Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, the comedy classic following occupants of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, has been adapted for the musical stages and will have its world premiere at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco June 1 with preview performances beginning May 18.
Jeff Whitty, the Tony Award-winning book writer for Avenue Q and librettist for Tales of the City contacted his friends Jason Sellards and John Garden (aka Jake Shears and JJ respectively, of the glam pop band Scissor Sisters and his collaborator) to compose the music and lyrics.
"I got an email from Jeff Whitty wondering if I'd be interested in a musical that took place in the Seventies and had kinda fun themes that involved gays, copious drug use and trannies," Shears told Rolling Stone. "I said, 'Of course – what is it?'”
Garden didn’t need to think twice saying, "Jake grabbed me in the dressing room and said, 'Grab a keyboard, we're writing a musical.
"That's when I was on board, it was that moment. We wrote a song that day that is still in the show."
The pair were familiar with Tales as fans of the television series in the early 90s and for Shears a book series fan since he was a teen.
The music promises to be indicative of the 70s sound without being blatant in its approach.
"I didn't want to do a kind of Seventies pastiche, and I didn't want it to resemble, even with original songs, a jukebox musical," Shears said.
"I didn't want to just go in and do Seventies-sounding music. My writing style leans in that direction anyway, so I figured if we just naturally wrote the songs, they were going to have some of that in them."
Don’t expect Jake to show up and perform ala Billie Joe Armstrong and American Idiot as he reflects with a certain amount of hubris, "I couldn’t act my way out of a wet paper bag.
"I’m a terrible, terrible, terrible actor, and you can watch the two episodes where the Scissor Sisters were on [the soap opera] Passions for proof. I can sing my face off, but acting is not my forte, and this show requires great actors. The characters have a lot of depth and the performances are super-important. I just don’t have the skills."
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