Golden Globe Award-winning Netflix miniseries ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ is all set to become a stage musical. Entertainment company Level Forward has acquired the stage rights for the Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, the same novel on which the wildly popular Netflix series was based.
‘The Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix, which became a massive global success, was created by Allan Scott and Scott Frank. The story is set in 1950-60s and follows the journey of a girl named Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) who ends up in an orphanage after her mother dies in a car accident. There she learns and discovers her natural talent of chess. The series further shows how this chess prodigy rises to the top while struggling with addiction and prejudices of a male-dominated world.
The Netflix miniseries received both public and critical acclaim and was the global streaming giant’s most-watched scripted miniseries with over 62 million viewers in the first month. While Anya Taylor-Joy won Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards for her performance, the show bagged the Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards for best limited series.
Level Forward has earlier produced films like ‘The Assistant’ and the documentary ‘On The Record’. Among its stage shows we have ‘Oklahoma!’, ‘What The Constitution Means To Me’ and ‘Slave Play’. Abigail Disney, co-founder of the company, and the Broadway producer Eva Price are part of the team for the stage shows.
Susan Schulman of the Susan Schulman Literary Agency, New York for Tevis Family Trust and Rachel Gould for Level Forward brokered the deal for the stage rights of the novel.
In a statement from Level Forward’s CEO, Adrienne Becker, and producer Julia Dunetz, they said, “It is a privilege for Level Forward to lead the charge of bringing The Queen’s Gambit to the stage through the beloved and enduring craft of musical theater”. The statement further said, “Audiences are already sharing in the friendship and fortitude of the story’s inspiring women who energize and sustain Beth Harmon’s journey and ultimate triumph. The story is a siren call amidst our contemporary struggles for gender and racial equity, and we’re looking forward to moving the project forward.”
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