Tony winner Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Legally Blonde) is attached as director-choreographer of the musical comedy based on the 2005 film comedy about a drag queen cabaret performer who helps revitalize a failing British shoe company. How does she do it? By creating a line of fetish wear.
Broadway producers Roth (August: Osage County) and Hal Luftig (Movin' Out, Legally Blonde) are partnering on it. Roth and Luftig have said that the film's heart and humanity (and bigger-than-life leading "lady") would translate well to musical theatre.
Roth told Playbill.com that a workshop in early fall is likely, but has not been solidified. No production timeline has been made public. Mention of casting would be premature, as the work is still in development.
Geoff Deane & Tim Firth penned the screenplay. The film was directed by Julian Jarrold. Chiwetel Ejiofor (who played vivacious Lola) was nominated for a 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The U.K. release was in 2005; the U.S. release was in 2006.
In the movie, a son inherits his dead father's dying shoe company, which produces functional footwear for which there is no market. An encounter with a drag performer changes the lives of those in the shoe business.
"The story is really about relationships," Roth previously told the Hollywood Reporter, "and I want to find the heart at the center of it."