Based on the success of the all singing, all dancing (except from Sarah Chalke) episode “My Musical,” Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence is hard at work on a musical based on the hospital comedy, something he originally mentioned in 2012, but I’m only hearing about now. Just think, I could have spent these past 24 months helping him out, finding words that rhyme Rowdy. Lawrence spoke to EW about Rent, But with Scrubs (a working title I just made up), including how far along he is in the writing and developing process.
We’re negotiating with different theater groups who will hopefully put up the money for a year to pay the composers to develop [spec songs]. Disney has nicely become a silent partner in giving the rights for us to go shop it. And the most fun thing for a theater junkie is we’ve already reached the stage that various composers have been submitting songs based on an outline that we put together for the type of stuff we would do.
What’s in that outline? Do you know what story you want to tell?
We have an outline basically showing where we’re looking for songs, how we would intend to do fantasies, how we would use that a cappella band as a Greek chorus that would be on stage singing the theme when people come in. When that outline goes out to composers, they’ll know the tone because they’ve seen the show and some of the musical stuff we’ve done. If I did Scrubs, I would do it as the Legally Blonde or Wicked model. It’s all the same characters. The outline is kind of a mishmash of the pilot episode mushed together with the episode where Mrs. Landingham from The West Wing dies. We’re combining two of our best stories with what we’re allowed to cull and choose from our best comedic moments and fantasies from nine years of the show. (Via)
Lawrence added that although Zach Braff will be “involved creatively,” he won’t star in Wicked, But with Scrubs (the other working title), but that Ted’s a cappella band, the Worthless Peons, could appear, assuming they haven’t gone hoarse from singing acoustic covers of “Hey Ya” at one too many Bar Mitzvahs. The only conceivable problem: how to market a Broadway musical about guys in love?
