The Aspiring Spy, Sympathy Jones

With the new vogue of girl-power musicals hitting Broadway (Wicked, The Pirate Queen, Legally Blonde, for example), it was only a matter of time before someone wrote a musical about a female super-spy who prevents a hostile takeover of the world by wearing a slinky catsuit. And, obviously, a former Miss America would have to play the part. But for all its inherent quirks and humor, Sympathy Jones, premiering at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, is that rarest of shows two times over: a wholly original woman-empowering musical comedy with a female composer/lyricist, bookwriter, and director.

"It's nice to have a story about a girl written by women, for women's voices," says star Kate Shindle, who is also featured in Legally Blonde on Broadway. But Sympathy Jones is hardly a dogmatic study of feminism. Rather, Shindle says, the tale of a young woman going from secretary to secret agent is "accessible. It's fun, it's silly, it's empowering. It's all the good things that we want."

The idea for the show was born when composer/lyricist Masi Asare was working as a secretary at NYU. "It was generally a lame existence," she admits of her day job. "I knew I wanted to write a musical, and I was looking for a way to make the spy genre work in musical form." She considered adapting an existing story for the stage, but found it easier to be original. "I've seen it happen that a writer will pour [energy] into show, and not get rights," Asare recalls. "I started thinking, 'what if I worked within a genre, and I make up the story?' So we capitalized on that iconic spy world and iconic sound, and we didn't have to worry about the rights."

While the story is new and unique, Asare describes the show itself as "an old fashioned book musical". "It's essentially the convention of a young girl with a dream, and you see that over and over in musical theatre," she says. "The girl wants to be a star, but in our case, in our story, she wants to be a star spy." Once the story was set, a major challenge was making the aspiring spy sympathetic -- a trait so necessary that it inspired the heroine's name. "In thinking about a girl James Bond, the question was always, would she be sympathetic?" Asare recalls. "If she was someone who really wanted something just out of reach, then everyone would be pulling for her to really get that dream... No one wants to see a show where James Bond is singing. There's just no reason for him to sing. He doesn't want anything." In this way, Sympathy's goals and dreams became the emotional core of the show, while the gadgetry and adventure made the journey fun.

While the show will, inevitably, draw comparisons to other musicals centered around women, Asare and librettist Brooke Pierce are not concerned. The show's target audience may have the same general demographic as the others', Pierce acknowledges, but adds that they "tried to make it family-friendly as much as possible. We hope it appeals to adolescent girls, and maybe the same group that enjoys Hairspray and Wicked and Legally Blonde. What makes ours different is that maybe it has a bit more male appeal, as well." Asare agrees. "The idea of a Spy Musical tends to get people going," she says. "It's got a feminist edge." Much of Sympathy's emotional journey, Pierce continues, is learning to work as an equal with a male colleague. Not simply about feminism, per se, "there's a male/female equality-teamwork sort of message to the show that's a bit more dominant."

Shindle, who stars as Sympathy, feels similarly about the show's feminist dynamic. "It has something to say about pre-feminist days," Shindle says, "and whether women should use their sex and power for the betterment of their world, or as a weapon, because you get both perspectives in the show... [Sympathy] is desperate to break out of the box of what young single women were expected to do at the time, which was look pretty and take care of the men around them and maybe do some typing every once in a while. And she's got far bigger goals and dreams for herself, and when she gets them, when she sneaks her way in the door, she finds out, of course, that it's not everything she expected it to be, and that that having the career you want doesn't necessarily lead to fulfillment all by itself, which I think is a pretty relevant message no matter what time period you're living in."

"She sees her male colleagues excelling at things she feels very strongly that she could do, and she's frustrated by that, and she's not given a chance because she's a girl," she says. "I think having that laying underneath there, that desire to prove herself, and in a larger sense, prove that women can do a lot of the things men can do, and in some cases even do them better... [is] sort-of a thruline for her throughout the entire story, whether she's running around in a catsuit or developing feelings for a co-worker or whatever. It's all about wanting the world to know that she can be a star in this profession."

"I think everybody has some experience with finding power through a challenging life moment," she continues, "whether it's negotiating relationships with your family, or trying to ascend the career ladder, or trying to snag a great apartment in an overheated real estate market. We all have different things that make us feel good."

Shindle herself has experience with using her position for the betterment of her world, in spite of other people's expectations: as Miss America 1998, she helped raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, taking advantage of the opportunities her crown brought her. The title, however, doesn't come without its own stigma. "[Many] people immediately, upon meeting you... assume you're an idiot, and that you're only concerned about your hair and your nails, and that you don't really care that much about the world around you except to babble vaguely about world peace every once in a while," she says. In reality, her stint as Miss America helped her develop her own identity and voice, she says. "Contrary to people's expectations, that job was [very] activism-driven. Probably 90% of what I did was focused on the issue of HIV/AIDS prevention." Using her status as a means to an end, she was able to discuss the issue with senators and students alike. "I was getting to talk about AIDS in places that would never have invited an AIDS educator, but they rolled out the carpet for Miss America... I spent a year thinking, 'Wow, if it wasn't exactly me in exactly this position at exactly this moment in the AIDS movement, there would be things that wouldn't be accomplished. It's pretty exciting and thrilling and humbling, and ultimately, very rewarding. And when you've done your year, people go back to patting you on the head and saying, 'Oh, isn't that nice. You were Miss America!"

But now, she's the Super Secret Agent, and is delighted to be a part of this project. "It's not like anything out there right now," Shindle says excitedly of Sympathy Jones. "It's quirky and funny and... girls and young women and older women and perhaps boys [will find an] interesting, cool, quirky story to be engaged by that's really about a girl finding her power, which is my favorite kind of story to tell. There are lots of different ways to find your power," she continues, and mentions Sally Bowles' self-destructive behavior in Cabaret as another, very different example of female self-empowerment. "Empowerment is not just a synonym for feel-good," she says. "But this is definitely a musical that will make people feel good, and have a great time."

Photos: Kate Shindle with Kris Stewart (left, Executive Director of NYMF) and Isaac Robert Hurwitz (right, Executive Producer); Kate Shindle singing opening number of Sympathy Jones at NYMF Press Preview