“Pretty Woman” is getting the Broadway musical treatment, because fairy tales are real

It’s been nearly 30 years since Pretty Woman graced the big screen, and if  — just like Vivian — you still want the fairy tale, you’re about to get it all over again. The hit ’90s movie starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is being adapted into a stage musical, and the production is officially underway.

The Pretty Woman musical is set to hit Broadway next fall, and it just found its leads.

The musical will feature Samantha Barks as Vivian — you probably know her best for her role as Eponine in 2012’s feature adaptation of Les Misérables. The Tony-winning star of Once, Steve Kazee, will star alongside Barks as Edward Lewis. Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance will write the music and lyrics, and Jerry Mitchell will direct and choreograph.

For those of you who have yet to see the cinematic gold that is Pretty Woman, Vivian is a call girl who connects with a high-flying businessman named Edward. Annnnnd, the rest is romantic-comedy history. 

Possibly one of the most special parts of this adaptation is that the late Garry Marshall, who helmed Pretty Woman, wrote the book (with screenwriter J.F. Lawton) for the musical before he passed away. The celebrated writer/director/actor even updated the story to flesh out plot lines.

"I always felt that creatively I didn’t do justice to Richard Gere’s character," he told Vanity Fair in 2016. "So in the musical, we have some great, new moments for Richard’s character...We wanted to get into more of his background. We left it at the business side of it [in the film], and now we’re making that a little clearer and what his relationship with his father was like. You can do a lot of things in song."

Plus, Marshall wanted to convey to audiences that Vivian is a strong, independent character.

“There was a line that we had once in the Pretty Woman script [that didn’t make it into the film] that I think we’re bringing into the musical,” he said. “When things are going well, Vivian said something like, ‘The letter V used to stand for victim. Now it stands for Vivian.’ That’s a part of the new show, too. I don’t like women to be victims. It’s time we stopped that.”

Already getting so many goosebumps from this.

Pretty Woman will land in Chicago on March 13th for five weeks, and then head to Broadway in fall 2018. If you are lucky enough to be in either of those cities at the right time, be sure to bring your tallest boots and your most teased-out hair.

Oh, and your very best take on “Kiss”…because, duh.