T Bone Burnett Replaces Alan Menken & Glenn Slater on Broadway-Bound Roy Rogers Musical Happy Trails

This is some switcheroo. T Bone Burnett will replace the previously announced songwriting team of Alan Menken (Aladdin) and Glenn Slater (School of Rock) on the creative team of Happy Trails. The long-in-the works musical, based on the life and career of Roy Rogers and his wife Dale Evans, had at one point aimed to land on Broadway in 2014, which then got pushed back to 2016. The latest timeline has not been set.

Tony winner Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys) and Oscar winner Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall) remain on board the project.

Burnett is an Academy Award winner, a Golden Globe winner and 13-time Grammy Award winner. He’s worked and collaborated with musicians across many genres including Elton John, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, B.B. King, Tony Bennett, k.d. lang, Elvis Costello, The Civil Wars, Taylor Swift, Ryan Bingham, Steve Earle and Leon Russell. Burnett’s first major foray into film was his collaboration with the Coen Brothers on The Big Lebowski, and has since held multiple titles for numerous films including The Hunger Games, Cold Mountain, The Hunger Games, and produced the songs for and scored Walk The Line, The Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Crazy Heart, which he also produced. He also has multiple credits in television including as the Executive Music Producer and Composer for the HBO series True Detective, and he was Executive Music Producer and Composer for the first season of the ABC television series, Nashville.

Rogers—born Leonard Franklin Slye—grew up in an impoverished Ohio community before gaining a reputation as a yodeler and guitar player. It wasn’t before long that he rightfully earned the title “King of the Cowboys,” starring in 88 films between 1945 and 1975, and the popular The Roy Rodgers Show. Equally famous were his wife, “Queen of the West” Dale Evans and his golden palomino, Trigger—the only horse in Hollywood to be billed above the title. Rogers and Evans wed in 1947—three years after meeting on the set of The Cowboy and the Señorita. The two would go on to co-star in 28 films together.