Start Practicing Your Moves, Because Ryan Murphy Is Creating 'A Chorus Line' Miniseries

In the quest to come out on top in the streaming wars, the key is nailing down TV producers who are known for producing hits. Netflix, in particular, has been prepping for the oncoming fight with Disney+, AppleTV+, and others, by tying down as many as they can. From Shonda Rhimes to David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the flood of original programming starting next year will be top-notch. But their biggest get is Ryan Murphy, who has The Politician is coming out Sept. 27. But that's only the beginning, as Ryan Murphy is creating A Chorus Line miniseries, along with a slew of other projects for Netflix in the next few years.

Murphy may have started out working on projects like Nip/Tuck in the mid-aughts, but his love of musicals was what made him a household name. Whether or not you loved Glee, for the seasons it lasted on FOX, everyone knew about it. Glee's success was what allowed Murphy to follow up with American Horror Story, Scream Queens, American Crime Story, and Feud.

But Murphy's passion projects always involve music and singing. Pose, for instance, may not be a musical, but both Billy Porter and Mj Rodriguez have delivered show-stopping numbers when required. Similarly, the upcoming The Politician is not a musical, either. But with Dear Evan Hansen's star Ben Platt as lead, and the cast featuring his Broadway co-stars, someone will probably burst into song at some point.

So it's not a shock to learn that as part of his ambitious slate at Netflix, Murphy is planning on doing a full-on musical. There was already word that Murphy was planning on doing a feature film of The Prom. The Drama Desk Award-winning musical from 2016 is about Emma and the fight to take her girlfriend to the end of the year dance. Deadline reported Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman have already both signed on for it, too.

But apparently, that's not enough musicals for Murphy. He's also taking one of the more unlikely hits from Broadway in the late 1970s, A Chorus Line, and giving it the prestige TV treatment, reimagined as a 10-episode series.

A Chorus Line might seem like a strange choice for Murphy to tackle at first glance. It's a show about the business of casting musicals. But it's not even actually about casting the musical itself. It's a musical about the faceless people behind the stars, the extras, the nobodies. These are not the people who are competing to stand out in the show, attempting to land solos or break out performances. It's about those who fight tooth and nail to be in the back, performing in unison with dozens of others. They are The Chorus Line.

It will be interesting to see how Murphy updates the show to fit within his more inclusive 21st-century sensibilities. (As these clips from the 1985 movie show, there's not a lot of diversity.) But the episodic nature of the musical could work nicely as a series. It's this sort of innovative programming the Netflix hired Murphy to come up with. Fans can't wait to see him deliver.