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It’s fitting that the first thing you see upon entering the rehearsal studio where Romy and Michele: The Musical has set up camp is a table overflowing with the characters’ diet food of choice: gummy bears, jelly beans, and candy corn.
“I know Laura and Kara were really starting to get into their parts when they said we should have candy at rehearsals,” says Robin Schiff, who wrote the 1997 film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion as well as the book for the musical adaptation. The new show’s Romy and Michele—Laura Bell Bundy and Kara Lindsay, respectively—are in the middle of rehearsing the number “We’re Done,” a musical iteration of the climactic moment in the film when Romy tells off her bullies. Schiff and director Kristin Hanggi have locked in most of the show, but with opening night approaching fast, they’re still going over the details. On their minds at the moment: Should the characters say “fuck” more?
“Heather Mooney says ‘piss off’ now instead of ‘fuck off,’” Schiff tells me with mild annoyance. “I put the ‘fuck’ back in where Romy says, ‘We don’t give a flying fuck what you think’ at the end of ‘We’re Done,’ but do you think we should take the ‘fuck’ out? Should we put in more?”
Getting Romy and Michele: The Musical to New York took no fewer than 22 years of development, a handful of readings in Los Angeles, and a brief run in Seattle. Currently in performances at Stage 42, it stars Bundy and Lindsay as the titular blondes who scheme up a series of lies to appear more successful at their 10-year reunion. After performing only modestly at the box office, the film, starring Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow, found a cult fandom thanks to home video and cable reruns. (I distinctly remember watching it on Disney Channel with all of the profanity edited out.)
The musical is a full-circle moment for Schiff, who first conceived of Romy and Michele as bit parts in her 1988 play Ladies’ Room before the film made them pop-culture icons. Schiff herself is every bit as cool and charismatic as you’d expect the woman responsible for these characters to be: She loves horror movies, gossiping with friends, and getting stoned to write in her bed. She exclusively drinks Grey Goose on the rocks with olives over the course of our evening together, during which she drops several pieces of personal lore that made my jaw drop. (For one: Her second lover was the younger twin brother of her first lover.)
After Romy and Michele: The Musical opens this month, Schiff has the fifth season of Emily in Paris premiering in December. She’s been an executive producer on the series since its inception and is developing another series at Netflix with her longtime collaborator Darren Star. Then, of course, there’s the sequel to Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, which is officially moving forward at 20th Century Studios and set to film in Los Angeles sometime next year. It took Schiff three years to write the script—and she says the process “nearly killed” her—but Kudrow and Sorvino love it and are signed on, as is much of the film’s original cast.
“It took me two years to get their voices back,” Schiff says. “I was constantly in my head thinking I was going to fail, but I feel really confident now about how the film is shaping up.”
Ahead of the musical’s opening night on October 27, Schiff sat down to chat about the origins of Romy and Michele, adapting her screenplay for the stage, and what fans can expect from the sequel.
Vogue: How did the idea for the Romy and Michele characters originate?
Robin Schiff: When I was a performer for the Groundlings, I wrote a sketch where two women in a bathroom talk about trying to get respect in the workplace while changing into their “slutwear” for a night out. It’s always a good gag to change in front of an audience, and I thought it was a good enough idea to expand into a play. I wrote a one-act play called Ladies’ Room about three women at a pickup bar after work who are all interested in the same coworker. I didn’t wanna deal with set changes, so I made the play one long scene in the ladies’ room. I needed filler for those moments when the main characters went back out to the bar, so Romy and Michele were my filler.
How would you characterize those original versions of Romy and Michele?
They were just two gross dummies. They’d walk into the bathroom and have a conversation like:
“I went to the gyno today.” “Yuck, I hate going to the gyno.” “Me too.” “What did you say about the infection?” “Oh, it’s not an infection.” “What is it, like a disease?” “No, I left my diaphragm in.” “You’re kidding. For how long?” “Maybe a year? I thought you could leave it in.” “You’re thinking of an IUD.” “That’s what my gyno said.”
