BMI Workshop Musical 'Singing Nun' Presented May 15

Another in the Musicals Tonight!/Musical Mondays series of sneak previews of new musicals from the BMI Workshop, The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun will be presented on Monday, May 15th at 6:15 PM at the 45th Street Theatre (354 West 45th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Based on the play by Blair Fell, the musical "is an homage to the story of Jeanine Deckers, the Belgian nun who became a chart-topping pop star under the name of Soeur Sourire with the song 'Dominique' in 1963.  After the one hit wonder, her singing career -- and life -- devolved into a nightmare of addiction, depression, betrayal by the Church, and a tragic end in 1985," according to press notes.

The show, as one character puts it, is "mostly fiction and strictly libelous."  While it adheres to the bare bones of Deckers' life, it owes more to the tradition of backstage melodramas such as Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, Mankiewicz's All About Eve and Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, not to mention Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.   

Composer Andy Monroe has been a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop since 2001, and was a recipient of BMI's Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in 2002. His musical short, The Life and Times of Joe Jefferson Benjamin Blow, has received several productions and been praised in both Variety and The New York Times.

Librettist Fell has written many tragic-camp plays which have been performed all over the globe, including his cult hit Burning Habits. His plays The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun and Naked Will received numerous awards. TV work includes Showtime's "Queer as Folk" (SHINE Award) and PBS's "California Connected" (2 Golden Mic Awards.) Burning Habits opens again this June at Dillon's in Midtown

Tickets are $10.  Call 212 989-6706 or visit MusicalMondays@aol.com for reservations.