A Night with Janis Joplin opened at Broadway's Lyceum Theater on October 10, 2013. It closed four months later, with plans to re-open Off-Broadway at the Gramercy on April 10. But those awaiting a more intimate evening with star Mary Bridget Davies will have to wait. The re-opening has been indefinitely delayed because of "production issues," about as vague a reason as could be expressed.
Shows aiming to capture the essence of legendary divas have been popping up rather frequently on stages both on and Off Broadway. No sooner had Lady Day with Dee Dee Bridgewater turned out the lights at the Little Shubert Theatre than Audra MacDonald sprang up as the same jazz icon in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill at Circle in the Square. Nostalgic music fans can also wallow in Carole King's music and life story right now at Beautiful at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on West 43rd St.
Miche Braden memorably embodied Bessie Smith in The Devil's Music: The Life and Death of Bessie Smith at St. Luke's Theater Off-Broadway a couple of years ago.
"Pearl" herself made another notable posthumous appearance on the New York stage in Love, Janis, based on the singer's sister's memoir, which enjoyed a successful run at the Village Theatre downtown from 2001-2003.
As for shows that haven't shown up yet, the country-music diva department has been a fertile source. A Broadway-aimed adaptation of Loretta Lynn's autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter is supposed to arrive eventually, starring New Girl's Zoeey Deschanel. (As of May 2013 it was still "in development.")
Dolly Parton is planning a Broadway musical about her own life.
And then there's the truly aspirational, as in country singer and TV personality Kellie Pickler's desire to stand by her man on stage as Tammy Wynette. Hey, we can all dream.
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