History
In 1998, fresh off a run of Bean's first musical, Don't Touch That Dial! at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Bean was asked to write a new musical for their intimate black box space, the Stackner Cabaret.Bean suggested a musical about high school song leaders from the '50s and '60s, best friends, singing at prom for their best friends and boyfriends. He would use pop songs from the '50s and '60s to tell story of the characters. In this way, The Marvelous Wonderettes was born in 1999.
With limited backstage space, Bean needed to write a script in which the actors could remain onstage though most if not all of the show. Thus the original one-act version of The Marvelous Wonderettes came to be. Through the years it has grown from its much simpler one-act format to its current, fully realized, two-act version. In 2001 the show headed back to Milwaukee Rep for an extended run and played at several other theaters around the country.
In 2006, Bean met producing partner David Elzer, who along with Peter Schneider helped to create a fantastic Los Angeles production of the show, which ran at the El Portal theater for two years and received Ovation nominations and awards. The Marvelous Wonderettes opened at the Westside Theater in New York City on September 14, 2008 where it ran until January 3, 2010..
Read more about this topic: The Marvelous Wonderettes
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)