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Home > Past Buzz > Debbie Allen Heads Up '60s-centric Trio Musical Girl Group Time Travelers for Broadway in July
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PLAYBILL
By Ernio Hernandez
12 Jan 2005

Two-time Tony Award nominee Debbie Allen will direct and choreograph a new musical Girl Group Time Travelers featuring songs made popular in the 1960s by female vocalists.

The work — which workshopped in New York City July 2004 — is slated to reach Broadway in July, confirmed a production spokesperson.

Featuring a book by Jim Geoghan ( UG: A Stone-Age Musical Comedy ), Girl Group Time Travelers follows the story a modern-day, teenaged girl with boy trouble who is whisked back in time to the 60s.

Among the songs that will fill the jukebox musical are hits made famous by such groups as the Shirelles, the Marvellettes, the Shangri-Las, the Chiffons and the Crystals as well as songstresses Petula Clarke, Connie Francis and Leslie Gore. Songs will include "My Boyfriend's Back," "Leader of the Pack," "You Don't Own Me," "It's My Party," "Where the Boys Are," "Dedicated to the One I Love," "He's a Rebel," "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman," "Theme From 'A Summer Place' "and "Downtown."

Director-choreographer Allen will be joined by music director Louis St. Louis and costume designer Bob Mackie. Jeffrey Richards and Michael Rothfeld will produce the Broadway run capitalized at $6.5 million-$7.5 million. The production will feature an ensemble of about 14 and a 12-piece orchestra.

Allen is known to screen audiences for her role as dance teacher Lydia Grant in the film and subsequent TV series "Fame." Allen has appeared on Broadway in Purlie, Raisin, Truckload and Ain't Misbehavin' as well as the revivals of West Side Story and Sweet Charity — earning her Tony nominations for the latter two. Though she has choreographed for Broadway (the short-lived cult musical Carrie ), Allen will make her debut as director with the new work.

Last season Broadway saw a proliferation of theatrical Supremes-like trios, as evidenced by the opening number at the Tony Awards. Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's musical, Caroline, or Change, had "The Radio"; Hairspray offered "The Dynamites"; and the revival of Little Shop brought back its aptly-named trio of Ronnette, Crystal and Chiffon.

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