Then Romy leans over to one of the main characters that’s been listening in and asks, “Can I borrow your lipstick?” From the moment those two trotted onstage, they got entrance applause. NBC approached me pretty quickly about doing a pilot, which ended up being called Just Temporary. It was extremely broad and not very good but also had some funny jokes. Then about six years later, my agents sent out Ladies’ Room as a writing sample and two executives at Touchstone contacted me about writing a movie, which eventually became Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.
Was it your idea to turn it into a musical?
Hell no. Larry Mark, one of the producers on the original film, called me up about 22 years ago and said that two guys had written some songs for a Romy and Michele musical they hoped to make, and he asked if I wanted to listen to them. They were horrible. I told Larry that if I were to make a Romy and Michele musical, I’d want the music to sound like the Go-Go’s and for there to be changing booths onstage, and so on, until he said, “Let’s make it, then.”
Why did the musical have such a prolonged development process?
We spent those first few years trying to source the right team and figure out how Romy and Michele should look and sound in a musical. Our first composers on the project were Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, who worked on Cyndi Lauper’s first album. They were responsive to the idea, and we even wrote a few songs together, but they ultimately didn’t want to sign on for all the work that goes into doing a musical, which is totally fair.
How did you land on the current composers, Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay?
[Weeds and Orange Is the New Black showrunner] Jenji Kohan suggested Gwen and Brandon. They were also huge fans of the movie and wrote three spec songs that were quite good. We did meet with some better-known composers whom I didn’t care for. I was very impressed with Gwen and Brandon, but hiring them meant that I made the clever decision to work with a bunch of people who had never made a musical before—myself included.
Did you always plan on writing the book, or did you consider bringing on another writer?
I was always gonna write the book. I wrote the original movie, and I’ve written a play before, so I figured why couldn’t I write the book for a musical? Romy and Michele are also very personal to me. They feel like an extension of me.
How was the experience adapting your own screenplay for a new medium?
The whole thing has been such a learning curve. It’s ultimately pretty close to the movie, but it was clear from the beginning that we’d have to make some adjustments to fit the format. We had to cut Cowboy Clarence because we had too many characters and too many endings. It’s easier to jump from one scene to another in a movie, but you have to be way more intentional about pacing when it’s live.
Was there anything you had to cut because it didn’t quite translate to the stage?
Most of the dream sequence. We still have the bit where Michele knows the formula for glue and performs a really funny song called “I Invented Post-its.” But we don’t do the whole 70-years-later bit because you can’t do a quick change with old-age makeup.
Was there ever a point when your book veered in a completely opposite direction from the film?
The movie works amazingly well, but the musical gave us an opportunity to dig into the emotion of key moments. There’s a song called “Coolest Person I Know” that Romy sings to Michele after Christie puts the magnets on her back in high school. In the movie they just walk off laughing before flashing back to the present, but in the musical, Michele runs into the girls’ bathroom and reminds Romy why she’s so special. It’s sorta the love song of the musical.
How different is the current iteration of the show from the version in Seattle a few years ago?
We cut some songs but added some new ones. Plus everything about the show has just gotten a little better and tighter. I didn’t love the opening song that we had in Seattle. Now the show opens with a bunch of people singing about living in LA and enjoying a fabulous day outside before it cuts to Romy and Michele in their beds watching Pretty Woman. Their first line is, “Thank God for blackout shades.”
What qualities were you looking for while casting Romy and Michele for the musical?
I needed actors who could nod to the original movie while still finding their own interpretation. We have that with the fabulous Laura Bell and Kara. We did chemistry reads where they switched parts, but I had seen an interview with Kara where I totally thought she had Michele’s energy. And the second I saw Laura Bell as Romy, I knew she was perfect for the part. It’s important that Romy takes a beat before she responds and that Michele always be played at the top of her intelligence. She fully believes everything she’s saying and doesn’t realize she’s dumb.
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Did you ever think about setting the musical in the present day?
No, because of the internet. There’s no way Romy and Michele could have lied about having invented Post-its in 2025. The very first joke in the musical is that it’s set in “1997 B.G: Before Google.”
Did you ever consider making Romy and Michele a jukebox musical with songs from the film’s soundtrack, like “Time After Time” and “Heaven Is a Place on Earth”?
