Stephen Merchant’s British wrestling film FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY to be adapted into stage musical

Image credit: EMG

It has been announced that Tilted Musicals, in collaboration with Seven Bucks Productions (co-founded by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia), Stephen Merchant, Kevin Misher and Birmingham Hippodrome, are developing Stephen Merchant’s 2019 biopic film Fighting With My Family into a musical.

With a book and lyrics by Olivier award-winning playwright Jon Brittain, Fighting With My Family will feature a bold new soundtrack by Brit Award-winning songwriter Miranda Cooper (music and lyrics) and Ivor Novello-nominated Nick Coler (music).

Stephen Merchant said: “When we were making the film, I always thought of it like a musical: a young woman from the ‘chorus line’ fighting to get her big break, surrounded by theatrical, larger-than-life characters and huge sweeping emotions. I approached each wrestling match like it was a different dance number, building to a big show-stopping finale. Seeing the film reimagined for the stage feels like the natural next step. The team have captured the humour, grit and heart of the story in a way that feels both faithful to the film and completely fresh.”

Tilted Musicals co-founders Miranda Cooper and Sam Hodges said: “What we love most about this story is, at its heart, it’s about family – and all the wonderful, messy, contradictory dynamics that exist in every family. It follows in the footsteps of superb British indies like The Full Monty, Billy Elliot, and Everybody’s Talking about Jamie, all of which have made terrific stage musicals. But also, wrestling is pure theatre. It’s as much about storytelling as it is fighting, it’s funny as well as fierce, and more than anything else, it’s about the art of winning a crowd over – the first rule of performance. For all those reasons, it felt like a perfect start for the first of our Tilted Musicals projects to be announced.”

Fighting With My Family was directed and written by Stephen Merchant and premiered in January 2019 at the Sundance Film Festival before being released worldwide in February of the same year. The film follows the extraordinary true story of WWE superstar Paige, played by Florence Pugh. Vince Vaughn played the WWE trainer and Dwayne Johnson featured as himself as well as a producer on the film with Dany Garcia for Seven Bucks Productions.

This new high-energy musical inspired by the beloved film and the extraordinary true story will follow Saraya Knight (aka Paige), a goth outsider who is raised in a chaotic but loving British wrestling dynasty. When a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity takes her from Norwich to America’s glitzy WWE, she must confront who she really is without her family in her corner.

This will mark the first musical developed and produced by Tilted Musicals, a new production company run by Cooper and UK producer/director Sam Hodges. Tilted Musicals aim to bring together the music and theatre industries’ most exciting writing talent to create original, distinctive and entertaining stories with a fresh, modern sonic.

Closed workshops will take place this year before a public presentation in 2027, with further details to be announced in due course.

For more info on Fighting With My Family, please click here.