'The O.C.' Musical Goes Meta, Casts Autumn Reeser

How do you make a musical version of The O.C. even more must-watchable? Cast one of the original series cast members, of course. But this bit of casting is pretty mind-blowing: Taylor Townsend herself, Autumn Reeser, has been cast in the upcoming musical as Julie Friggin’ Cooper. Now that is some seriously inspired casting.

Reeser is best known for playing the eternally peppy and very well-organized Taylor Townsend, who first entered The O.C. fray during Season 3 when she immediately made an enemy out of Summer by manipulating her way into Marissa’s former role as social chair at the high school. (If you haven’t seen The O.C., what I just said makes no sense to you at all. That’s fine.)

Taylor is sort of the opposite of Julie Cooper, famously played with catty elegance by Melinda Clarke. Us Weekly made the first casting announcement for the coming musical:

Reeser will star alongside The Flash‘s Rick Cosnett as Sandy Cohen, Step By Step‘s Christine Lakin as Kirsten Cohen, and Disney’s Drew Seeley as “Welcome to The O.C, bitch” himself, Luke Ward. The show will feature iconic songs from the TV show, so be prepared for some Death Cab For Cutie, Imogen Heap, Mazzy Star, and, of course, some Phantom Planet.

Fans of both The Flash and The O.C. will be pleased with Cosnett’s casting, although he hardly has the eyebrows to play a real loyal version of Sandy Cohen. Christine Lakin is an excellent choice for Kirsten, however.

The parts of Ryan, Seth, Marissa and Summer have yet to be cast, but Reeser taking on the role of Julie Cooper is just absolutely too awesome. It’s unclear which specific storylines the musical will reference or cover, though the report notes that the musical takes place pre-Taylor Townsend era. And with Luke involved, we’ll probably get to see a bit of that weird Julie Cooper and Luke Ward affair action.

The O.C. musical premieres on Sunday, August 30 at Sterling’s Upstairs at the Federal Bar in North Hollywood, California (here we come).