New Details! SWEET POTATO QUEENS By Manchester, Vaughn & Holmes Reading Set For TUTS Underground, 8/7

TUTS Underground presents a reading of a new musical!

Houston's Theatre Under The Stars's TUTS Underground will present the world premiere of a new musical featuring a score by Melissa Manchester and Sharon Vaughn titled SWEET POTATO QUEENS, based on the book series by Jill Conner Browne and featuring a collaboration with Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist and bookwriter Rupert Holmes, in March of 2016 as BroadwayWorld reported here, with a special closed table reading set for this August.

More information on the closed table reading is as follows: "TUTS Underground, Theatre Under The Stars' contemporary new theatre series, will be conducting a closed table reading of the new musical Sweet Potato Queens on August 7 at The Hobby Center. After its recent successful staged reading here at TUTS Underground, the musical will be fully staged and produced for the world premiere next March as part of the 2015/16 TUTS Underground season.

TUTS has been given a very unique and exciting opportunity to collaborate with prominent writers and to incubate and develop this new musical from start to finish. The next phase in developing Sweet Potato Queens is to host the writers in Houston for one week for a focused work session, concluding the week with a closed table read. The table read will consist of a read/sing-through of the revised musical which will be conducted around a table and read and sung out loud by a group of actors. This will allow the creatives to hear the revised work and determine if the musical is ready for the rehearsal process.

"Nurturing and developing new musicals is at the heart of TUTS Underground, and we are excited to be providing a creative home for Sweet Potato Queens in Houston, says TUTS' Artistic Director, Bruce Lumpkin. "We feel privileged to be a part of the growth and development of this special piece, and it has been an artistically satisfying experience to collaborate with Melissa, Sharon, and Rupert on this new musical. We are very much looking forward to the work week and table read which will lead us to the next step-a production in March 2016-and beyond."

TUTS believes that the City of Houston is the perfect artistic locale for nurturing new works and staging unique, pioneering musicals which will set the scene for musical theatre of the future. Therefore, part of TUTS Underground's mission is to establish a reputation for TUTS both locally and nationally as a place which draws in local and non-local practitioners who want to collaborate and create in Houston and to provide these practitioners with a place where new works can be incubated. This allows TUTS to utilize local actors as well as to welcome prominent creatives to the Houston theatre community. By hosting a staged reading and now a closed table reading, TUTS Underground hopes to engage Houston audiences by offering them an opportunity to follow the developmental process of a new musical and develop a true connection to the piece.

Sweet Potato Queens (SPQ) is loosely based on the life-story of #1 New York Times best-selling author and SPQ founder, Jill Conner Browne, and the organization's philosophy which was born out of her need for some excitement and a new direction.

The Sweet Potato Queens ® is a women's organization based in Jackson, Mississippi, that has 6,200 chapters in 37 countries. It involves a belief in a sisterhood that promotes self-esteem and positive thinking, appealing to mostly middle-aged middle-class women. Each local chapter assumes its own theme and designs its own costumes. Some chapters even participate in parades and fundraisers in their local community-the Saint Patrick's Day parade being the biggest event.

The musical is being developed in partnership with Grammy® award winning singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester (music), Oscar® nominee, multiple #1 songwriter and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Sharon Vaughn (lyrics) and Rupert Holmes (book). Holmes is the first person in theatrical history to solely win Tony® Awards for Best Book and Best Music and Lyrics, and Best Musical for THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. For his play SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE, he earned a 2004 National Broadway Theater Award and a Best Play Tony® nomination. He most recently was represented on Broadway by CURTAINS, winning several awards and 8 Tony® nominations.

TUTS' Artistic Director, Bruce Lumpkin, and TUTS' Associate Artistic Director, Marley Wisnoski, will co-direct the production with music direction by Thom Culcasi.

To learn more about "Boss Queen" Jill Conner Browne, click here.

For more information about the world premiere of Sweet Potato Queens March 17 - 27, 2016, visit TUTSUnderground.com.

Earlier this year, SWEET POTATO QUEENS was also presented in a special staged reading that was part of the TUTS Underground initiative to bring new works to the stage. For more information about TUTS Underground, please visit http://www.tutsunderground.com/. The reading took place in Zilkha Hall, March 21-22, 2015. Visit the TUTS Facebook page to view photos from the performance.

Check out BroadwayWorld's extensive blog about the staged reading of SWEET POTATO QUEENS presented earlier this year, available here.