For Elton John and his husband David Furnish, televangelist Tammy Faye has lengthy been a determine of fascination.
The 2 have been drawn to her not just for her over-the-top type, together with her daring eye make-up and mannerisms, but additionally her compassionate interview with pastor Steve Pieters, a homosexual man residing with AIDS, in 1985 on her widespread Christian tv present Tammy’s Home Get together. That second, in addition to her sophisticated legacy intertwined with the rise of televangelism and the downfall of her former husband and their tv empire, led John and Furnish to choice the rights to show her story right into a West Finish present and now a Broadway musical.
“I toured America for thus lengthy and so usually that she turned somebody I used to be very, very interested by, and that pivotal second when she did have the pastor on was equal to Princess Diana holding the person’s hand within the Lighthouse in London. I assumed, ‘This girl is unbelievable,’ simply the way in which she regarded, the way in which she talked, the way in which she acted, she was so vibrant. She was lively, pleasure and forgiveness, and so I used to be at all times extremely fascinated by her,” John stated.
“So after we received the possibility to write down the musical, I jumped at it, as a result of I like fascinating individuals like that who’ve had nice success after which been banished and misplaced every part, after which come again due to their religion and due to their perception, and switch the tables,” he continued.
Sitting in a Manhattan resort room in early October, days after performing on the New York premiere of a documentary about his life, John had additionally simply seen a run by way of of the musical for the primary time with the Broadway forged. John stated he was “very, very blissful” with what he heard, and with the present’s new choreography.
After gaining the life rights 12 years in the past, with the blessing of Tammy Faye Messner’s second husband, Roe Messner, John and Furnish assembled a inventive staff that included ebook author James Graham and director Rupert Goold. John wrote the music for the present and labored on the rating with the Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, who wrote the lyrics. John had lengthy been impressed by music from America’s South and drew on some nation twang to create the musical’s sound.
“All the good music from America got here from the South. All the pieces began there,” John stated, quipping. “I’m a born-again Southern individual.”
The musical premiered at London’s Almeida Theater in 2022, with The New York Instances calling it “spectacularly entertaining,” and now could be set to open on Broadway on Nov. 14 on the newly renovated Palace Theatre, with a largely new forged, save for Katie Brayben, who’s returning as Tammy Faye, after successful an Olivier award for her portrayal. Christian Borle performs Jim Bakker, Faye’s first husband, co-host and co-founder of their PTL Tv Community, and Michael Cerveris performs Jerry Falwell, a fellow televangelist who took over PTL after scandal.
The story of Tammy Faye has additionally been tailored for display, notably within the 2021 Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield-led movie, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and been the topic of a number of stage diversifications.
John has beforehand written the music for a number of stage exhibits, together with The Lion King, Aida, Billy Elliot: The Musical on Broadway, and most just lately The Satan Wears Prada, which involves the West Finish this month after a combined Chicago premiere. As for why Furnish and John noticed this as a musical, Furnish stated it was inherent in her story.
“It’s additionally such a brilliant, brash, colourful world, it’s bigger than life and music was such an integral a part of that world. Tammy was a terrific singer. The significance of hymns and music and religion. That matches musical theater so brilliantly. It was simply screaming out,” Furnish stated.
The musical’s tackle her story contains an examination of the rise of televangelism within the U.S. and the parallel rise of the conservative motion beneath Ronald Reagan. That plotline could “jangle a couple of nerves,” John says.
“Lots of people who’re evangelicals won’t like what we’re saying, however the reality is that when Jerry Falwell satisfied Ronald Reagan to carry the church into state, it modified the entire face of America perpetually,” he stated.
John compares Messner herself to Evita, or Eva Perón, one other high-profile girl who turned the topic of a musical, in that she’s “sophisticated, advanced, however you’ll be able to’t take your eyes off of her.” Whereas Messner had gained favor, notably among the many homosexual group, for her compassion towards Pieters and people residing with HIV/AIDS, she was additionally a part of a tv empire that collapsed after her then husband, Jim Bakker was convicted on counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, after claims that he used church donations to fund their life-style and for , hush cash for former church secretary who accused him of rape.
Amid the scandal, Messner additionally struggled with drug habit and fought most cancers, all whereas persevering with to talk to the significance of affection, forgiveness and religion, making her life a “very Shakespearean story,” John stated. His aim is for viewers members to see the musical and say “Wow, we have been unsuitable about her.”
“She’s an unbelievable character, the nice, the dangerous and the ugly. You couldn’t take you’ll be able to’t take your eyes off her, as a result of she was proper in your face. She did dangerous issues, however I don’t assume she was conscious of what the dangerous issues have been, the results have been of the PTL and Heritage USA [the Bakker’s theme park] and stuff like that. It simply ran away with itself,” John stated.
“It received forward of itself. It received too large. It received manner past her,” Furnish added.
“And that occurs to individuals in present enterprise. It’s the identical kind of factor. However she by no means misplaced her religion and she or he by no means misplaced her goodness. She didn’t do it intentionally. And so for me, she’s a hero, and to write down a couple of hero or heroine is an absolute pleasure and a present,” John stated.