Betty Boop, a new musical, will feature music by 15-time Grammy Award winner David Foster, with book by Sally Robinson and Oscar Williams. The show is planning to debut on Broadway in the 2010-2011 season at a Nederlander theatre to be announced.
Produced by Ostar Productions, additional members of the creative team and a production schedule will be confirmed at a later date.
The name and talent of David Foster as one of music's most acclaimed songwriters and producers is the stuff of legend. Having spent the last four decades creating hits for stars including Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Josh Groban, Earth, Wind + Fire, Chicago, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble' and scores of others, this 45-time Grammy nominee, three-time recipient of The Grammy® Producer of the Year and Academy Award nominee has achieved extraordinary levels of success. His new DVD "HIT MAN - David Foster + Friends," part of the prestigious Great Performances Series on PBS, is scheduled to be released on November 11th as is his autobiography, "HIT MAN: 40 Years Making Music, Topping Charts + Winning Grammies." Betty Boop will mark his Broadway debut.
Sally Robinson is best known as a writer in film and television, including "Family" (for which she received the Humanitas Award with an episode starring Henry Fonda, directed by Joanne Woodward) and HBO's Emmy-nominated "Iron Jawed Angels" starring Hilary Swank, as well as the movies, "Medicine Man" starring Sean Connery and "Far Off Place" produced by Disney and Steven Spielberg.
Betty Boop is one of the most iconic animated creations of the 20th century. First introduced in the 1930s, Betty Boop was created by Max Fleischer for his "Talkartoons" series, the first "talkies" of animation, which Max's company, Fleischer Studios, produced for Paramount. Mae Questel provided Betty's distinctive voice. By 1932 Betty, considered to be the first and only female animated screen star, had taken the country by storm. Betty starred in more than 100 cartoons, 90 of which are included in the official "Betty Boop" series, which ended in 1939. Since then, Betty has appeared in dozens of hit movies, television specials and commercials. She was the first cartoon character to be profiled by A&E's "Biography" series.
Betty Boop is one of the most popular and successful licensed characters in entertainment history, with more than 250 licensees in the United States and nearly as many internationally producing quality products bearing Betty's likeness in virtually every category. As the worldwide exclusive licensing agent for Betty Boop, King Features works closely with Fleischer Studios to keep Betty entertaining millions of fans and collectors. The official Betty Boop Web site is www.bettyboop.com.
In the new musical, the inimitable Betty Boop joins her friends Bimbo and Koko to work her irresistible charm in reuniting her grandfather (who has created the Greatest Invention of Mankind) with the long-lost, true love of his life, while saving the Happy Heart Theater from the developer's bulldozers.
Betty Boop Image © 2008 King Features Syndicate, Inc./Fleischer Studios, Inc. TM Hearst Holdings, Inc./Fleischer Studios, Inc.
