After an Inconceivably Long Wait, There’s Momentum on The Princess Bride Musical

Musicals based on popular movies are familiar fare on Broadway. What’s unusual is that a movie that seems like such a slam-dunk to adapt as The Princess Bride has yet to make its stage debut—nearly 40 years after hitting theaters, and nearly a decade since the ball finally got rolling on creating its musical version. Well, now there’s an update that’s maybe not “storming the castle” level of excitement, but it’s at least a nugget of hope.

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Speaking to Variety in a piece framed around their current Broadway release Smash, itself adapted from a TV series, co-writers Bob Martin and Rick Elice were asked for a status update on The Princess Bride musical.

“It’s progressing nicely, actually,” Martin said. “t’s been a long journey for that one—almost 10 years now, I believe. But it is progressing with the new composing team. I don’t know if we’re allowed to name them! We can say that we’re doing a substantial workshop at the end of the summer going into fall. We’ve been working on it in various ways over the last few years, but we’re going to sit down with all the material then.”

Elice added, “Stay tuned!”

The word “substantial” is certainly promising. And it seems like a musical would garner more of a positive reception from Princess Bride fans—who go back generations at this point—than a full-on cinematic remake would, an idea that’s also been floated over the years.

What do you think about a Princess Bride musical? What are the chances there’ll be a song titled “Hello, My Name Is Inigo Montoya”? Let us know in the comments below.

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