It's already been 30 years since 'Pretty Woman' captured our hearts with its extraordinary love story between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and now, just a year after the death of the film's director, Garry Marshall, comes a musical adaptation. The popular rom-com is due to hit the stage under the direction of choreographer Jerry Mitchell. Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance will be in charge of the script and music.
'Pretty Woman: The Musical' will premiere on 13th March at Chicago's Oriental Theatre, before hitting Broadway in July. The director for the musical could just about contain his excitement upon revealing the first few promotional images. "This image of Vivian and Edward on the steps of The Metropolitan Opera was always in my head and heart as the perfect night. It's the perfect moment when Edward shares a night at the opera with Vivian and sees the world through her eyes. It changes everything he thought he knew about love and life! So I asked Bryan and Jim to write a song capturing this moment and they did. Oh boy, did they ever!", he told People.
Samantha Barks will play the Vivian in the musical. The actress is known for her role as Èponine in the latest film version of 'Les Miserables'. Grammy winner, Steve Kazee, who portrayed Guy in 'Once', will play Edward. "Samantha Barks and Steve Kazee are magnetic actors, they sing like dreams and I could not be more excited to have them introduce Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance's brand new songs to the world", continued Mitchell.
'Pretty Woman' is one of the most popular films in the history of cinema, and so it comes as no surprise that the protagonists have a few nerves about their roles. When speaking about Vivian, Barks let on that, "I need to be honest when it comes to my character, I need to be able to forget about the stress of living up to Julia Roberts' portrayal of the character. The trick is being able to bring to life my own version of the character and reading the role as if it were for the first time".
Jerry Mitchell also wishes that they're able to rouse the same expectation that the film did. "'Pretty Woman' is first and foremost a love story - the perfect Cinderella story, but in this instance, the Prince is just as lost as Cinderella and end up saving each other. What's better than love?".
