ABC has landed a new sitcom starring Kristen Chenoweth called ‘The Real Fairy Godmother’, to be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (‘Chicago’, ‘Hairspray’). The pilot will be written by Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner and Cathy Yuspa (‘The King of Queens’, ‘Til Death’) and Josh Goldsmith (‘Last Man Standing’, also ‘Til Death’) will serve as showrunners.
The show will be a single-camera sitcom in which Chenoweth will portray a selfish, wealthy housewife who learns that she is descended from a line of fairy godmothers and must now use her magical powers to help those less-fortunate. In doing so, she learns just how shallow her life has been and begins to change, much to the confusion of her equally shallow, self-absorbed friends and family, who she attempts to also make better people. (The title, ‘The Real Fairy Godmother’ appears to be a parody of Bravo TV’s ‘The Real Housewives’ franchise.)
ABC is owned by Disney and currently airs ‘Once Upon A Time’ but it wasn’t specified if THE Fairy Godmother, from ‘Cinderella’, would be a factor on the show.
Chenoweth has previously worked with Zadan and Meron on the 1999 television remake of ‘Annie’, the 2010 Broadway revival of ‘Promises, Promises’ and on 2016’s NBC production of ‘Hairspray Live!’
Zadan and Meron are also prepping for two more televised musicals, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar Live!’ and ‘Bye Bye Birdie Live!’
The show is not described as a musical, but with this pedigree, there surely have to be musical moments at some point. Chenoweth previously starred in the fantasy series ‘Pushing Daisies’ which was also not a musical, but she did manage to belt out a few tunes on it. Considering the show is based around magic, anything is possible, even breaking out into song.
Chenoweth was most recently seen on ‘American Gods’ on STARZ and recently completed a dramatic TV movie ‘Perfect Citizen’ and has been doing a lot of voice work lately. She can currently be heard in cinemas as Princess Skystar in ‘My Little Pony: The Movie’ and on the Netflix series ‘BoJack Horseman’ as Vanessa Gecko and Miss Teach-Bot.
So far, ABC has only ordered the pilot, but should they pick it up to series, depending on how quickly things move, it could show up as early as mid-season. If not, it will most likely arrive next fall.
Source: Deadline
