The Shaggs: new musical arriving in 2011

Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop have announced that they will co-produce The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, a new musical with book by Joy Gregory, music by Gunnar Madsen, with lyrics by both, and story by Gregory, Madsen and John Langs.

Directed by Langs, the co-production by the two non-profit theaters will be presented at Playwrights Horizons in spring 2011 as the musical's New York premiere.

Taking place between 1969 and 1973, The Shaggs is an earnest look at one of the oddest and most unlikely bands to achieve rock cult status. Forced by a demanding father, the three very awkward sisters of the Wiggin family of Fremont, New Hampshire were prepped to play in a band based on a prophecy laid out by their grandmother. Taken out of school and away from all outside influences, the Wiggin family patriarch pushed the girls to practice non-stop until he thought they were ready to record an album and perform concerts. They were not. They never were, but they did, and this wholly original musical chronicles their journey while incorporating songs influenced by The Shaggs' canon, as well as a re-imagining of their 'hit single' Philosophy of the World.

Austin Wiggin, the girls' father, died before he ever saw his dream realized. Following his death, The Shaggs were no more until the mid-seventies when a Boston radio station played a few cuts from their record. Their only album caught on, spurred by Frank Zappa declaring the band "better than the Beatles", celebrated by outsider-music mavens who were taken with The Shaggs' artless style. In 1980 they were Rolling Stones' Comeback Artists of the Year without having recorded anything in over a decade. Old recordings and footage have been turned into subsequent albums and collector's items for their thousands of underground fans, but they remain humble loners in the outskirts of New England.

With The Shaggs, Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop continue their commitment to developing new musicals.

At Playwrights Horizons, these include 'Grey Gardens,' James Joyce's 'The Dead,' 'Floyd Collins,' 'Assassins,' 'Once on This Island' and 'Sunday in the Park with George,' and at New York Theatre Workshop these include 'Rent,' 'The Seven,' B'right Lights, Big City,' and 'Songs From an Unmade Bed.'

The Shaggs will mark the first time the two award-winning theaters have co-produced together.

The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World was presented as part of the Second New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it played at Theatre Row 's Beckett Theatre from the 27 Sep - 2 Oct 2005. That production was directed by John Lang and starred Peter Friedman.

Biographies:

Joy Gregory (Writer/Lyricist) is a founding member of Chicago's Lookingglass Theater Company where her two most recently produced works were The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, and 'Race: How Blacks and Whites Think & Feel About the American Obsession,' a co-adaptation with David Schwimmer of the book by Studs Terkel.

Gunnar Madsen (Composer/Lyricist) was a founder, songwriter and performer with the internationally acapella group The Bobs. Their first album led to a Grammy nomination. The Bobs have released five more albums and Gunnar has received seven consecutive ASCAP songwriter's awards. He has written music for the feature films "Breaking the Rules" and "A Special Providence," he was the voice of Sammy Davis, Jr. in the Emmy-Award winning HBO film "The Rat Pack."

John Langs (Director) received a Backstage West award for The Shaggs. The show then moved to The Lookingglass Theater of Chicago where it was Jeff-nominated. He is Director and Artistic Associate with The Seattle Shakespeare Company, The Powerhouse Theatre of Santa Monica, The Neurotic Young Urbanites in Los Angeles and Maui Onstage in Hawaii.