Bunheads Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino on Writing a ‘Delicious’ New Broadway Musical

Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is bringing her quick-witted banter back to the small screen in ABC Family's Bunheads, starring two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster. The summer series, which tells the story of a struggling dancer who moves to a sleepy California beach town to teach at her mother-in-law’s dance studio, is chockful of Broadway vet cast members (including Tony winner Kelly Bishop and Ellen Greene) and Rialto-style dance numbers. In a recent interview with Deadline.com, Sherman-Palladino, who took dance lessons as a child, admits her Broadway fandom and reveals a plan to write a new musical of her own.

Sherman-Palladino revealed that she had originally written Bunheads as a play, “based on my ballet school growing up, about four little girls and the mothers of the four little girls outside the glass window,” she said. “My whole background is dancing. My whole interest is Broadway and musicals.” When ABC Family was looking for a TV show similar to Glee, she spoke up. “I don’t really want to do Glee because there is a Glee. And I didn’t really want to do a show where I have to do a musical number every week, because I like to do shows about people.” Sherman-Palladino adapted her play into a TV series about four young ballerinas and their unlikely teacher—a former Vegas showgirl who happens to be trained in ballet.

Although the ballerinas at Paradise Dance Academy don’t break into song as much as the glee club members at McKinley High, the first season of Bunheads has featured Sutton Foster belting out “My Baby and Me” from Chicago and deftly dancing to “Ain’t She Sweet.” The series’ newest episode even contained a wacky modern dance routine to “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by They Might Be Giants.

After opening her own TV dance studio on Bunheads, Sherman-Palladino is ready to take her Broadway fandom to the next level. “I would love to do a musical on Broadway,” she said. “Yeah, it's something I'm talking to someone about. I’m vying for a gig, I’m out there trying to push myself on somebody, it’s in the works. I think that would be delicious.” So do we!