Everybody rise! Patti LuPone is reportedly joining the cast of the WandaVision spin-off, Agatha: Coven of Chaos. So, does that mean we’re finally going to get a musical episode? That’ll be A Marvel Cinematic Universe first!
Hear me out. In addition to LuPone, the series stars Kathryn Hahn, Ali Ahn, and Maria Dizzia, all of whom have Broadway experience; and we already know that Emma Caulfield Ford – reprising her role of Dottie – can sing from Buffy’s “One More With Feeling” episode. All that’s left is Joe Locke and Aubrey Plaza who have never shown off their singing abilities, but they look like two people who can hold a note. What am I kidding? Even if they can’t, I still want this to happen.
(Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen are unconfirmed to reprise their roles in the series, but if they do, they’re also Broadway faces. It’s a small world!)
All the signs are there, especially given Broadway vets Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez’s involvement in the first series, penning the opening credit sequences and Hahn’s Emmy-nominated “Agatha All Along” single. Prior to that, the two collaborated to make the musical for Frozen, and Robert has credits for Broadway’s Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon, and Scrubs’ musical episode “My Musical”.
But fine, let’s digress to report on the real news. Per Deadline, LuPone is joining the series in a role that is being kept under wraps. The outlet speculates that she could be portraying a witch.
The Tony and Grammy winner has accumulated many screen roles, in addition to starring in some of Broadway’s most popular musicals, like Evita, Gypsy, and Company. She held roles in the 1989 classic drama Driving Miss Daisy, the television series Life Goes On, and more recently, Netflix’s The School For Good and Evil and Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, Pose, and Hollywood.
This casting news follows her break from Broadway which she announced via Twitter (her account has since been deleted) in a statement that said she was giving up her Equity Card and was “no longer part of that circus.”
She clarified her remarks in an interview with Variety, saying, “Broadway has also changed considerably. I think we’ve spent — not we, but whoever’s in charge of, whatever — has actively dumbed down the audience. And so the attention span of the majority of the audience, I think, is much less than it was in the past, and I don’t think plays are going to have long lives on Broadway — I feel as though it’s turning into Disneyland, a circus and Las Vegas.”
Few details has been shared about the Agatha spin-off, which is set to premiere in Winter 2023 on Disney+ with WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer as the writer and executive producer. The early synopsis for the series reads, “Agatha Harkness is one of Earth’s most powerful witches, and lives for centuries, her aging slowed thanks to magical means. She becomes the governess to the First Family’s son Franklin Richards and tutor to Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch,” per Production List.
Now, circling back to the beginning of this article… a musical episode… cue the Paul Rudd “give me it” gif. If DC could pull it off with Supergirl and The Flash, I have hope for Marvel.