That was never in the cards. We had a great soundtrack, but I feel like you’ve gotta bend over backward to make pop songs relevant to the plot of a show—and even then they’re never completely relevant. Those songs have nostalgic value, but I always wanted this to be an original musical.
What do you hope audiences take away from the musical?
I hope fans of the film love it but that people going in blind have a great time as well. I just hope the timing is right for this because the world is in such a horrible state, and I don’t think people are looking for a cynical experience. If I’m going to buy a ticket to a musical right now, I want to be transported and filled with joy. Our show is filled with joy and emotion, and the songs are catchy as hell. I hope people respond to that.
Do you have a personal favorite line from the Romy and Michele script?
Do you remember in the old-age portion of the dream sequence when Sandy asks Michele, “Have you been terribly unhappy with me all these years?” My favorite line is when she replies, “Oh no, no Sandy. I’ve just been lonely with no one to talk to.” To me, that’s heterosexual relationships in a nutshell. It’s one of the reasons why first marriages are all about the women trying to get the man to propose, then you get one and you’re like, “What the fuck do I do with this?”
What can you tell me about the Romy and Michele sequel?
I’m willing to share nothing about it on the record yet, including the title or what it’s about. But I can say that most of the original cast is on board: Lisa, Mira, Alan [Cumming], Janeane [Garofalo], Julia [Campbell]. Then there are two new salesgirls at Romy and Michele’s boutique.
Is it centered around another high school reunion?
Not a reunion but another excuse for the original cast to reunite. It takes place in LA, and the characters live in West Hollywood now.
Why would they move out of that wonderful Venice Beach apartment?
I still don’t know why I made them live in Venice Beach in the first place. It never made any sense. They share a duplex in WeHo in the sequel. It just seemed more like what their living situation would be nowadays.
Even if you can’t share plot specifics, what do these two characters look like 30 years after we last saw them?
They look like two people who haven’t accepted the aging process, so they still kinda dress the same, act the same, and talk the same.
Was it difficult finding their voices again 30 years later?
Writing it nearly fucking killed me. It took me two years to wrap my head around what these characters would look like now, what their lives look like, what they do, how they relate to one another. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to capture these characters at this point in their lives until my friend Phil Beauman read the script and said, “Robin, this is a great start. I don’t know what your problem is.” That just really made me trust myself because he would have told me if it wasn’t any good. I had three weeks with nothing to do while Emily in Paris was on hiatus, so I decided to write in bed so it would feel like I wasn’t working. It felt like I was channeling the characters all over again and their words traveled from my unconscious to my fingertips. At the end of the day, I would read everything I wrote and think, Okay, that’s hilarious.
Is there anything non–Romy and Michele that you’re working on at the moment?
The last script I wrote is about a woman who got married to this complete loser. She supported him for the last three years of their marriage, and because they were married for 11 years, she’s stuck paying him alimony for life because that’s California law. So it’s about this woman plotting to get him remarried so she doesn’t have to pay alimony, and it’s called Please Marry My Husband. Then I’m working on another project called I Don’t.
I’m sensing a theme here.
I had a general meeting with the producer Kristen Campo, who told me that Netflix was interested in a show set in the world of wedding planning. I said, “Let me stop you right there because I had a horrible marriage. I never wanna get married again. I’m not a wedding person, and I’m not romantic.” She said that sounded perfect for the main character and wanted me to do it, so I’m working on that.
What’s your dating life like these days? Are you on the apps?
I did that for three months about 10 years ago. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. The last guy I had a fling with was 30 years younger than me, but he thought I was 20 years older than him. When he found out how old I was, he was a little shocked, to put it mildly.
Do those 10 years really make that much of a difference?
Thirty years is a lot. I was also stupid enough to think for the longest time that men were going to like me because I was successful. Ha!
You’re too cool to waste time with a man intimidated by success.
I’m very career driven, but I’m also pretty happy with my life. I’ve got a million friends, I’ve got a job that I love, and I’m not interested in anything or anyone that doesn’t feel additive to my life. If you’re not having fun, why bother?
This conversation has been edited and condensed.