Emma Thompson Co-Writing and Directing “Nanny McPhee” Stage Musical
Emma Thompson is stepping into the director’s chair. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the Oscar winner will helm and co-write a stage musical adaptation of 2005’s “Nanny McPhee.” The family film, which Thompson wrote and toplined, follows the Brown siblings, mischievous children whose behavior slowly improves with the help of a magical nanny.
Thompson will write the musical’s book and lyrics with singer-songwriter Gary Clark, but is not expected to reprise the role of Nanny McPhee. The production has already had a workshop, with a second planned for later in 2018. No official premiere date for “Nanny McPhee” has been announced yet, but we’ll most likely have to wait at least a year for its West End debut.
This is not Thompson’s first foray into theater: she’s acted in “Short Vehicle,” “Me and My Girl,” “King Lear,” and “Sweeney Todd.” She penned “Short Vehicle” as well.
You can catch Thompson next in “The Children Act,” in UK theaters August 24. She plays a family court judge who must make a difficult ruling on a teenage Jehovah’s Witness refusing life-saving treatment. Among Thompson’s upcoming projects is “Late Night,” in which she’ll portray a longtime late-night host who hires her first female writer (Mindy Kaling). Kaling wrote the comedy and Nisha Ganatra (“Chutney Popcorn”) is directing.
A two-time Academy Award winner, Thompson took home statuettes for acting in “Howards End” and writing “Sense and Sensibility.” Her other screenwriting credits include “Nanny McPhee Returns,” “Effie Gray,” and “Bridget Jones’s Baby.” She appeared in all three projects. Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” are among Thompson’s more recent acting credits.
