Leader of the Pack (musical)

Leader of the Pack
Original Cast Album
Music	Ellie Greenwich
Lyrics	Ellie Greenwich Jeff Barry Phil Spector Shadow Morton Jeff Kent Ellen Foley
Book	Anne Beatts
Basis	The life of Ellie Greenwich
Productions	1984 Off-Broadway 1985 Broadway

Leader of the Pack is a musical with liner notes by Anne Beatts and additional material by Jack Heifner, music by Ellie Greenwich, and lyrics by Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector, George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Kent, and Ellen Foley.

Based on an original concept by Melanie Mintzwith, this jukebox musical (created before the term was coined) celebrates the life and times of the Brooklyn-born Greenwich, whose doo-wop sounds skyrocketed to the top of the pop charts in the early to mid-1960s. Beatts' "liner notes" serve as the book that link the songs and provide a look into the songwriter's professional triumphs and personal misfortunes.

The initial presentation of Leader of the Pack: The Songs of Ellie Greenwich (as it originally was titled), with a cast of six, had a brief run at Greenwich Village's The Bottom Line in the winter of 1984. After 53 previews, the much-expanded production, boasting a cast of nineteen directed and choreographed by Michael Peters, opened on April 8, 1985 at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 120 performances. Frank Rich, reviewing the show in The New York Times, called it an "embarrassment" and later wrote that upon closing, the show's producers engaged each other in litigation that "entertained Broadway for far longer than their show had." The production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, but lost to Big River.