After 11 years, the hit sitcom Will & Grace is making a comeback, or should we say, a return, September 28 at 9 PM/ET on NBC.
Reuniting original cast members Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, and Megan Mullally, the 12-episode event has been priming fans with a series of online viral teasers loaded with vodka-tinged barbs, showtune references, and all around fabulousness from the show鈥檚 comedic foursome.
A hint of a primetime return for Will & Grace came last fall, at the height of the 2016 presidential election, when Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen seemingly picked up where they left off in a 10-minute sketch that popped up online. It immediately went viral.
As Will and Grace tried to sway Jack and Karen to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump, it felt as though no time had passed since fans raised a martini to their final episode in 2006.
Even the set felt untouched, though it had traveled across the country and back again.
In 2008, Will & Grace co-creator and executive producer Max Mutchnick donated the show鈥檚 set (Will鈥檚 apartment) to his alma mater Emerson College, where it resided on display in Boston until 2013. It then made its way back to Los Angeles in 2014, when Emerson opened its Los Angeles satellite center鈥攍iterally setting the stage for the reunion.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how the whole thing got rolling in the first place,鈥� Mutchnick tells 半岛体育. 鈥淚t was the height of the election, and I was in the back of a taxi talking to my husband about a joke I would have written for Will & Grace had the show still be on the air, and my husband kind of said in a cheeky way, 鈥榃ell, we do have the set.鈥� And it was from there that I called [co-creator/executive producer] David Kohan, And said, 鈥楲et鈥檚 do this.鈥� And we did.鈥�
By some showbiz miracle, the show鈥檚 original foursome, along with series director James Burrows, were ready and willing to reunite.
鈥淚t was just this moment in time that presented itself,鈥� Mutchnick says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so rare, and it really is a once-in-a-lifetime thing where you think of something and then you can realize it with all of the original players. We felt really lucky to be able to do it.鈥�
But before Will & Grace stepped back into the glow of primetime, Mutchnick and Kohan had another surprise in store: an extravagant musical teaser that incorporated 鈥淎s If We Said Goodbye鈥濃攖he show-stopping number from Andrew Lloyd Webber鈥檚 Sunset Boulevard (currently revived on Broadway).
Written to dramatize Norma Desmond鈥檚 return to the studio in Sunset Boulevard, Mutchnick and Kohan coopted the song to officially reunite Will, Grace, Karen, and Jack with their adoring fans.
The lavish five-minute teaser, which includes a full symphony orchestra, was conceived to open the NBC Upfronts at Radio City Music Hall this spring. Since its May 15 debut online, the teaser has garnered 25 million views across social media, and more than 2.2 million views on YouTube alone.
鈥淲e were asked by NBC to think about something that could play at the Upfronts and then we did what we do, which is talk about how we could see re-introducing them,鈥� Mutchnick explains. 鈥淎nd being the good gay that I am, I happened to be watching Glenn Close鈥檚 performance [as Norma Desmond] at Royal Albert Hall, and then Dave and I started talking and we took it from there.鈥�
Kohan and Mutchnick鈥檚 idea had the support of NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt, the inspired exec who greenlit Smash and ushered live musicals back to network television. 鈥淲hat was amazing was NBC鈥檚 willingness [to do it],鈥� Kohan says. 鈥淲e thought, 鈥榃e might as well go for it and NBC can scale it back as they see fit.鈥� And they didn鈥檛!
鈥淲e knew it was going to be onstage at Radio City Music Hall, and the song, 鈥楢s If We Never Said Goodbye,鈥� seemed perfect,鈥� Kohan continues. 鈥淚t seemed like the right combination of camp and spectacle, and most significantly, you have four performers who can pull it all off flawlessly. So, you can be ambitious and know that they鈥檒l be able to do it.鈥�
It helps that each of the Will & Grace cast members also have legit stage credits under their belts. Mullally was a bonafide theatre trouper before she landed the role of Karen, while Hayes, McCormack, and Messing have each taken their turn on Broadway in the last decade鈥攚ith Messing also starring in the NBC musical series Smash.
The segment is a dream come true for any Broadway-loving Will & Grace fan. Filled with theatricality, comedy, and nostalgia, it feels as if the entire series swirls back to life as Eric McCormick鈥攐r is it Will?鈥攈elps convince an unsure Debra Messing鈥攐r is it Grace?鈥攂ack into the show.
鈥淲e are theatre-ish guys anyway, I mean, we thought of Will & Grace, so it鈥檚 a natural extension of what we think is funny,鈥� says Mutchnick. 鈥淏ut we had a network that got behind us 150 percent. You think of those things, and write those things, but not often do you get that kind of production support.鈥�
Mutchnick adds, 鈥淚n addition to the song being titled what it鈥檚 titled, in the middle of it, at the crescendo break it says, 鈥楢nd this time will be bigger, and brighter than we knew it.鈥� It was as if it was written for us, and that is kind of the way we feel now.鈥�
Primed and ready for its close up, Will & Grace returns September 28 at 9 PM on NBC.
