First Wives The Musical to be Staged at Old Globe Prior to Broadway
By: Faetra Petillo Sep. 05, 2008
A new, Broadway-bound show about bad breakups is inspiring an auspicious musical reunion, and it has The Old Globe raising a toast to the theater's good fortune.
The Globe will play host next summer to "The First Wives Club – A New Musical," a world-premiere work based on the 1996 movie about a trio of vengeful ex-wives.
The show's score is by the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland, the Motown songwriting and producing trio behind such '60s hits as The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love," The Four Tops' "Reach Out I'll Be There" and Martha and the Vandellas' "(Love Is) Like a Heat Wave."
The three – Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland – have not worked together for decades, though they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
The show's writer is Rupert Holmes, a Tony winner whose stage credits include "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and "Curtains!," but who also holds a special place in pop-music history for writing and performing "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," a No. 1 hit in 1979-80.
The versatile opera and theater veteran Francesca Zambello (Broadway's "The Little Mermaid") will direct the production, which runs at the Globe from July 15 to Aug. 23, 2009, before heading to Broadway.
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