We may not get a second season of The Queen’s Gambit but that doesn’t mean that we won’t get to enjoy the shenanigans of Beth Harmon and co. It seems our favorite red-headed chess playing genius, Beth Harmon, and her friends including best friend Jolene, will be the focus of a stage adaptation of the movie. And I don’t mean a play because that would be the logical progression. Instead Level Forward has acquired the rights to make The Queen’s Gambit into a musical. You read it right, a musical. I personally love musicals but am not sure how they will make The Queen’s Gambit work as a musical. Below are a few more details about the deal from The Hollywood Reporter:
“It is a privilege for Level Forward to lead the charge of bringing The Queen’s Gambit to the stage through the beloved and enduring craft of musical theater,” said Level Forward CEO Adrienne Becker and producer Julia Dunetz in a statement. “Told through a brave and fresh point of view, audiences are already sharing in the friendship and fortitude of the story’s inspiring women who energize and sustain Beth Harmon’s journey and ultimate triumph. The story is a siren call amidst our contemporary struggles for gender and racial equity, and we’re looking forward to moving the project forward.”
The deal was brokered on behalf of the Tevis Family Trust by Susan Schulman of the Susan Schulman Literary Agency, New York and Rachel Gould on behalf of Level Forward. The company’s recent Broadway productions include Slave Play and Jagged Little Pill, which currently are nominated for 12 and 15 Tony Awards, respectively.
It sounds quite interesting especially the part about it being a siren story amidst “contemporary gender and racial equity struggles.” I wonder what that would look like. What sort of struggles would they focus on? The feminist and civil rights movements? Will they also couch the play in the era that the series was set, the 60s and 70s? I hope the musical will expand the stories to include more than Chess tournaments. I’m imagining the cast dancing and flipping over chest boards on tables while singing in the vein of Oliver Twist. I may be able to get with the cast singing about sex and gyrating like Britney Spears with snakes around their necks too. It is not necessarily my thing but I am sure there is an audience for it. I am not up on the musical and stage scene so I can’t recommend folks to play the parts but I am sure if they find the right cast, Level Forward may have a winner on their hands. As far as odd things go, The Queen’s Gambit as a musical has gotta be pretty up there.
photos credit: Netflix
The show was perfect. Just leave it alone!!! No need for a second season or musical or whatever. Ugh.
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Ironically, not even the first musical about the game. See award-winning musical Chess for that! With music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the pop group ABBA, lyrics by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, and a book by Tim Rice…
Great music but the show ranked. It is hard to make Chess Broadwayish lol
So bad then? Like Jagged Little Pill was reviewed as awful so why even agree to this?
Jagged Little Pill was/is positively reviewed and has 15 Tony nominations. Although I’m not sure how well TQG will translate to a musical. Vastly different source material there.
What I don’t get is why if you are going to make her a redhead (and deviate from the book), why not employ a natural redhead for the role?
So frustrating as a redhead to see how many roles are taken by “fake redheads”
We are already not the first choice in terms of hair color and then when we are, people pick natural blondes.
#RedheadRant
I am surprising myself here, but I could see how this might actually work. I loved the show (have not read the book). But you have some good fodder for a musical too. Young Beth and Jolene in the orphanage. Beth discovering chess. A great solo for the mother, one or two for Jolene. The all-male “Greek Chorus” of other players who go from rivals to supporters. The trip to Soviet era Russia. The fashion.
It has potential.