Archie Getting a Broadway Musical Adaptation From Funny or Die Creators
Riverdale is coming to Broadway, thanks to a recently announced deal that will bring an adaptation of the iconic Archie to NYC stages from the crew behind Funny or Die. This is going to be a comedic take on the idyllic Archie story, and the rousing success of Book of Mormon has shown is that there’s definitely a market for funny, smart musicals done by comedy writers.
What’s most weird about this whole thing is that the Archie musical is going straight to Broadway–most shows go through years of workshops and opening in smaller venues before making their Great White Way debut. There’s some serious money behind this show. At best, that means the creators have all the necessary tools at their disposal to create a great adaptation…but we all remember Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, don’t we?
After the Archie announcement came out, the indie world wisely saved its most of its news for another week, because it’s hard to compete with the possibility of a Jughead hamburger solo number.
But we did get something else to check out this week:
Toil and Trouble, from writer Mairghread Scott and artists Kelly and Nicole Matthews, finally peels back the curtain on the three creepy witches who set the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in motion to reveal three women, each acting out of their own interests in a larger plot. Even if the concept of witches + Shakespeare wasn’t enough to get me on board, this interview with the creative team really sold me. They’re really delving deep into Macbeth and the wider world the play references, instead of just using the high concept as a springboard into unrelated witchy adventures. It’ll be so interesting to see the witches as individual characters instead of the force of chaos they are in the play.
