NBC Doing Live Production of 'The Music Man'
NBC hasn't even finalized a cast for this holiday's live production of Peter Pan, the follow-up to last year's massively-successful The Sound of Music Live!, yet the network is already looking ahead to the next live musical production.
Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, confirmed during the network's upfront presentation that a live production of the classic 1957 musical The Music Man, which won five Tony Awards, is in the works.
There's currently no timetable for when production is expected to begin, or when we might see this live production on our screens. But as a theater nerd, I can't help feeling psyched. For the uninitiated, The Music Man is about a con artist who poses as a bandleader in order to sell instruments and uniforms to naive townies in Iowa. Trust me, it's far better than it sounds.
For his part, Greenblatt took a victory lap at upfronts, crowing about the success of The Sound of Music Live!, which raked in 18.47 million viewers this past December. "Many of you were rolling your eyes up until the morning of Dec. 6, when the ratings came in," he declared. Greenblatt then took the opportunity to address FOX's copycat decision to produce a live version of Grease. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
Well, he's not exactly wrong there, especially when it comes to TV strategy.
Credit: Warner Bros.