Your favorite fictional country stars are relocating from Music City to the Big Apple: "Nashville" is set to become a Broadway musical.

Lionsgate Television and ABC Studios have teamed to sell the theatrical rights to the TV series, which wrapped its six-season run in 2018. The show -- which first aired on ABC from 2012 to 2016, before moving to CMT for its final two seasons -- starred Connie Britton as a country music queen, Rayna Jaymes, and Hayden Panettiere as an up-and-coming superstar, Juliette Barnes, who was gunning for her throne.

Producer Scott Delman -- a Broadway veteran and Tony winner who has produced or co-produced dozens of shows, including "American Idiot," "Ragtime," "Book of Mormon," "Fun Home," and "Mean Girls" -- will shepherd the project through development. No additional creative team has been announced yet.

In a statement, Delman explained how "Nashville" would bring an entirely new sound to the Great White Way:

“'Nashville,' with its complex, relatable characters and sweeping emotional gestures, has all of the narrative elements that I look for in great theatrical source material. From that rich DNA, we will be building an original story with entirely original music, written by major Nashville and Broadway songwriters,” Delman said. “We are particularly excited to deliver Broadway’s first score of true contemporary country music — a genre that has exploded with mainstream audiences in recent years.”

The important detail to note from Delman's statement is that the story and songs will be original -- meaning familiar faces and tunes from the show's six seasons likely won't be making an appearance. While that's certainly a head-scratching choice ("Nashville" was packed with memorable songs and plenty of characters, after all), Delman is a proven Broadway hitmaker, so we're willing to trust his vision.

[via: The Hollywood Reporter]