Amanda Seyfried is in early development of workshopping a musical stage adaptation of the hit 1991 crime comedy drama film, Thelma & Louise. Fellow movie actress Evan Rachel Wood has also recently joined the musical workshop.
Seyfried even missed the Golden Globe s ceremony in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night, during which she won her first trophy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. She was unable to travel to California from New York, where she’s deep in the process of creating the musical. But it wasn’t announced during the ceremony that the project is the stage adaptation of Thelma & Louise.
A Thelma & Louise musical has been in development since 2021. In June of that year, the film’s screenwriter, Callie Khouri, who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the feature, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the “very early stages” of development for the musical. Khouri revealed she’s penning the stage adaptation’s book with actress-playwright-producer Haley Feiffer.
Khouri added that director Trip Cullman, who has helmed such Broadway productions as Choir Boy and Lobby Hero, is attached to Thelma & Louise. Indie singer-songwriter Neko Case is also creating the score for the upcoming project. Scott Delman is serving as the stage adaptation’s producer. While the musical has secured its cast and crew, the timeline for its next steps has not yet been announced.
At the time, Khouri called the stage adaptation a reimagnation of her original screenplay. “It’s a completely different animal. We’ve got a book and we’ve got music but because of the pandemic, we all haven’t been together in a very, very long time. So, it’s still in its nascent stages, but it’s very promising. I don’t want to say too much about it,” she added.
The iconic movie starred Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, and was directed by Ridley Scott. The film, which received six Academy Award nominations, is also famous for featuring Brad Pitt in his first major project.
On Tuesday, Seyfried won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television category for her portrayal of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout. In September, she won her first Emmy Award for the role in the biographical crime drama limited series.
During the Golden Globes ceremony, Yellowstone actors Mo Brings Plenty and Cole Hauser presented the Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television category. They shared that Seyfried wasn’t in attendance because she was “deep in the process of creating a new musical.” Their announcement prompted online rumors about what project she’s working on.
On Wednesday, the Mean Girls star posted a video on Instagram that confirmed the reason for her absence from the Golden Globes ceremony without specifying it was for the stage adaptation of Thelma & Louise.
“I am in New York,” Seyfried said. “I was on FaceTime with my Dropout team, my wonderful Dropout team who are the reason I got this award. It is a true honor to have been a part of that. I had to miss it because I am doing something that is magic and it’s musical. So I’m finally getting to do something that I’ve never really done. That’s all I can really say about it. Hopefully more soon. But it’s a lot of work. It’s more fun, and it’s been a great night. So in lieu of any acceptance speech I’m just going to say thanks to all my Dropout family and my family,” Seyfried said.
The actress has never appeared on Broadway before, but has starred in several Off-Broadway productions. She appeared opposite her now-husband Thomas Sadoski in Neil LaBute’s The Way We Get By in 2015.
Seyfried’s previous musical experience includes starring in both the 2008 screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Mamma Mia!, and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia 2. Those films led some to speculate earlier this week that she might be working on a third edition of the ABBA-infused franchise, before it was announced that she was involved in the Thelma & Louise stage adaptation.
Wood also has singing background. She performed in the Beatles-themed 2007 musical film, Across the Universe, and also sang as Anna and Elsa’s mom in Frozen 2.