Doug Wright & Amanda Green Adapting Hands on a Hard Body for the Stage

Doug Wright, the award-winning scribe behind the acclaimed I Am My Own Wife, Grey Gardens and The Little Mermaid, has paired with lyricist Amanda Green to adapt the 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body for the stage, according to Variety. The piece was commissioned by California’s La Jolla Playhouse, where the new musical will make its debut. Dates and additional details about the tuner have not been announced.

The film Hands on a Hard Body chronicled an annual endurance contest in Longview, Texas, in which 24 contestants competed for a new pickup truck. The truck went to whomever stood the longest with one hand on the truck—sitting or removing the hand from the truck disqualified contestants. The contest lasted 77 hours before a winner was declared the year the documentary was made.

Wright’s Broadway credits include the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play I Am My Own Wife, the book for the musical Grey Gardens and the recent The Little Mermaid. His other works include Quills, Dinosaurs, The Stonewater Rapture, Interrogating the Nude and Buzzsaw Berkeley. His most recent work, an adaptation of August Strindberg’s Creditors, will premiere at La Jolla Playhouse later this season.

Green is the lyricist of Broadway’s High Fidelity. She has also written lyrics for for the musical Debbie Does Dallas, as well as additional lyrics for a revival of Hallelujah Baby! She appeared in and wrote the lyrics for the New York Fringe Festival hit For the Love of Tiffany: A Wifetime Original Musical. Working with composer Tom Kitt, she has written special material for several Broadway stars, including Kristin Chenoweth and Christine Ebersole, for the film Showstopper.