In a pitch sold to Amblin Partners, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig are attached to develop an original musical based on the book Everything Is Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age Of Industrial Musicals. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman — the duo behind the music for NBC’s Smash and the Broadway musical version of John Waters’ Hairspray and many other productions — are on board to write the score.
Marc Platt, the king of the Hollywood musical with credits that reach from Grease Live! to the Oscar front-runner La La Land, is aboard to produce with his company’s Adam Siegel. Writing the script is playwright Steven Levenson, who wrote the book for Dear Evan Hansen, the recently opened Broadway musical starring Platt’s son Ben.
The book Everything is Coming Up Profits by Steve Young and Mike Murphy reveals how corporate America employed Broadway talent to take part in industrial shows from the 1950s to the 1980s to help motivate sales forces and educate employees on products. Some of those musical shows were actually recorded for posterity and the subject matter lends itself to some great humor as some of these actors had to play inanimate objects (and would fight for those roles) or get overly excited about diesel engines, bathtubs or selling tires while they dreamed of being “somebody.”
