Garry Marshall’s final project, Pretty Woman: The Musical, is finally coming to Broadway. Are you ready for that?
It doesn’t matter—it’s happening. Deadline reports that the show will make its way to the stage sometime next fall, after a five-week tryout in Chicago that starts March 13, 2018. While it’d certainly be a treat to see Richard Gere and Julia Roberts reprise their roles as Edward, the businessman looking for a good time, and Vivian, the prostitute with a heart of gold, etc., the iconic roles will be played by two people who can sing and dance.
Steve Kazee will be playing Edward. It’s hard to conceive of anyone capturing the same sort of rakish, silver-fox, zaddy vibe that Gere gave in the original, but Kazee is going to give it his all. Here he is performing “Falling Slowly” from Once—the musical version of that sad movie about Irish buskers of the same name. He won a Tony for this! Incredible.
Vivian, the sex worker played so charmingly and with such guile by Julia Roberts, will be portrayed by Samantha Barks. She’s a British actress who starred as Eponine in the atrocious film version of Les Miserables. How will she do with the singing and dancing? Probably just fine! Here she is wearing a lot of chic beggar clothing, singing “On My Own.”
Maybe Pretty Woman: The Musical will be good. Maybe it’ll be great. Maybe it’ll be just fine and we’ll never speak of this again.
DISCUSSION
Yeah, but who will play Jason Alexander’s role of Edward’s toadie skeezy kind of rapey friend? And how will they get all those polo ponies into the theater? Asking the important questions here.