The pair will join the producer of La La Land on an original musical sending up the US phenomenon of corporate shows used to motivate workforces

After appearing together in spoof Lifetime movie A Deadly Adoption, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig are to reunite on another takedown of the tacky side of American culture: this time taking aim at “industrial musicals”, the corporate-funded shows designed to boost sales or motivate workforces that were popular from the 1950s to the 1980s.



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According to Deadline, Ferrell and Wiig are attached to star in an original musical inspired by Steve Young’s book Everything Is Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals. The score will be written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, best known for the stage adaptation of John Waters’s Hairspray and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical.

Young’s book details how major American corporations, including Exxon, Coca-Cola and Ford, would routinely put together lavish entertainments, often hiring well-known writers and performers, as presentations for staff and customers. No director has yet been named, but La La Land producer Marc Platt is behind the project, with playwright Steven Levenson writing the script.