Tootsie: From the Screen to Stage

Q&A with Tootsie’s Tony Award®-Winning Book Writer Robert Horn

Tootsie is a laugh-out-loud love letter to the theater that tells the story of Michael Dorsey, a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until one show-stopping act lands him the role of a lifetime. Robert Horne, the creative force behind the new production that is coming to Walton Arts Center this winter, talks about making the popular movie into a Broadway show. composer, David Yazbek, and we talked out all the ways we could make it our own, update it, and use humor to tell the story in a theatrical and modern way.

Tootsie is such an iconic film. What was your process of adapting this for the stage, and what were the greatest challenges you faced?

How did the idea to adapt Tootsie for theater come about, and what excited you about this idea?

Everything about theater excites me… and also gives me heartburn. The idea came from our prolific and wonderful producer, Scott Sanders, who had the rights to the movie. He had seen a workshop I had done for another musical, and when the legendary Larry Gelbart, who wrote the film and was adapting the musical, passed away, Scott went on a desperate search to find someone to fill Larry’s comedic shoes. Somehow his GPS pointed towards me, and I am forever grateful.

When he approached me about it, I got very nervous. I mean, it’s an iconic movie and comic masterpiece, but it also has content and plot points that I knew did not age well. I was terrified to take it on at first and passed on the offer. But then I sat down with the

I knew from the beginning I didn’t want to just adapt the movie for the stage. The movie had been done already, and incredibly well. And I have my own point of view about whatever story I’m telling. This assignment was about creating rather than recreating. For David and “It was important [to] me, it was about starting over and making a new reflect the impact musical with the bones that were already there.

and progress women have made in society What are biggest differences between the film and the and art since the Broadway musical, and would original film.” you like to explain why you made some of these choices?

A shift that needed to happen was the point of view of the female characters in the story. It was important they reflect the impact and progress women have made in society and art since the original film. There is both a strength and vulnerability to the women portrayed in the musical that I think, sadly, might not have resonated back in the early ‘80s… but again, as we progress culturally, so must our art.