Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

‘Magic Mike’ Aims To Be A Broadway Musical, Produced By Channing Tatum

“Magic Mike” is getting down off the pole and heading over to the great white way.

The story of a man trying to leave stripping for a quiet life of carpentry and monogamy, which earned whoops and hollers at the box office in 2012, has been stripped down to a stage musical. The show will premiere in Boston this Fall, with an eye on a Broadway run with Channing Tatum, the likable and bankable star of the original film heading up the team of producers.

Between “Mean Girls,” “Pretty Woman” and “Clueless,” the trend of big budget nostalgia-driven film-to-stage musicals is clearly in full swing, though none of those musicals have reached major success from critics or sales. But with “Mike” getting ready to let it all hang out, don’t be surprised to see ratings for the 2020 Tony Awards skyrocket. “Magic Mike” has the distinction of having dance implicit in its story, and, ironically, of having a script that’s not so iconic that hearing the lines recited will feel forced.

Besides the uber-talented Tatum (a former stripper himself, and the inspiration for the “Magic Mike” movie), the musical’s team of creators is dynamic: the Pulitzer prize-winning nice Jewish boy Tom Kitt and nice non-Jewish boy Brian Yorkey wrote the score, and Broadway hotshot Trip Cullman will direct.

There’s just one thing that could sink the X-rated new musical’s chance to wet theater audiences’ whistles: there are zero women on the team. And unless your team is made up of male strippers, collaborative creative projects that don’t bother to recruit representatives from fifty-percent of the population seldom succeed.

Take it from Channing himself, who showed us in his most Jewish-ever dance sequence (it’s from the Coen Brothers movie “Hail, Cesar!”) how wrong things can go when you have “No Dames”:

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.