Aretha Franklin Musical to Premiere in Detroit in March?

According to Variety, the previously announced musical based on the life of Aretha Franklin is tenatively slated to premiere in Detroit next March.

Auditions will soon be underway, from May 1st through 3rd in Detroit, for a number of singing and non-singing parts, including those of Franklin at various ages, fellow musicians Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington, Smokey Robinson and Art Tatum, wardrobe mistress Rue LaMann and love interest Ken Cunningham.

It was previously announced that after playing Detroit, the musical - which is based on Franklin's bestselling Aretha: From These Roots - will move to a string of select major cities en route to Broadway.

Among her many accolades as one of the most revered artists in the music industry, Franklin has earned an irrefutable 17 Grammy awards, 17 No. 1 R&B singles, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Kennedy Center Honor, a National Medal of Arts, and was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Her long list of hits includes "Chain of Fools," "You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)," "Think," "Baby I Love You," "The House That Jack Built," and of course "Respect" her most famous hit song, which became a symbol of both feminine and black pride in the 1960s. Franklin's last studio album, "So Damn Happy," was released to critical acclaim in 2005. Her debut release on her very own Aretha's Records, "A Woman Falling Out of Love," is currently being readied for a March/April release date.

"Like the book, From These Roots will chronicle Aretha's early beginnings from the New Bethel Baptist Church to the top of the gospel circuit, to the forefront of the soul revolution after signing to Atlantic Records, to the top of the R&B and Pop charts!  Aretha's is an inspirational and illustrious story of one woman's survival that is filled to the rim with musical crescendos and zenith summits.  From These Roots, the play, will make for an irresistible reflection on one of our greatest living legends, the Queen of Soul, Ms. Aretha Franklin," as production notes describe.