Forever Dusty
| Forever Dusty The Dusty Springfield Musical |
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| Music | Various composers |
| Book |
Kirsten Holly Smith Jonathan Vankin |
| Productions | 2012, Off Broadway, 2017, London Fringe, UK Tour |
Forever Dusty is a stage musical based on the life of British pop star Dusty Springfield. The musical numbers are all songs performed by Springfield during her career. The book of the musical was written by Kirsten Holly Smith, who also plays the lead role of Dusty Springfield in the originating production, and Jonathan Vankin. Forever Dusty opened on 18 November 2012 at New World Stages, an Off-Broadway venue in New York City. The UK Premiere opened on 3 May 2017 at Brookside Theatre, a London Fringe theatre as the start of a UK theatre tour.
Smith originated the project at the University of Southern California in 2006, where she performed a workshop version of the piece as a one-woman show after receiving a Spectrum Arts Grant from USC.
Smith has said that her interest in Springfield’s story was sparked by listening to the singer’s Dusty in Memphis album. "That soulful, sultry, passionate yet vulnerable voice. I immediately identified with her and knew that I needed to explore the roots of Dusty’s voice. I felt like I knew exactly what she was feeling when she sang her songs, that maybe it was the same feeling I had when I sang," Smith said.
The one-woman musical moved in 2008 to the Renberg Theatre in West Hollywood, California. The theatre is part of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center co-produced the show, then entitled Stay Forever: The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield, with actress Jorja Fox (best known for her work on the TV series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ), Leslie Brockett and Jon Imparato as producers. Brockett was a producer of the USC workshop version as well.
The Off Broadway production of Forever Dusty is greatly expanded from the one-woman Stay Forever. The show became a full-scale book musical with the addition of co-writer Vankin. The cast now consists of five actors, each portraying multiple characters (with the exception of Smith, who plays Dusty Springfield only). The director of the production at New World Stages is Randal Myler, whose notable previous work includes the bio-musicals Love, Janis (about Janis Joplin) and Hank Williams: Lost Highway as well as the Tony and Drama Desk Award-nominated Broadway production It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues.
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