Theater News

Ken Davenport, Kurt Deutsch Option Musical Rights for Broadway Vacation

The beleaguered Griswold clan of the ”Vacation” film series may soon visit Broadway.

Kenji Fujishima
Broadway
Ken Davenport, along with Kurt Deutsch, has optioned the musical rights to develop a new musical, Broadway Vacation.
Ken Davenport, along with Kurt Deutsch, is aiming to bring the Griswold family to Broadway.
(© David Gordon)

Producers Ken Davenport and Kurt Deutsch have announced that they have optioned the musical rights to the characters from the Vacation film franchise by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures to develop a new musical, Broadway Vacation.

First appearing in National Lampoon's Vacation in 1983, the Griswold family — including Clark (Chevy Chase), Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), and their kids Rusty and Audrey — would subsequently appear in National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), and Vegas Vacation (1997). In 2015, New Line Cinema released Vacation, featuring Ed Helms as a grown-up Rusty Griswold.

"Both Kurt and I came of age on the Vacation films series and can’t wait to bring the Griswolds to Broadway," Davenport said in a statement. "If audiences thought their cinematic misadventures were funny, wait till Clark and his family get to Times Square."

Davenport is currently represented on Broadway by Once on This Island, The Play That Goes Wrong, and Kinky Boots. Deutsch is the founder of Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records.