Transparent will round out its fifth and final season with a musical episode, according to an interview the show’s creator gave to The New York Times.
The two-hour-long musical finale will be shot later this year, and air on Amazon next Spring.
The show’s creator, Jill Soloway, told The New York Times:
“It will hopefully feel like ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ mixed with ‘La La Land’ mixed with ‘Flight of the Conchords’ with something more Jewish thrown in. A little ‘Yentl.’”
I’m not sure anything can compare to the greatness that is Flight of the Conchords, but good on Soloway and co for giving it a go.
Soloway explained their motivations for the episode to The New York Times:
This idea of music rescuing our family was all there. So we’re like, Let’s just keep blowing on the flame. The Pfeffermans will live on, and that’s what kept us going and then Jen Salke (head of studios at Amazon) sat down with me and told me, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ So we just kept singing.”
The final season of the show will not star Jeffrey Tambor. He was fired from the show earlier this year following sexual harassment claims against him.
Soloway is working with their sister, Faith, and actress and performer Shakina Nayfack on the episode.
It sounds like the special will be a departure from the show’s usual fare, and that sounds deliberate – carrying on after the firing of your main actor with more of the same doesn’t seem at all like Soloway’s style. As for whether the actors can actually sing, we’ll just have to wait and see (we know that Judith Light can, because Judith Light can do anything).
