How in the heck does Ryan Murphy keep on top of all his television projects?
The full rundown of new shows for Netflix and other networks – including an Andy Warhol docu-series, a Marlene Dietrich biopic, and ‘A Chorus Line’ mini-series. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
Goodness he’s come a long way from Glee. And God knows how television producer Ryan Murphy finds the time to manage all his projects. God… or the Devil, given the diabolic nature of much of his shows.
As if Murphy isn’t busy enough promo-ing American Horror Story Season 9: 1984 (which premieres September 18), his new show The Politician (premiering September 27), 9-1-1 (a series about first respondents starring Rob Lowe), and putting to bed Season 2 of drag-tastic drama Pose, he’s recently signed a massive $300-million deal with Netflix to churn out a batch of brand-spanking new shows while also maintaining some of his connections with other networks so as to deliver continuous awesome stuff.
‘The Politician’ is a political satire starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Platt – who possess similarities akin to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
First up is a 10-episode adaptation of the classic musical A Chorus Line (for Netflix) with no details yet as to whether the series will veer far from the original screenplay and songbook. The original A Chorus Line, of course, looked at the high-energy and heartbreaking processes of auditioning for hard-to-crack Broadway.
Also on the musical front will be a TV adaptation of The Boys In The Band for which Murphy recently won a Tony Award in directing its most recent Broadway production.
To continue on the theatre connection, another stage-to-screen adaption titled The Prom is in the works. This will be a musical following four Broadway actors who lament their days of fame as they travel to a conservative town to help a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to the prom (yes, it all sounds rather bizarre but it does star Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, so leave it to Murphy to add gravitas to even the most domestic of scenarios).
Furthering his LGBT agenda, or at least the ‘L’ bit, there’ll be a Murphy documentary about a closeted lesbian couple who came out in their golden years, dubbed ‘A Secret Love’.
Murphy is also working on a series about fashion designer Halston (starring Ewan McGregor in the lead), a Marlene Dietrich biopic set in Vegas in the ’60s and starring regular collaborator Jessica Lange, and a documentary series about Andy Warhol that promises to be “big” and “flashy” and which will explore the “real person who made all this stuff that changed all our lives”.
Ewan McGregor will star as fashion designer to the stars, Roy Halston.
With fame and fortune never too far away from Murphy’s sights, another series titled Hollywood, starring Patti LuPone, will look at “Hollywood and the sex industry; how absolutely everything has changed and nothing has changed,” as Murphy recently told Time magazine in this month’s cover story.
Continuing on a historic tip, the prolific television creator is also in the midst of production on a prequel for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest titled Ratched. The series will star Murphy veteran Sarah Paulson as a younger version of the nasty nurse herself.
Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched in the original ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’; Sarah Paulson will fill her court shoes.
There is a new American Crime Story in the works, too, which will explore the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, scheduled to premiere in 2020. The American Crime Story series has so far covered the OJ Simpson case, and the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
If that’s not enough credits to agree with Time magazine who this month have called Ryan Murphy “The New King of Television”, I’m not sure what it would take.
Antonino Tati
THE FULL RUNDOWN OF RYAN MURPHY’S LATEST PRODUCTIONS:
American Horror Story (Season 9: 1984)
The Politician
9-1-1: Lone Star
Pose (Season 2)
A Chorus Line
The Boys In The Band
The Prom
Hollywood
Warhol (docu-series; not the final title)
Halston (biopic; not the final title)
Dietrich (biopic; not the final title)
A Secret Love
Ratched
American Crime Story (Season 3)
CREAM MAGAZINE 
Feel free to leave a comment!