Rachel Bloom and Fran Drescher are co-writing a Broadway musical version of The Nanny
Aux Features TV
If the long tradition of hit musicals set in our country’s bygone and distant eras—Hamilton, 1776, Beetlejuice—has taught us anything, it’s that Broadway loves the past. Sometimes that past is distant, and sometimes it’s more recent—as when Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark featured nightly one-person performances of its leading man’s life flashing before his eyes. And sometimes it’s the sort of history that you could once periodically catch on Nick At Nite, as with the news today that Fran Drescher’s ’90s sitcom The Nanny is getting the Broadway musical treatment, with original series creators Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson writing the book, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachel Bloom co-writing the music and lyrics.
Bloom is collaborating on the project with Adam Schlesinger, with whom she won an Emmy for the final season of her CW TV musical. Talking about the original incarnation of The Nanny—Nanny 1.0, as we’re now forced to think of it—Bloom noted that it “was a fundamental part of my childhood, because it was the first time I saw an openly Jewish female protagonist on television.” She went on to praise the show’s relatability and heart, saying that, “The story of Fran Fine is a universal one that has touched the hearts of people of every race, religion and orientation.” Drescher and Jacobson—long-time writing partners who were also married for several years—were equally effusive about both Bloom and Schlesinger, as well as director Marc Bruni. Casting is still an active process; Drescher quipped of the titular role that “Of course I would do it myself, but we’d have to change the title to The Granny,” which is a nice bit of Fran Drescher-style comedy business.
For those unfamiliar with the premise of The Nanny, it goes something like this: She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens, before her boyfriend kicked her out. (It was one of those crushing scenes.) What was she to do? Where was she to go? To use a bit of a colloquialism: She was out on her fanny. Picking herself up in the face of adversity, though, she went over the bridge from Flushing, to the Sheffield family’s door. She was there to sell make-up, but the father (Charles Shaughnessy) saw more. She had style; she had flair. And if we’re being honest: She was there.
That is how she became The Nanny.
13 Comments
Rachel, no. Bad Rachel.I mean, this is probably gonna be good, because it’s Rachel. But I’d love to get another brilliant TV show out of her, or, hell, maybe even movies. This is too easy.
Assuming she’s doing nothing more than co-writing it, this shouldn’t be the biggest long-term time commitment – I don’t think it’s going to get in the way of another TV show if that’s in her plans (which I hope it is).
It is simply shocking to me that someone with her writing talent, musical chops, and gorgeous looks doesn’t have every single job offer on the planet.Full disclosure: short, curvy, and extremely clever brunettes turn me into a puddle of so much goo.
I can’t imagine this is going to be a huge time commitment if she is not going to be involved in the actual production beyond the writing stage. She gets to work on something she cares about, gets that money, and presumably still has time to work on her own projects, so I am just happy for her to get another gig. I would love to get a great movie or another great show out of her, but its frankly amazing that we got 4 seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and I will always be happy for that. I remember checking the ratings after every episode during the first season and thinking it wouldn’t even make it past mid-season, let alone get renewed. As much as I have enjoyed some of the Arrow-verse shows, I think their greatest contribution to pop-culture is having so many shows at the same time that CW basically HAD to keep Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on to follow the agreement of CW being split between Warner Brothers (all the Arrow-verse shows) and CBS (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) productions. It also probably helped that Bloom won a Golden Globe, marking the only time those awards have ever mattered or made a positive contribution.
She is in the trailer of Gina Rodríguez’s Disney show, so I’m guessing she wrote at least 1 episode there.
It sounded like Crazy Ex was a pretty intense production for her (quite a few of the articles about filming the end pointed out how exhausting her role was in terms of both writing/production and all the stuff she had to do as the star) – it’s amazing and I’m glad she was willing to devote so much time and energy to it but fair play if she wants to take it easy for a little while (especially given I think her and her husband have a baby on the way)
She’s about to have a baby, so she might want something less stressful/time consuming for now.
“Sometimes that past is distant, and sometimes it’s more recent—as when Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark featured nightly one-person performances of its leading man’s life flashing before his eyes. “ That got a chuckle out of me.
Two rights making such a wrong.
What is Broadway even pretending it’s FOR at this point?
I mean, there’s been way stupider musicals. Going back decades. *Cough*Carrie*cough*.
Admittedly, I don’t see how it’s going to work because the appeal of something like The Nanny (by Drescher’s own admission) was the will they/won’t they that played out with Fran and Maxwell over seasons and the celebrity guesats. But at least The Nanny is set in the world of Broadway musicals, so it makes slightly more sense than some of the other random movies that get turned into musicals.
We are not worthy.
The Nanny is more or less an updated Sound of Music, so we’ve come full circle.Despite the tone of the other comments here, this makes me happy. The Nanny is one of the few 90s sitcoms I can still bear to watch and I love Rachel Bloom. I’m not at all surprised she loves this show (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s first opening credits always struck me as inspired by the Nanny) and I’m glad she has the opportunity to work on something she’s excited about. And I’m looking forward to the musical number she’ll write for Mr. Sheffield where he rants about that time he passed on Cats and how much he hates Andrew Lloyd Webber.