MCCREADY Set for Hollywood Fringe Festival

Her life was like a country song. It was 1990 and Mindy McCready was a 15-year-old girl who loved to sing and was the karaoke queen in Fort Myers, Florida.

By the age of 20, she had a No. 1 hit, and her first album sold over two million copies. She got engaged to Superman (actor Dean Cain), and was singing alongside some of country's megastars. Her demons, along with a smattering of sycophants, trailed her. As her personal struggles intensified, her record sales dwindled.

Beginning June 4th and running for five performances at The Dragonfly in Los Angeles, Jennifer Blake will star in MCCREADY, which she co-created and co-wrote with Jon Bernstein. The show is making its highly anticipated return at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

From Rolling Stone Country,"The play features Blake accompanied by a four-member band performing throughout the show. They also step out from their various instruments to portray a few of the well-known men in McCready's life, including actor Dean Cain and a certain baseball legend, both of whom made headlines during and after their turbulent relationships with the controversy-plagued singer.

Like many who were aware of the more salacious aspects of McCready's public persona, Blake - who once roomed with Nashville actress Laura Benanti in New York City - admits that after doing extensive research on McCready, quickly realized she had more in common with the late singer than expected.

"I grew up in a small town, singing forever," says Blake. "I loved her ambition, her drive - which is a lot of what we are focused on in the show - and her real deep, deep love for the men in her life. We noticed how much that informed different songs she would sing along the way. It just lends itself to such a good tribute, telling her life through her own songs. To me, that was fascinating. It sounds sort of actor-y to say, but I'm a fan, too," she insists. "A lot of people know the negative parts of her life and there is some of that [in the play] because that's a large chunk of her life - making not necessarily the best decisions and surrounding herself with not necessarily the best people."

MCCREADY runs for just 5 performances at The Dragonfly (6510 Santa Monica Blvd) and opens June 4th at 5:30 pm. Starring Zack Cosby, Robert Hardin, Craig Umhoefer, Michael Ursu and Jennifer Blake, with direction by Robert Glen Decker.

Tickets are $20, with additional discounts for Fringe Insiders and pretty much everyone @jenniferblake on twitter, or mccready-musical.com.

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