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Home » Blogs » Alonso Duralde's blog » All singing, all dancing, all Armistead Maupin: "Tales of the City" hits the boards this summer

All singing, all dancing, all Armistead Maupin: "Tales of the City" hits the boards this summer

by
Alonso Duralde

What rhymes with "Mary Ann Singleton"? Fans of Armistead Maupin's classic Tales of the City will find out this summer with the debut of the long-awaited stage musical adaptation.

Read on for more!

Jake Shears

Variety reports that a musical adaptation of Tales of the City is one of the highlights of the upcoming summer series at the O'Neill Theater in New Haven, Conn. The production, which hopes to eventually make it to Broadway, will run July 4-11.

Jeff Whitty

Maupin's not the only gay artist involved, however. Avenue Q's Jeff Whitty has written the book for this new musical, while Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters contributed the songs. No word as to who has been cast as Mrs. Madrigal, Michael, Mona and the rest of the Barbary Lane gang.

Maupin's work has already been successfully adapted for television (three Tales of the City mini-series), movies (The Night Listener) and even opera (Jake Heggie's Anna Madrigal Remembers) so why not Broadway?

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    • Submitted by
    Alonso Duralde
    on Thu, 2009-04-16 08:03.
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    AddisonDewitt's picture

    Concerned...

    Submitted by
    AddisonDewitt (3182 points) (652 posts)
    on Thu, 2009-04-16 09:09.
    The first book was brilliant. I wish I was cognizant of the seriel column Maupin originally wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s but I was too young. The original miniseries is something I still think about.  Billy Campbell is permanently on my Hot 100 List because of it.  Never Can Say Goodbye is one of my favorite songs ever because of Mouse's liberating yet tragic underwear dance in it. And my own gayness was awakened by the miniseries' boldness for the time. And the whole thing gave me Chloe Webb, Laura Linney, and Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo goodness. I just don't want this classic ruined as it almost was with the miniseries after the original.
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    JC's picture

    Tales of the City.

    Submitted by
    JC (1421 points) (298 posts)
    on Thu, 2009-04-16 11:16.
    Just after retiring from the AF, and living about a block from the local library, I heard that they were going to make the first mini-series. Since reading a series is something I love to do, I went to the library saw they had all the books and proceded to read them all in about 3 days. When they showed it on TV I had bugged the owner of the local gay establishment to show it, and they agreed. The first night it wasn't too crowded say perhaps 10 of us watching. By the last one there must have been 100 of us watching, crying, and downright emotional. (oh and the Billy Campbell nude scene... I think that was the first time I ever heard so many gay men gasp and yell at the same time.. without even having sex). It's a series that is fondly in my heart and memories.
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    Paul from NorCal's picture

    I'm so unoriginal, but

    Submitted by
    Paul from NorCal (35 points) (7 posts)
    on Thu, 2009-04-16 15:24.

    I arrived in Berkeley fresh from Syracuse, NY in July of 1976, I think. I picked up the SF Chronicle and they had this serial.  I couldn't believe it.  Gosh, there was nothing like this in the Syracuse Post-Standard! I'm sure there still isn't.  I hadn't so madly identified with a character (Mouse)  since David Stollery's Marty in "Spin and Marty" on the Mickey Mouse Club.  Hmmm.  There's always a mouse, I guess...

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