"Downton Abbey" Team Working on a Stage Musical Adaptation

"Downton Abbey," the hit PBS television show chronicling the life of the wealthy British Crawley family through the social and economic upheaval before, during and following World War I, is being adapted as a stage musical that would go on a global theatrical tour, according to The Independent of London.





The show is currently in its sixth and final season, and is scheduled to conclude this December with its Christmas show.

Series composer John Lunn is collaborating with the show's creator, Academy Award winner Julian Fellowes ("Gosford Park"), to bring the story to the stage.

“There’s talk of Julian Fellowes and I and some of the cast doing a live tour the way Dr. Who did; 70 percent of it will be music from the show,” Lunn was quoted as saying.

“There might be some Elgar, there might be some jazz of the periods. Some of the actors will likely recite. We’ll have a screen. We may have the music live to several scenes. Julian may be the host. I’d say it’s a 75 per cent chance it will happen.”

The ITV show has been the highest-rating British period drama of the past decade, according to the report, and is being screened in more than 100 countries worldwide. No word on whether the tour would be cast with actors from the TV show. The show stars Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern and Laura Carmichael.

Maggie Smith, who stars as Dowager Countess of Grantham, recently told the London Times that she would depart the Emmy Award-winning period drama following its sixth season.

Smith said to the London Times, "They say this is the last [season], and I can't see how it could go on…I mean, I certainly can't keep going. To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We're into the late 1920s." A spokesperson for Milk Publicity, however, told The Associated Press that Smith previously agreed to stay with the series "for as long as the show runs."

Read Playbill.com's interview with "Downton" star Lesley Nicol about playing Mrs. Patmore.

The cast has included Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Brown Findlay, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Kevin Doyle, Siobhan Finneran, Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Christine Lohr, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Lesley Nicol, Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens and Penelope Wilton.

"Downton Abbey" is a Carnival/Masterpiece co-production. Carnival is a division of NBCUniversal. The executive producers are Gareth Neame, Julian Fellowes and Liz Trubridge.