“Weird Al” Yankovic Musical Dare to Be Stupid Is in the Works for Broadway

A Broadway jukebox musical centered on “Weird Al” Yankovic is officially in development, Deadline reports. The show, titled Dare to Be Stupid, will build its soundtrack from Yankovic’s long run of parody staples, pulling from songs that helped make his name synonymous with comic rewrites and pop detours. Among the numbers said to be included are “White & Nerdy,” his version of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’,” “Amish Paradise,” based on Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” and “Smells Like Nirvana.”

Yankovic framed the project in typically deadpan fashion in a statement to Deadline: “Ever since I was a middle-aged man, I’ve always wanted to be a part of the New York theatre community,” he said. “Plus, the one thing people always say about Broadway is that it’s ‘severely lacking in Weird Al-based entertainment,’ and I think this musical should fix that problem immediately.” It is the sort of quote that doubles as self-mythology and punchline, which has long been part of his public appeal.

The production is being directed by Alex Timbers, whose Broadway résumé includes All In, the show built around the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs, and Here Lies Love, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s disco-inflected musical. Yankovic’s most recent screen project was the 2022 biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, with Daniel Radcliffe playing the title role. And while Broadway is now getting its version of the Yankovic machine, he is hardly slowing down elsewhere: he has 90 shows booked across North America between now and mid-October.

The Broadway project arrives as another reminder that Yankovic’s catalog has already outlived several pop cycles and still reads as a kind of alternate history of mainstream music. The songs named for Dare to Be Stupid are not deep cuts but some of the most recognizable artifacts in his career, the ones that turned parody into a durable format rather than a novelty act.

Revisit Madison Bloom’s review of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, The “Weird Al” Movie Is a Goofball’s Paradise.