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The enduring and malleable world of Archie Comics is headed or another medium with a Broadway musical now in development with Adam McKay and his Funny or Die production shingle. McKay (Anchorman, Talledega Nights) will write the book; a team for the music has not been announced.

On the Archie side, the show is in good hands: CCO Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has a long history as a playwright and he was once brought in fix Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. President Jon Goldwater will also assist with the development of a show that will be “bright, colorful and slightly demented” according to McKay.

Rivderdale’s primary-colors world would seem to be ideal for Broadway treatment with the comics normal locales of malt shop, high school halls and other teen-aged pursuits fairly crying out for musical set pieces. And if you are old or a historian, you’ll recall that in the 70s a musical group called “The Archies” had many pop hits, including “Sugar, Sugar.”

Of course it takes a looooong time to bring anything to to the Broadway stage, so expect this to be in the works for a few years.

In addition to recently launching a “verismo” version of the Archie publishing line with creators such as Mark Waid, Fiona Staples and Chip Zdarsky, Archie has been consistently reinventing itself since Goldwater became publisher several years ago. Several live action properties are under in the works, including a live action TV show now at the CW, with a script by Aguirre-Sacasa.

(Art by Harry Lucey)