TORONTO — Hopelessly devoted to ... hockey?
Olivia Newton-John is set to co-star in a movie musical about Canada’s favourite pastime.
The Grease and Xanadu star will play the mother of a teen hockey phenom in Score: A Hockey Musical, which begins shooting in Toronto next week.
Director Michael McGowan, whose screen credits include “One Week” and “Saint Ralph,” says he managed to land the pop singer-turned-actress by sending her the script through a network of friends and friends-of-friends.
She was the one that he wanted, but McGowan said Thursday he never imagined Newton-John would accept the role.
“I thought it was a long shot at best and miraculously she read the script and wanted to do it,” said McGowan, who wrote the script and lyrics but relied on the Toronto production house Silent Joe to compose the music.
“Through a couple of degrees of separation, (we) made it happen and told her that we weren’t all idiots up here. Apparently she believes us and she’s coming up to do the film.”
Newton-John will also co-write and perform a song for the film’s final credits, along with Canadian singer-songwriter Marc Jordan, who plays the hockey dad.
Toronto’s Noah Reid plays Farley, a sheltered teen who transforms into a playground legend after playing shinny with the local rink rats, portrayed by musicians Dave Bidini and Hawksley Workman.
To his parents dismay, Farley is scouted and signed by the owner of a junior league team, played by Stephen McHattie.
He becomes an instant star but struggles with the pressures of fame and the expectation to fight on the ice.
McGowan says the coming-of-age plot is driven along by 19 songs that are woven into the dialogue, with hockey players crooning as they zip around the rink. In another scene, Farley and his parents argue through song.
“Unlike some musicals, the songs always propel the story forward,” McGowan said of his take on the genre, which has a budget of $5.3 million.
“I probably shouldn’t admit this but I’m not the world’s biggest musical fan.... but I kind of wanted to almost take the sensibilities of something like the end dance sequence of Slumdog Millionaire and make a musical out of that.”
He says achieving that kind of lighthearted spirit is helped immeasurably by nabbing the voice behind such ’70s hits as Hopelessly Devoted to You and I Honestly Love You and the ’80s anthems Physical and Heart Attack.
“In musicals, she’s obviously an icon,” he says of Newton-John. “I just think she’s got the sensibility to obviously pull off the role and it’s a casting coup.”
Shooting for Score: A Hockey Musical is scheduled to take place at city hall’s Nathan Phillips Square, the Art Gallery of Ontario and a community arena in northwest Toronto.
It comes as Newton-John is set to appear on the hit TV musical series Glee in the spring.
Score: A Hockey Musical is set to be released Oct. 22.