Bryan Adams first started campaigning to write the score for "Pretty Woman: The Musical" when he heard the hit 1990 movie, which starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, was going to be made into a musical. He got the gig in 2015 with his writing partner, Jim Vallance, in 2015.
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"Basically we did an audition," Adams said. "Jim and I wrote three songs which we thought would be appropriate for the stage and then we met with [the producers], and it was one of those classic scenarios where, 'Okay, you guys need to leave the room so we can talk about you, and we'll call you, don't call us.' And then half an hour later I got a call."
While the original soundtrack to the film includes well-known hits such as Go West's "Kin Of Wishful Thinking," Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love," Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," and David Bowie's "Fame," the producers of the musical wanted a new score to accompany the stage version of the show.
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Adams and Vallance have been working with producers to bring the music to life, which is a much different process than creating an album.
"We have these large meetings when we all sit around, 20–25 people, and they all talk about what's going to happen and Jim and I sort of skulk away and go write a song," Adams said. "Obviously these things go through huge changes as you get closer to the date, so the stage is different than a band. You find areas of [the book] where music's playing and there's dialogue and you have to segue back into the song, so there's … a lot more production and arrangement that goes into a musical than there is in making an album. It's super fun."
The show's book was written by J.F. Lawton and the late Garry Marshall, who wrote and directed the movie, respectively. Samantha Barks and Steve Kazee will play in the starring roles. Jerry Mitchell will serve as the director and choreographer.
"Pretty Woman: The Musical" will open at Chicago's Oriental Theatre on March 13, 2018, for a month before heading to Broadway in fall 2018.
