BEACHES: THE BOOK, THE MOVIE, THE MUSICAL, AND WHY WE NEED THIS FRIENDSHIP STORY MORE THAN EVER
Some stories entertain you. Others name something you have been carrying around for years and did not know how to say out loud.
Beaches has done that for generations of women because it treats friendship like the central love story of a life, not a side plot. It began as a novel by Iris Rainer Dart in 1985, became the beloved 1988 film starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, and now arrives on Broadway as a new musical — Beaches: A New Musical — playing at the Majestic Theatre from March 27 through September 6, 2026, with opening night on April 22. Dart has once again shaped the story herself, this time for the stage.
In a world that can feel increasingly lonely, that return is not nostalgia. It is medicine.
The Spark: Iris Rainer Dart, Cher, and the Real Friendship Underneath the Fiction
Part of what makes Beaches feel so specific is that it comes from lived emotional truth.
As the musical’s star Jessica Vosk points out, Dart was a writer on The Cher Show, and Cee Cee was originally based on Cher. Vosk frames it as a helpful reset for audiences who assume the character begins and ends with Bette Midler’s famous performance: “You have to remember that Iris was a writer on The Cher Show. So this character, when she wrote the novel, was based on Cher.”
That origin story matters because it explains why Cee Cee is not just “a performer.” She is a force. A woman with ambition who takes up space, insists on being heard, and refuses to shrink herself for anyone. That energy is part of why the story has stayed so sticky in culture for four decades.
And then there is the other half of the equation: the best friend. Dart’s writing has long emphasized the life-saving power of women’s friendships. Dart recalls her college best friend, actress Caroline McWilliams, who died in 2010 after a long illness. During her final days, McWilliams told Dart with perfect comic timing: “This is hard. It’s not as hard as comedy. But it’s hard.” They both laughed. That spirit of enduring, irreplaceable friendship that holds right to the very end is the engine of Beaches.
The Book: The Deepest Interior Version of the Bond
The novel is where the relationship has the most breathing room. It is the version that can live inside contradictions. You can love your best friend and envy her. You can need her and resent how much you need her. You can be loyal and still leave.
That complexity is why the book has its own place in the Beaches legacy. It does something pop culture often skips: it grants women’s friendship the full emotional weight usually reserved for romance. The novel also uses an epistolary structure — letters exchanged between Cee Cee and Bertie — that lets readers into both women’s inner lives across thirty years in a way no film or stage adaptation can fully replicate.
The Movie: Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, and “Wind Beneath My Wings”
When Beaches became a film in 1988, directed by Garry Marshall, it became communal. People did not just watch it. They shared it. They cried together and then referenced it for years like a private joke and a confession.
The film starred Bette Midler as C.C. Bloom and Barbara Hershey as Hilary Whitney, with a screenplay by Mary Agnes Donoghue based on Dart’s novel. And it gave the world one of the most recognized songs in pop history: “Wind Beneath My Wings,” written by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley, became inseparable from the film and earned a Grammy Award. Even people who have never seen Beaches know that song — and the feeling it carries.
The film became a defining moment for Midler, showcasing her as hilarious, brash, vulnerable, and devastating, sometimes all in the same scene. The warmth of Marshall’s filmmaking is part of why it landed as a classic.
In 2017, a TV remake for Lifetime starred Idina Menzel as C.C. and Nia Long as Hilary — introducing the story to a new generation, though the 1988 film remains the definitive screen version for most fans.
Photo by Jenny Anderson
The Musical: Iris Rainer Dart Returns and the Story Becomes Immediate Again
The stage version completes a circle. Beaches: A New Musical features a book by Iris Rainer Dart and Thom Thomas, lyrics by Dart, and music by Mike Stoller — the legendary songwriter behind some of rock and roll’s most iconic recordings. In addition to new original songs, the musical includes “Wind Beneath My Wings,” ensuring that the moment audiences have always come for is fully present on stage.
The show had its world premiere at Theatre Calgary in 2024, co-directed by Emmy winner and Tony nominee Lonny Price and Matt Cowart, before transferring to Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in 2026 with the same creative team and much of the original cast.
If the book is the most intimate, and the film is the most widely shared, then the musical is the most immediate. Friendship is not remembered. It is happening right in front of you, in real time, in the same room.
GET TICKETS TO BEACHES, A NEW MUSICAL
Photo by Jenny Anderson
The Broadway Cast: Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett
The musical is led by Jessica Vosk as Cee Cee Bloom and Kelli Barrett as Bertie White, both reprising the roles they originated at Theatre Calgary. They are joined by Ben Jacoby as Michael Barron and Brent Thiessen as John Perry in his Broadway debut, alongside Samantha Schwartz as Little Cee Cee and Zeya Grace as Little Bertie, both making their Broadway debuts.
Vosk is explicit about her relationship to the original film: “I am a fanatic for Bette Midler… she is my religion.” But she draws a firm and important boundary: “Am I trying to imitate Bette Midler? Absolutely not.” That distinction is what makes the musical feel alive rather than museum-like.
Barrett, for her part, has a clear vision of what she hopes audiences take away: “I really hope people leave and they call their person. Whether it was a person they don’t talk to anymore… or somebody that they really, really love. I just hope everybody leaves and calls that person.”
That is not just a nice sentiment, it’s the point.
Photo by Trudy Lee
Why We Need Beaches Right Now
A lot of modern life quietly trains people to isolate. Work gets busy. Families scatter. Text threads replace real conversations. The older you get, the easier it is to believe everyone else has already built their inner circle and you missed your chance.
Beaches pushes back on that lie.
Producer Jennifer Maloney-Prezioso describes the heart of the piece plainly: “At its core, Beaches is a love story about friendship… go fall in love!” She adds that watching two opposite people maintain a friendship through thirty years of laughter, sorrow, and love is “completely relatable and also aspirational.” That word, aspirational, is doing real work. Beaches is not pretending friendship is easy. It is arguing it is worth it.
In Dart’s own words, the reason Beaches endures is the idea of showing up, all the way to the end. Her sign-off has not changed: “Go home and call your best friend tonight.”
This is not just a story about friendship. It is a reminder to practice it.
Beaches: A New Musical plays at the Majestic Theatre, 245 West 44th Street, New York City, from March 27 through September 6, 2026. Opening night is April 22, 2026.