Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures (WBTV) is planning at least three stage adaptations of its signature films, including Dog Day Afternoon and a musical version of the supernatural comedy Beetlejuice, according to a report in Variety.
The company’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical adaptation is headed for its Broadway debut at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre March 28, after a London run. It has a score by Tony winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray).
The trade paper reported that WBTV, which was created in 2011 to bring its movie hits to the stage, is working on “an ambitious theater slate” of productions including:
* A musical version of the 1988 film Beetlejuice, about a deceased couple who hire an exorcist to remove the living from their home. The show reportedly had a recent New York reading directed by Alex Timbers and starring Christopher Fitzgerald (Waitress).
* A musical based on Night Shift, another dark comedy about a man who is persuaded to run a secret brothel out of his workplace—a morgue.
* A drama based on Dog Day Afternoon, about a man who attempts to rob a bank to pay for his lover’s gender reassignment surgery. This one would have a script written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Between Riverside and Crazy.
No production timetable or further details were reported.
A Warner Bros. confirmed the projects to Playbill.com saying “Everything featured in Variety is accurate and we don’t have anything else to add at this time.”
