Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel—who most recently had an Emmy-nominated guest-starring arc on Glee—is working with writer Bob Kushell (Samantha Who?) to develop an hourlong musical drama for ABC. Described as “in the vein of Gilmore Girls,” it revolves around a single mother-daughter relationship. It will also be semiautobiographical, as Menzel’s character is an actress/singer who works as a waitress and performs at weddings and bar mitzvahs to make ends meet while pursuing her dream of becoming a Broadway star—things that Broadway veteran Menzel did in real life before originating the roles of Maureen in Rent (where she met her husband, Taye Diggs), and Elphaba in Wicked (for which she won her Tony). It also all but ensures that each episode will feature a musical number, much like certain other in-the-works shows hoping to become the next Glee—including another ABC musical series reported in the same article, an as-yet-untitled “half-hour female-driven musical comedy” from Broadway vet Robert Horn.
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