Melissa etheridge prepping musical ‘mystic pizza’ for stage delivery

EXCLUSIVE: Rocker Melissa Etheridge will provide the musical ingredients for a stage adaptation of _Mystic Pizza_, the 1988 MGM rom-com that launched Julia Roberts and gave an early look at

a very young, lobster-eating Matt Damon. The new production, announced today by Lively McCabe Entertainment, will be directed by Gordon Greenberg, who is co-writing the book with Sas

Goldberg based on the story and characters by original screenwriter Amy Holden Jones. “MGM’s _Mystic Pizza_ is a seminal film for an entire generation of young people looking to distinguish

themselves in a rapidly changing world,” said Greenberg. “Adapting Amy Holden Jones’ original screenplay for the stage with rock icon Melissa Etheridge, a beacon of strength and raw musical

energy, and the brilliantly hilarious Sas Goldberg, is a dream collaboration on a story that is as relevant today as it was when we all first experienced it.” Production plans and additional

creative team will be announced shortly. _Mystic Pizza_ will be published and licensed by Concord Theatricals. Producer Lively McCabe Entertainment, led by producer Michael Barra and

co-founder Katie Dietz, specializes in packaging and adapting iconic intellectual property into new stories for theater, film/TV, and book publishing. WATCH ON DEADLINE Though specific plans

– Broadway, Off Broadway, regional – have not been announced, the _Mystic Pizza_ development is happening as Broadway has recently welcomed a slew of film-to-stage productions, including,

among others, _Network, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pretty Woman_ (which, of course, also starred Roberts onscreen), _Mean Girls, Frozen, The Band’s Visit_ and _King Kong_. Heading to Broadway

this season are _Beetlejuice, Tootsie_ and _Moulin Rouge_, while director Ivo van Hove’s non-musical _All About Eve_ is in the wings on London’s West End. Greenberg has some experience in

that arena as well, having adapted the musical_ Holiday Inn_, based on the 1942 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire for Broadway in 2016. Among other credits, he directed the Huey

Lewis jukebox musical _The Heart of Rock and Roll_, which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in September, and is developing a stage adaptation of the Michael J. Fox 1987 movie _The

Secret of My Success_ for Universal. _Mystic Pizza_ co-writer Sas Goldberghas sold and developed television scripts and pilots at NBC, Fox, Sony, Warner Brothers and Bravo, but is perhaps

best known as an actress, with Broadway credits including _Significant Other_ and, on film and TV, _Ocean’s 8_, FX’s _You’re The Worst_ and Showtime’s _Happyish_. She co-wrote, produced and

starred in the film _Are You Joking?_, and the musical series _The Battery’s Down_, and recently wrote an NBC pilot, with Jeffrey Seller and Flody Suarez producing. She will next be seen

recurring on the upcoming Jenji Kohan produced series _American Princess_ for Lifetime. In addition to her Grammy-winning recording career, Etheridge has some theater experience as well: She

made her Broadway debut in 2011 in the Green Day rock opera _American Idiot_, temporarily replacing Billie Joe Armstrong in the role of St. Jimmy. The 1988 _Mystic Pizza_ film starred

Roberts, Annabeth Gish and Lili Taylor as waitresses at a Mystic, Connecticut, pizza parlor, their working class lives in stark contrast to the town’s country club set. Damon had a small

role as one of the latter, making an onscreen splash with his dinner conversation about he “green stuff” in his lobster. The film script was written by Amy Holden Jones, who went on to

create, in 2014, ABC’s _Black Box_. She currently is the exec producer and co-creator of Fox’s _The Resident_. _Mystic Pizza_, said director Greenberg in a statement, features “three strong

young women at its core, and [is] set in a community of immigrants dealing with traditionally limited expectations amid shifting class dynamics.” Lively McCabe Entertainment is repped by Max

Grossman and Brad Rosenfeld at Abrams Artists Agency and, for theater, Jason Aylesworth at Sendroff & Baruch.