John Mulaney Will Star In Broadway Show Inspired By The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs

Last year, the Magnetic Fields went on a tour to celebrate 25 years of their seminal album the forthcoming 69 Love Songs. Today, it was revealed that that record inspired All In: A Broadway Comedy About Love, which stars John Mulaney and Fred Armisen.

The band’s Stephin Merritt composed songs for All In: A Broadway Comedy About Love, and it also includes tracks from 69 Love Songs. The music is performed by the Bengsons, while the production was written by Simon Rich and directed by Alex Timbers. It’s described on their website as “a series of hilarious stories about dating, heartbreak, marriage and that sort of thing.”

“69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields directly inspired me to write the love stories that became All In,” Rich said, according to Broadway World. “Stephin Merritt is my favorite living songwriter and he’s probably better than all the dead ones I like too.”

The Bengsons, a folk-rock duo made up of the married couple Abigail and Shaun Bengson, told Rolling Stone, “We met at a party in Queens and got married three weeks later. In between the party and the wedding we went on a road trip and one of the first albums we listened to together (a burned CD in an old green CD wallet) was 69 Love Songs. We fell in love listening to those songs. They were so true and fucked up and aching and funny, we sang then together and to each other and we can’t believe we get to sing them in front of actual humans soon. It’s an honor and I’m guessing we’re just gonna like, scream and cry and laugh every night.”

All In: A Broadway Comedy About Love arrives at the Hudson Theater on Dec. 11. Find more information here. Meanwhile, John Mulaney was just announced as an SNL guest for Nov. 2 on the same episode as Chappell Roan.