It looks like later this month, we’ll get one of the most unusual Meadowlark Media projects yet. That would be an original musical about the 2021-22 NFL season, which will be written by singer-songwriter JT Daly (also the project’s producer) and Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz executive producer Mike Ryan Ruiz. Oh, and everyone on the Meadowlark roster is expected to contribute to this in a singing role. Kyle Koster has more on this endeavor at The Big Lead:
Meadowlark Media is producing an original musical chronicling the 2021 NFL season, The Big Lead has learned. Slated for release the week of February 28th, the as-yet-unnamed project is being produced by Nashville-based singer-songwriter JT Daly with Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz executive producer Mike Ryan Ruiz co-writing. A conventional streaming release is being eyed, though fans of the show will have the opportunity for early access.
…A makeshift studio has been constructed at the company’s South Beach studios and portions have already been recorded with Daly embedded. Perhaps most notably, every Meadowlark personality will be contributing to the final product and will have a singing part. The audacious endeavor was borne out of a joke in Slack and wanting to take a big swing. Writing, recording, and producing a musical from scratch qualifies as such.
…”JT’s a genius and he gets the show so while it’s an aggressive turnaround, I’m hopeful we can do it,” said Ruiz. “So far, I’m proud of what we’ve done and am really excited for people to hear it. It’s not some cheap public domain karaoke deal. It’s a legitimate, honest-to-God musical. With a cohesive story and everything.”
Koster’s piece is well worth a read for the further details he has, including Daly talking about why working the Le Batard cast appealed to him and how it feels to be doing this on such a tight turnaround. Daly and Ruiz also offered some more on Twitter:
Big news for me …. This is quite the project and I can’t wait to share. https://t.co/vNOnMjrRpL
— JT Daly (@jtdalyart) February 14, 2022
Would talk more about it but I’m currently writing a song we’re tracking vocals to… TOMORROW. So…. Yah…… https://t.co/zaXGC1dc0m
— JT Daly (@jtdalyart) February 14, 2022
It’s definitely interesting to see the Meadowlark team take on an unconventional project like this, especially with the idea of putting it out so soon after the end of the season. That kind of tight turnaround isn’t easy. (But it also makes sense; the amount of interest in anything on this specific NFL season probably diminishes as we approach April’s draft and the summer’s preparations for next season.) We’ll see how this project turns out, but it’s at the least neat to see this kind of radically different approach to a NFL season recap.