J. T. Buck - The Gospel According To Tammy Faye'

The Gospel According To Tammy Faye'

Buck wrote the lyrics and music for the musical The Gospel According to Tammy Faye written with fellow University of Houston student Fernando Dovalina. Although the original idea was a bar joke, the more Buck thought about it the more the idea seemed worthy, he recruited Dovalina to write the book, Faye granted the two an extended interview. One of the compelling facets of her life to the two gay men "was how from her conservative background, she came around to being a gay-friendly person" and even had a sizable gay following. The musical is a fantasy flashback retelling of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker's life story. Written after a lengthy interview granted to the authors by Tammy Faye, the show had its world premiere at the 2006 Cincinnati Fringe Festival, it was subsequently given an Equity reading by the Columbia Gorge Repertory Company in Portland and Hood River, Oregon. The show had a profitable July run on the stage of Houston's famous Alley Theatre, as a benefit produced by and for Bering and Friends, a Houston AIDS charity that stages a show each year to raise funds for AIDS charity. The production opened on the same night Faye died and saw a flood of media attention because of her death. The musical received an industry reading in NYC in December 2007, starring Tony-Nominee Sally Mayes as Faye, and veteran Broadway actors William Youmans, Julie Foldesi, Heather Parcells and James T. Lane. It was staged in December 2009 at Akron's First Grace United Church of Christ. Buck and Dovalina are preparing the tuner for its next turn on the boards.