‘Tonya & Nancy’ spins Olympic feud into musical comedy
Robert PushkarTracy McDowell as Tonya Harding and Jenna Leigh in ‘Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera’
In 1994, skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked with a ‘knee whack’ and suspicions were focused on fellow Team USA skater Tonya Harding–and now the drama is being turned into “Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera.”
The “dark musical comedy with heart” is about the feud between Olympic figure skaters, with a score in the style of Queen meets the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
“It was one of the first crazy tabloid tales that took over 24/7 news coverage,” says the show’s writer Elizabeth Searle. “One of my inspirations for pursuing it was that at that time, the conservative commentator George Will made the note, ‘This is a ridiculous report that has nothing whatsoever to do with life in America today.’ And I plotting, ridiculous report, yes, of course. But it has everything to do with life in America.”
The show will star Tracy McDowell of “Motown” and “Rent,” as Tonya Harding, along with Jenna Leigh Green of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” as Nancy Kerrigan.
Others cast in the show include Liz McCartney, Tony LePage, Andrew Aaron Berlin, Heidi Friese, Chase Kamata, Tatiana Lofton, Ryan MacConnell, and Dwayne Washington.
“The Rock Opera” is open by the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) & Paul Boghosian/ Harborside Films, LLC. The book and lyrics are by Elizabeth Searle, composition is by Michael Teoli.
The show, featuring a creative team of Broadway veterans, is directed by David Alpert, with composition management by Henry Aronson, and choreography by Marc Kimelman, with general management/ creative consulting by Kimberly Loren Eaton/ Theatrum Mundi Productions, LLC & Evan Bernardin. The creative team includes designers Starlet Jacobs, Vanessa Leuck, Rui Rita, Alex Hawthorn with casting by Daryl Eisenberg and Kelly Martindale as stage administrator.
The rock opera premiered to a media whirlwind at the American Repertory Theater’s Zero Arrow Theater and was selected as one of the top three new one-act operas by Opera Vista in Houston in 2007. In 2008 it ran in Portland, Oregon, where Harding, a Portland native, attended the opening night performance.
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