Fran Drescher’s 1990s sitcom “The Nanny” is being developed as a Broadway-bound stage musical with a score by Emmy winners Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger, producers Brian Zeilinger and Scott Zeilinger announced Wednesday.
Drescher and series co-creator Peter Marc Jacobson will write the book for the show, inspired by Drescher’s own life growing up in Queens, New York, as a Jewish fashionista.
The musical will feature a new score by Adam Schlesinger and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” creator-star Rachel Bloom, with lyrics by Bloom. Last fall, the duo won an Emmy Award together for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”).
Marc Bruni (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”) is attached to direct.
The series, which followed the Queens-accented Fran Fine as she went to work as a nanny for a British Broadway producer and his three well-heeled children, ran for 146 episodes between 1993 and 1999. Drescher earned 12 Emmy Award nominations over six seasons on the CBS hit.
“We are SO excited to be working on the Broadway musical The Nanny,” Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson said. “We’re equally excited that the wildly talented Rachel Bloom will be writing the lyrics and music with the fantastic Adam Schlesinger, and to have the brilliant Marc Bruni directing. 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.”
“Of course I would do it myself,” Fran remarked, “but we’d have to change the title to The Granny.”
Rachel Bloom said, “‘The Nanny’ was a fundamental part of my childhood because it was the first time I saw an openly Jewish female protagonist on television. 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.”
Marc Bruni said, “‘The Nanny; television series began from a familiar theatrical premise — but what if instead of Maria Rainer with her guitar, Fran Fine showed up on the doorstep of a fractured family? Over its six seasons, the show examined class, coming of age, feminism, love and Broadway with heart and laughs. I am thrilled to be working with Fran, Peter, Rachel and Adam in bringing these characters to the stage in a fresh new light that I hope will delight fans of the show, as well as capture the imagination of a new generation of theater-goers.”