A Broadway musical based on Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is officially in development. No, this isn’t a gag from the movie itself. Yes, Will Ferrell is writing it.
Ferrell will team with SNL veteran Harper Steele — his longtime friend and co-star in the recent documentary Will & Harper — as well as Anthony King, whose previous credits include the book for Broadway’s Beetlejuice. The trio are tasked with translating Eurovision’s singular brand of self-aware absurdity into something that works eight shows a week.
And that is no small challenge.
The 2020 Netflix film, starring Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, followed Icelandic underdogs Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir in their chaotic, improbably sincere quest for Eurovision glory. It was knowingly ridiculous, deliberately overwrought, and anchored by an Oscar-nominated power ballad — “Husavik (My Hometown)” — that somehow managed to go from punchline to genuine tearjerker.
That kind of tonal juggling act is difficult enough in a two-hour film. Doing it live, with full Broadway production values, is a creative gamble of the highest order. And yet… it might just work.
Savan Kotecha, who was the film’s executive music producer, will provide the score. Direction comes from Alex Timbers, whose past work on Moulin Rouge! and Just In Time makes him uniquely qualified to turn camp into capital-T Theatre.
Ferrell, ever enthusiastic, declared: “The stage musical is a perfect place to continue our celebration of all the things we love about this amazing and unifying song competition.”
Timbers echoed the sentiment with even more sincerity, calling Ferrell and Steele his “comedy heroes” and noting how the original film “buoyed spirits during a very dark time.”
This isn’t Ferrell’s first foray onto the Broadway stage. In 2009, he debuted with You’re Welcome America, a one-man political satire in which he portrayed George W. Bush. This new project, however, is infinitely larger in scope — not to mention infinitely more surreal.
Martin Green, director of the Eurovision Song Contest, confirmed that the organisation has given the stage adaptation its blessing, calling it “a stellar team for what I am sure will be an equally stellar adaptation.”
No premiere date has been announced. But if they pull it off — and that is still a big if — Broadway won’t know what hit it.
