Before you ask, Guillermo Del Toro is fully behind the idea of turning his beloved fairy tale into a musical. In fact, it is apparently his idea. At least he’s got some talent behind it, though; this might actually be really good, unlike way too many other musicals made out of geeky properties.
The talent in question is Paul Williams, who you probably know best as the writer of “The Rainbow Connection” and “Flying Dreams” from The Secret of NIMH, or maybe as the Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series but who actually had a huge career in the ’70s writing gentle, sometimes sugary pop songs.
If you’re wondering what Del Toro is thinking bringing in a Muppet guy to his freaky-ass Spanish Civil War story, it’s worth finding and watching The Phantom of The Paradise. Unlike a lot of Williams’ commercial output, it’s both much more musically varied and, more importantly, really, really dark in places, being a story about disfigurement and the sheer evil of the music industry and all. More recently, Williams has been writing for the stage, so as a practical choice he’s pretty solid as well.
So, at the very least, the songs will be worth listening to. Just avoid Julie Taymor at all costs, Guillermo, and we should be all set.