-action musical film featuring the beloved, Mary Poppins. Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods) will direct and the songwriting duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Smash) are on board to compose original songs and write a new score. It’ll take place in Depression-era London, some 20 years after for film and will draw from existing Poppins tales in the rest of author P.L. Travers’ children’s book series.
The ’64 film, starring Julie Andrews, took its story from the first installment in Travers’ eight-book series. The new project, which is NOT being developed as a sequel, will supposedly explore Mary’s further adventures with the Banks family. All are collaborating with the Travers estate and have already gotten support from Poppins’ co-composer Richard Sherman, who penned the original film’s famous songs like Chim Chim Cher-ee and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Marshall, with producers John DeLuca, and Marc Platt are some of Hollywood’s A-list musical players. Marshall’s 2002 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Chicago, is largely credited with the resurgence of the modern musical. Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman are perhaps best known for writing the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical version of the John Waters film Hairspray, the TV show Smash and the score for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical, which is currently playing London’s West End. Some of Shaiman’s film credits include Beaches, When Harry Met Sally…, The Addams Family, Sister Act, Sleepless in Seattle, The First Wives Club, In & Out, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
The duo are beyond excited. Shaiman announced the project on Facebook yesterday;
“Scott & I have been holding onto this secret for a month and I can finally now post the greatest link to the greatest news I could have ever imagined. For those who saw the video I made last year when I found an original LP, you know how much this means to me. I’m too farklemted to type any more right now…”
It’s a boyhood dream come true! There’s maybe only one word to describe the feeling; Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Shaiman (left) and Wittman at Disney’s Music Library pouring over Irwin Kostal’s handwritten score adapting the songs of the Sherman Bros.
(via EW)
The post #MaryPoppins: Shaiman & Wittman Writing a New Musical for Disney Based on the Beloved Film! appeared first on World of Wonder.