Beyond Goodspeed’s “Holiday Inn,” producer-executive Chris Herzberger, director-writer Gordon Greenberg and writer Chad Hodge have a long list of projects waiting in the wings
For Universal Stage Productions and Herzberger, projects in development include a musical stage version of the 1999 film “October Sky,” slated next year for the Chicago area’s Marriott Theater, written by composer-lyricist Michael Mahler and book writer Aaron Thielen.
Also eyed are musicals based on the 1973 Oscar-winning “The Sting,” 1987’s “The Secret of My Success” that starred Michael J. Fox (with Greenberg attached to the musical) and “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” (the 2008 film that starred Frances McDormand and Amy Adams).
Greenberg is busy with the transfer of the UK revival of “Guys and Dolls” from England’s Chichester Festival Theatre to the West End in London in the spring.
He also co-wrote “Scramble Band,” a movie for The Disney Channel, based on his own school band experiences but also as a result of his work in the musical “Bank Geeks” which he developed at Goodspeed Musicals. (“Band Geeks” is now being licensed for school productions.)
Greenberg is also creating “Luck Be A Lady: The Iconic Music of Frank Loesser” set next spring for Florida’s Asolo Theatre, based on the songs of Frank Loesser (“Guys and Dolls,” “The Most Happy Fella,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”).
Also on tap is a stage version of “Tangled” for Disney, that will begin on a cruise line in Shanghai. It’s an hour show with the potential to become larger. (Composer Alan Menken has already written four new songs.)
Farther down the line is a project with Jerry Herman, taking numbers from the composer’s songbook, especially “Dear World,” and crafting a show “about failing memory.”
“On hold” is a musical with a score by the band Fun that was sidetracked because the group is working on its third album.
For Hodge, beyond the psychological thriller “Wayward Pines,” there’s a TV series version of the film “Death Becomes Her” and another series “Abandon,” with executive producer Steven Spielberg. He is also been tapped to adapt the first book of the “Darkest Minds” young adult book trilogy by Alexandra Bracken.
Most intriguing is his screenplay for the film “Anita” starring Uma Thurman as Anita Bryant, with Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman directing.
Hodge spent three days with Bryant in her home in Oklahoma “that informed how I wrote the film.”
“The reason I wanted to talk with her was to understand the whole story from her point of view.,” says Hodge. “All I wanted to do was tell the truth because I didn’t have to make her look any worse than she made herself look. I wanted to see how a person could say and do the things that she did, how she went from 18-year-old Miss America to ‘that woman’ 20 years later.”
And her views in 2014?
“She still thinks she did the right thing. She’s obviously not a firebrand because she took herself out of the public eye. But no, her views have not changed. Her views are strictly the King James Bible so whatever that says is what she says she believes.”
