EXCLUSIVE: A stage musical adaptation of best-selling novel and hit film Practical Magic is being developed by author Alice Hoffman, Grammy winners Norah Jone and Gregg Wattenberg, and Merrily We Roll Along director Maria Friedman.
Peter Duchan, who wrote the book for the 2013 musical Dogfight, is writing the book for Practical Magic with Hoffman.
“I’m so excited to be working with my amazing collaborators on bringing Practical Magic to the stage,” said Hoffman, whose 1995 novel was followed up with three other “Owens family saga” books: The Rules of Magic (2017), Magic Lessons (2020), and The Book of Magic (2021). “This story of love and sisterhood is meant for the theater. Music is the heart and soul of Practical Magic, you can hear it as you read the book, even though it isn’t there. Now you will finally hear the story as I always imagined it. You will hear magic.”
The original novel was adapted for a Warner Bros 1998 film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing and Aidan Quinn. A film sequel reuniting Bullock and Kidman, directed by Susanne Bier, is set to premiere in cinemas on September 11.
Casting and a production timeline for the musical have not been announced. The musical is being produced by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures. Mark Kaufman, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of WBTV, will serve as creative consultant.
L-R: Norah Jones, Alice Hoffman, Gregg Wattenberg, Maria Friedman and Peter Duchan
Courtesy Production
The musical adaptation was announced today by producers Stephanie and Nicole Kramer and Brian and Dayna Lee. The project marks the first stage musical by Jones, who broke onto the world stage with her multiple Grammy-winning 2002 album Come Away With Me. She has since become a 10-time Grammy-winner, selling more than 52 million albums with songs streamed more than 10 billion times worldwide.
The Practical Magic synopsis: For more than two centuries, the Owens women have been feared, blamed, and whispered about in their small Massachusetts town. Orphaned as children and raised by their eccentric aunts, sisters Sally and Gillian Owens grow up determined to escape the ancestral curse they inherited. Choosing opposite paths, the sisters try to outrun their past, until love, loss, and long-buried secrets pull them back together. Forced to confront their family legacy, Sally and Gillian must decide whether the past can be overcome – and how much they are willing to risk for love.
Wattenberg, who will write the music and lyrics with Jones, has co-written and/or produced eight Billboard #1 songs and numerous multi-Platinum singles, including Five For Fighting’s “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” and “100 Years,” Daughtry’s “It’s Not Over,” O.A.R.’s “Shattered,” and Train’s global smash “Hey, Soul Sister,” which won a Grammy Award and ASCAP Song of the Year. He also co-wrote and produced Phillip Phillips’ hit “Gone, Gone, Gone,” featured in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He is the founder and Co-CEO of New York’s Artist House, the largest music studio complex on the East Coast.
Practical Magic will mark the stage endeavor involving Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, whose upcoming projects include adaptations of Crazy Rich Asians and the soon-to-arrive Broadway bound The Lost Boys and Dog Day Afternoon.