Fran Drescher’s ‘The Nanny’ is being made into a Broadway-bound musical
Fran Drescher’s beloved sitcom “The Nanny” is heading to the stage.
The Sony Pictures television series — created by Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson, and partly inspired by Drescher’s life — is being developed into a Broadway-bound stage musical, producers announced Wednesday.
“Nobody is cast yet — we’re plotting — but we feel confident we will find a fabulous actress who is funny, charming and has a great voice,” Drescher and Jacobson said in a statement.
“Of course I would do it myself,” added Drescher, “but we’d have to change the title to ‘The Granny.’”
Marc Bruni (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”) will direct the production, featuring a book by Drescher and Jacobson, with lyrics by Rachel Bloom and music by Bloom and Adam Schlesinger of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”
“‘The Nanny’ was a fundamental part of my childhood, because it was the first time I saw an openly Jewish female protagonist on television,” said Bloom.
“The story of Fran Fine, however, is a universal one that has touched the hearts of people of every race, religion and orientation. I am so proud to be using the characters established by ‘The Nanny’ to tell a new story about one woman’s journey to becoming proud of who she is and what makes her different.”
“The Nanny,” which was initially pitched as a sitcom spin on the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic “The Sound of Music,” centered on a Jewish fashionista from Queens who becomes the caretaker of three well-to-do children on the Upper East Side. The class-clash comedy aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999, earning 12 Emmy Award nominations over six seasons.
