‘Phantom Of the Opera’ To Serve As Backdrop Of Homicide Thriller Anthology Sequence In Works At Peacock From Austin Winsberg, Robert Greenblatt, Andrew Lloyd Webber & Lionsgate

EXCLUSIVE: In a aggressive state of affairs, Peacock has landed for improvement, The Show Must Go On, an hourlong homicide thriller anthology, which might mark the primary time Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera musical is used as a part of a TV collection. The high-profile venture comes from the Zoey’s Extraordinary Playbook creator Austin Winsberg, former prime TV govt and award-winning producer Robert Greenblatt, EGOT Lloyd Webber, in addition to Zoey’s producer The Tannenbaum Company, pilot director Richard Shepard and studio Lionsgate Tv.

Written by Winsberg, The Present Should Go On is a darkly comedic homicide thriller anthology collection. Every season would happen within the days main as much as an enormous, dwell, televised occasion and would deal with a brand new homicide with a refreshed forged.

Season 1 is about behind the scenes through the making of a fictitious model of Lloyd Webber’s worldwide mega-hit: The Phantom of The Opera Reside! As if placing on a large, dwell, beloved musical isn’t sufficient of a problem, think about how arduous it will likely be with countless manufacturing issues, warring stars, mounting community pressures, and, oh yeah, the grotesque and premature dying of one of many leads. With a assassin on the unfastened, and a Phantom to deal with, the entire forged and crew should come collectively to placed on the best present of their lives… that’s – if they will dwell lengthy sufficient to make it to the ultimate curtain…

Winsberg will govt produce together with Lloyd Webber, Greenblatt through his The Inexperienced Room banner, Eric and Kim Tannenbaum of The Tannenbaum Co, and Shepard, who can be set to direct.

Whereas Phantom of the Opera won’t be carried out in its entirety because the season will comply with the musical coming collectively within the background, a lot of its well-known scenes and hits beloved by theater followers the world over, together with “The Music of the Night time”, will probably be featured on the present, sources inform Deadline. And we hear that Lloyd Webber might even be a part of the forged.

The Phantom of the Opera has been seen by greater than 135 million folks, in over 181 cities, worldwide and has earned greater than 70 main theatre awards. It holds the document for the longest-running present on Broadway and the second longest-running West Finish musical.

This marks a return to NBCU for Greenblatt in addition to the Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist crew. Throughout his stint as Chairman of NBC Leisure and Common Tv from 2011-18, Greenblatt, a Tony winner and long-time theater producer and investor, introduced dwell musicals to the community with The Sound of Music Reside!, The Wiz Reside!, Hairspray Reside!, Peter Pan Reside!, the Emmy-winning Jesus Christ Famous person Reside in Live performance!, which Lloyd Weber govt produced. As a producer, Greenblatt did Annie Reside! on the community final season.

The thought for The Present Should Go On got here from Winsberg who has been working along with the Tannenbaums beneath their offers at Lionsgate TV, which has yielded two collection up to now, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which had a two-season run on NBC (with a vacation film finale on Roku) and Acapulco on Apple TV+.

The Tannenbaum Co. introduced the concept to Greenblatt after he joined the Lionsgate fold final 12 months when he launched his The Inexperienced Room manufacturing firm with a first-look deal on the indie studio.

Greenblatt has historical past with Winsberg who wrote NBC’s The Sound Of Music Reside! adaptation starring Carrie Underwood, which had the best viewership of all of the dwell musicals on the printed networks. Greenblatt additionally noticed and cherished  the Broadway present First Date with Zachary Levi, whose ebook Winsberg wrote, and was an enormous fan of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.

“Austin and I’ve a reference to musicals. When he pitched me the concept to do a homicide thriller towards a dwell musical backdrop, I assumed it was excellent for me,” Greenblatt stated.” So I reached out to Andrew Lloyd Webber to see if he would allow us to use Phantom of the Opera, which has by no means been accomplished earlier than. I pitched him the concept and he cherished it and on obtained on board.”

As to why he selected Phantom of the Opera, “I simply thought it was the right present to have a homicide occur as a result of the present itself is macabre, and the Phantom is doing all these items within the basement of the theater,” Greenblatt stated.

Comedic homicide thriller collection have been a success on streaming currently, with widespread reveals similar to Apple TV+’s The Afterparty and Hulu’s Solely Murders Within the Constructing. After pitching The Present Should Go On to a number of platforms and getting curiosity from a number of patrons, the producers determined to go together with Peacock which doesn’t presently have a present within the style and likewise is overseen by the identical artistic crew, led by Susan Rovner, which labored on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and wished to get again in enterprise with Winsberg and the remainder of the crew.

Lloyd Webber has composed the scores of among the world’s most well-known musicals from 1969’s Joseph and the Superb Technicolor Dreamcoat to 2021’s Cinderella. Earlier than the COVID pandemic hit, Lloyd Webber had reveals frequently working within the West Finish for 48 years and on Broadway for 41. He is without doubt one of the choose group of artists with EGOT standing, having acquired Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. He’s repped by Kitty Abel Smith of The Actually Helpful Group and LW Theatres.

Earlier than returning to producing, Greenblatt served as Chairman of WarnerMedia Leisure and Direct-To-Client, overseeing HBO, Turner, and the launch of HBO Max. He championed the event of Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age, which premiered on HBO in 2022, and serves as govt producer.

Emmy-nominated author and producer Winsberg created/govt produced/showran the Emmy award-winning musical dramedy collection Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on NBC and the Emmy-nominated current vacation film Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas.

Moreover, he’s the co-creator/govt producer of Apple TV+’s hit bilingual comedy collection Acapulco, and not too long ago produced and co-wrote the Disney+ film Secret Society of Second Born Royals.  He’s repped by CAA and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.

DGA and Emmy Award-winning director Shepard has directed 10 tv pilots which were picked as much as collection, together with Ugly Betty, Felony Minds, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. He additionally directed the pilot episode of Acapulco, which was nominated for a Critics Selection Award, and not too long ago directed two episodes of The Handmaid’s Story. He’s repped by CAA, 3Arts, and attorneys Karl Austen and Kimberly Jaime.

The Tannenbaum Firm, headed by govt producers Eric & Kim Tannenbaum, and Jason Wang, presently has on the air Acapulco and ABC’s Dwelling Economics. Along with Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, current credit embody TBS’s The Final OG starring Tracy Morgan. The corporate is repped by CAA and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka.

Nellie Andreeva contributed to this story.