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With the Viscount announcing his marital intentions this season will the Ton see its most notorious rake turn a new leaf? pic.twitter.com/luvIyCHLxD
— Bridgerton (@bridgerton) March 12, 2022
With Miss Eloise's debut this social season, the Ton should properly prepare for a Lady unlike any before her. pic.twitter.com/sPUse2uI0K
— Bridgerton (@bridgerton) March 16, 2022
With Julie Andrews announced to play Lady Whistledown, lets recap where the series stands as we get closer to the 2020 premiere!
Earlier this year, Shondaland announced its slate of upcoming Netflix projects, among them a series based on the now famed New York scammer Anna Delveyand a documentary featuring Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s award-winning interpretation of “The Nutcracker.” Also included in the spate of new Shondaland projects: a yet-to-be-titled series that we’ve hitherto been calling “Bridgerton,” as its based on the Bridgerton book series by New York Times-bestselling romance novelist Julia Quinn.
In case you’re not familiar: This historical romance series follows the eight children — Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth — of the late Viscount Bridgerton in Regency (early 1800s) England. (Here’s a helpful family tree.) What originally started as a trilogy grew to eight novels, plus two novellas and a collection. Each follows one of the children — thanks to the books’ popularity — and it’s no wonder readers hungered for more. The series is a fascinating, fictionalized look at London high society, a world filled with power, sex, romance, and betrayal. All of this, of course, is grounded in a 21st century gender equality mindset, because, as Quinn says, “portraying a healthy relationship in literature is the most revolutionary thing you can do.”
When it comes to translating these relationships to the Shondaland/Netflix audience, creator/Executive Producer Chris Van Dusen will helm that responsibility, and as we get closer and closer to the 2020 series release, he’s beginning to round out the cast that will bring the Bridgerton family to life — and he came out of the gate swinging with his first big announcement: None other than Dame Julie Andrews will lend her voice to the character of Lady Whistledown.
EXCLUSIVE: Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music star Julie Andrews is the first actor officially cast in Shondaland’s Untitled Bridgerton Project, an hourlong period series for Netflix based on Julia Quinn’s bestselling series of novels. Andrews will voice the pivotal character of Lady Whistledown in eight-episode series, slated to premiere in 2020.
Created by Scandal veteran Chris Van Dusen, the untitled Bridgerton drama is set in the sexy, lavish and competitive world of Regency London high society. From the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair to the aristocratic palaces of Park Lane and beyond, the series unveils a seductive, sumptuous world replete with intricate rules and dramatic power struggles, where no one is truly ever on steady ground. At the heart of the show is the powerful Bridgerton family. Comprised of eight close-knit siblings, this funny, witty, daring and clever group must navigate the upper ten thousand’s marriage mart in search of romance, adventure and love.
Andrews will lend her voice to Lady Whistledown. Anonymous to readers, this mysterious, sharp-tongued gossip writer uses a curious mix of social commentary and scathing insult to send the season of 1813’s ton into an all-out frenzy.
Van Dusen executive produces with Shondaland’s Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. The Untitled Bridgerton Project is one of eight series ordered by Netflix last year as part of Rhimes’ mega-deal with the internet network.
Set between 1813 and 1827, the Bridgerton Series is a collection of eight novels, each featuring one of the eight children of the late Viscount Bridgerton: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth. Lady Whistledown’s gossip columns “narrate” the first four books. Additionally, the character headlined two novellas that are part of the franchise, The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown and Lady Whistledown Strikes Back.
The casting expands Andrews’ relationship with Netflix. She co-created with her daughter Julie’s Greenroom, which recently launched on the global streaming platform.
Andrews made her feature debut in 1964’s Mary Poppins, winning an Oscar for her performance as the titular magical nanny. The following year, she earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Maria Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music.She received her third Academy Award nomination for her dual role in Victor/Victoria. Most recently, Andrews was the voice of Kharaten in blockbuster Aquaman.
For many years, Julie Andrews dreamed of creating a show with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, which would impart an appreciation of the arts to children. This year she got her wish. The Jim Henson Co., famous for its Muppets, contacted Andrews and asked if she would be interested in partnering for a production with this very concept.
“My heart leapt,” Andrews told The Advocate. “I said yes! I have! And that would appeal very much, because both Emma and I are passionate advocates of the arts and try to speak for them whenever we can. So this was a no-brainer.”
Julie’s Greenroom, a new Netflix series, is the fruit of this collaboration. It premiered in March and is now introducing a new generation of young people to the magic of the theater as well as the behind-the-scenes of how it is staged. It’s the latest creative effort from the mother-and-daughter team, who together have written over 30 children’s books and produced several plays at a regional theater cofounded by Walton.
Andrews and Hamilton love working together for many reasons. “If you have about three hours, I could go over her many virtues,” Walton said of her mother, with a laugh. “Because we’re mother and daughter, because we’ve worked together for so many years, we intuitively know what the other one is thinking [and] feeling. We’re able to finish each other’s sentences. But we do have very different and complementary strengths.”
In addition to teaching kids, one of the reasons Hamilton and Andrews created Julie’s Greenroomwas to advocate for the arts, particularly in an era when they are under attack. “They are the first thing to be cut in budgets and schools and of course at the administrative level,” Hamilton bemoaned. “So from our point of view, we really wanted to advocate for them, because we are so aware of how essential they are.”
The Trump administration infamously threatened to cut the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although the immediate threat to its funding may have passed, Andrews and Hamilton have a message for any political administration that is considering such cuts.
