‘Death Becomes Her' team on exceeding the film fans' expectations and impressing original director Robert Zemeckis
'They'd be silly not to be skeptical, but luckily this movie just happens to have one of the best fan bases,' says Noel Carey, one-half of the Tony-nominated composing team responsible for bringing the cult-classic 1992 film Death Becomes Her to Broadway. Although screen-to-stage adaptations are always dicey propositions, he shares that diehard fans have embraced the musical: 'They are really excited about the changes and the nods to the film and instead of getting the movie twice, they're just getting another Death Becomes Her.' Carey and other creatives from the production sat down with Gold Derby and other journalists at the 2025 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees press event.
Fellow lyricist and composer Julia Mattison believes the reason why this theatrical treatment of the material has been so well received is because she and Carey feel just as passionately about the original movie as decades-long fans do. She explains, 'We love it so much. You have to be a fan of the source material to wake up every day and want to spend all your time and years of your life pouring into it, and so it's made with so much love.'
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Best known for his television work, librettist Marco Pennette knew he wanted his first Broadway musical to be 'a hard comedy.' His approach to the adaptation was not 'to put this movie up on stage.' Instead, he describes, 'I tried really hard to expand characters or invent some characters in this case. … I thought the movie was wonderful, and nothing against the movie at all, but I did think I could push it in new ways.'
As Carey and Mattison describe, Pennette has heard nothing but compliments from fans of the film. 'I've fallen in love with Facebook because I get so many friends from high school and then just some fans who just send me a note who I don't know. … Everything has been so glowing. The public is so embracive.'
SEE 'Death Becomes Her' writer Marco Pennette realized his Broadway dreams with the help of Hal Prince
Creative producer Lowe Cunningham encouraged this approach to the adaptation. 'I think that we did what we set out to do, which is not to take a movie and put songs in it and stick it on stage, but actually evolve it into a new piece that is supposed to exist on stage in the theater but offer you those little Easter Eggs,' she says of the book and score. The most validating feedback she has received about the show so far came from two very important people: 'David Koepp, who wrote the movie, and Robert Zemeckis, who directed the movie, both came and were thrilled. They were the people I was most nervous, because we changed a lot, so I wanted them to feel like we really paid homage to it.'
Death Becomes Her is the most Tony nominated production of the year with 10 nominations, tied with Buena Vista Social Club and Maybe Happy Ending. In Gold Derby's latest odds, the show ranks third in the top race for Best Musical, trailing Maybe Happy Ending and Dead Outlaw, which received fewer nominations overall but has bids in all the pivotal categories. Our users currently predict a victory for the show in Costume Design for Paul Tazewell, a past Tony champion for Hamilton who also just took home the Oscar for Wicked and is the first Black man to win that Costume Design prize. It appears very competitive in Scenic Design as well. It ranks fourth in the contests for Directing, Original Score for Mattison and Carey, Book for Pennette, Choreography, Lighting, and actress Jennifer Simard, and fifth for actress Megan Hilty.
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