The Off-Broadway premiere of Little Girl Blue, a musical inspired by the life of Nina Simone, is at New World Stages in spring 2022. Little Girl Blue tickets are available on New York Theatre Guide now.
The Little Girl Blue musical is written by Laiona Michelle, who also stars as Simone. Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, Simone originally inspired to be a classical concert pianist, but after attending the Juilliard School of Music and then being denied admission to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, she started playing jazz piano to earn a living. When she was tasked with providing her own vocals to accompany her playing, she began her career as a jazz singer.
In her career, Simone went on to record more than 40 albums in less than 20 years. Little Girl Blue was the first of those, which she named after a Rodgers and Hart song from the musical Jumbo that she covered on the album. She became known for blending her jazzy voice with musical styles like classical, gospel, and pop. With her songs, speeches, and performances, Simone also spoke out against racism and became a notable figure in the Civil Rights Movement. The Little Girl Blue musical traces her evolution as an artist and activist through the different phases of her life.
Michelle, who has appeared on Broadway in Amazing Grace and in the touring company of The Book of Mormon, first premiered Little Girl Blue in 2019 at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In summer 2021, an outdoor production took place through the Goodspeed on the River performance series, put on by the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut.
The Little Girl Blue cast and creative team from those productions joins Michelle in Little Girl Blue off-Broadway, including director Devanand Janki and cast members Kenn Salters, Saadi Zain, and Mark Fifer. Fifer, in addition to playing piano on stage, is also the production's music director and arranger. The premiere of Little Girl Blue in New York also features an all-female, all-BIPOC design team.
Tickets to Little Girl Blue are available now. Get your Little Girl Blue tickets on New York Theatre Guide today.
