If you’ve barely known peace since you first saw a glimpse of ‘Rogers: The Musical’ in the Hawkeye trailer, desperate to figure out the rest of that narrative arc and busy writing your own fantasy lyrics, you’re not alone. Broadway giants Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman – who scored a megahit with the Hairspray musical and penned the bit of ‘Rogers’ we saw in that Disney+ show – have also been thinking about how they’d approach an entire all-singing all-dancing Marvel stage show. “To write a musical in the style of the MCU, that takes it seriously, but also doesn’t take itself too seriously?” says Shaiman. “We would love to do it. If they were to ask, we are available!”
The number that we saw in Hawkeye, ‘Save The City’, comes at the end of Act 1 in their heads, the ‘Defying Gravity’ equivalent of this musical. But if there were a full MCU show, where else would they go? According to Wittman, they’d start much as the Cap movies do, with his pre-serum life. “It takes place in the ‘40s at the beginning, so it’s very romantic in a way.” That means we could have the whole Cap and Peggy love story, and a heartbroken ballad over the loss of Bucky before his return as the Winter Soldier (presumably).
If Shaiman had his way, however, he’d go off-book from film canon. “I would hope to visit Asgard; we’d have a Ragnarok section,” he laughs. In fact, this whole endeavour was a chance for Shaiman to flex the MCU knowledge he’s gained from dutifully accompanying his mega-Marvel-fan husband to all the movies. “I knew all these plotlines, and words like ‘Tesseract’ and ‘Chituari’ and ‘shawarma’. Scott and I grew up on My Fair Lady and Gypsy. Whoever knew that we would be writing a musical number with words like ‘Tesseract’? But we were doing it, and it was just thrilling.”
We can’t wait for the MCU musical – or interconnected musical universe. After all, if Harry Potter can spawn a two-part play, what’s to stop Marvel from having a whole, complex series of musical extravaganzas with incredibly cringey dancing? They just need to come up with a few rhymes for ‘gauntlet’ and they’re all set. Oh, and if you wanted more from ‘Rogers: The Musical’, watch closely in the Hawkeye finale for a special Christmas present from Kevin Feige and co. Now, make our day and call Wittman and Shaiman for a full show!
For more from Wittman and Shaiman, pick up the new issue of Empire, on sale on December 23 from all good newsagents – or pre-order your copy online here.