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Musical on life of Tammy Faye Bakker
gets standing ovations at world premiere
Four Equity Staged Readings in Oregon huge success
"The Gospel According to Tammy Faye," a two-act musical based on the life of televangelist Tammy Faye Messner, made its world premiere in June 2006 at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and received standing ovations at every performance.
The musical reportedly was the second best attended show of the festival.
Subsequent to that production, the writers rewrote portions of the script, including writing two new songs, and in August 2006, the Columbia Gorge Repertory Theatre performed four Equity Staged Readings of the musical, one in Hood River and three in Portland, OR, at the CoHo Theatre. Response from the audiences was ecstatic, and talkback indicated that the show appeals to a wide spectrum of theater-goers.
The show's writers hope to take it beyond those two sets of performances.
"When we got the first standing O on opening night in Cincinnati," said co-writer Fernando Dovalina, "I thought it was because the cast and the other people in the production had so many friends and relatives in the audience, but we got one every night."
"Nobody has that many relatives," he joked.
"The Gospel According to Tammy Faye" had five performances as part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
Opening night was on Saturday, June 3, and the other shows were on June 7, 8, 9 and 10. The performances in Oregon were on Aug. 17 in Hood River and on Aug. 18-20 in Portland.
Writers JT Buck, left, and Fernando Dovalina
with Tammy Faye Messner in Charlotte, N.C.,
in February 2005
The musical features a rich mix of original music that ranges from gospel to disco to 70s pop to tango to soft country rock, and it tells the rags to riches to rags to redemption story of the most famous female televangelist in U.S. history.
The writers, JT Buck, who came up with the idea for the show, and Dovalina produced the Cincinnati show themselves and, with their director John Garrett, cast 14 Cincinnati area performers to fill the more than 40 roles in the show. Garrett's credits include being the principal dancer in the movie "Grease." Buck and Dovalina also brought on board Aaron Callies, a choreographer who once worked with Tejano star Selena when she was building her career.
The Oregon Equity Staged Readings were directed by JT Buck and produced by Jesse Merz, artistic director of the Columbia Gorge Repertory Theatre.
The key to the musical is based on a long conversation that Messner, who is better known as Tammy Faye Bakker, granted Buck and Dovalina in February 2005 in Charlotte, N.C. In that meeting, she discussed her childhood, and "the power, the joy and the peace" that she experienced when she became born-again, Dovalina said. She told Buck and Dovalina that she had rediscovered the child in her. "That stuck with us," Dovalina said.
In October of 2005, the writers had a reading of a first act and portions of the second act -- what they had written to that point. "We had about 75 in attendance, and most of them loved it," Dovalina said, "including people who knew nothing about Messner, and people who acknowledged they had only negative feelings about her."
But all of them, the writer said, were struck by what they discovered about Messner, her oft-preached message that all human beings are God's creatures--that "God does not make junk."
They also loved the music, the story of the rise and fall of the PTL empire that Messner and her then-husband Jim Bakker built from nothing and the humor.
After that reading, Dovalina and Buck rewrote the opening of the show, rethought some musical numbers and finished the second act.
In the revamped musical, Buck and Dovalina tell Messner's story as a fantasy, a sort of life-flashing-through-your eyes sequence as Messner, who is ill with cancer, is about to go through radiation therapy.
"Tammy Faye is very ill," Dovalina said, "but when we interviewed her, she was upfront about her medical condition. I think she shows tremendous courage in the face of what may be a terminal illness. I think we dramatize that well."
"Much of the rest of the play has that dream-like quality," Dovalina said, "and we play with time and with the facts, fictionalizing some of her life, and imagining what some of the scenes might have been like, but knowing that it's coming from our imaginations. We touch on painful moments, but also uplifting and inspirational times, and the lasting taste is one of joy and redemption."
"That was a surprise to our audiences," said Dovalina. "Most of them thought they were about to see a sendup of Tammy Faye. And though we deal with all the negatives in her life, the drugs and the PTL scandals, what you come away with, if you believe the talkbacks, is a really positive message."
One of the elements of the piece that was received well was the decision to have three Tammy Fayes on stage, often at the same time, the 10-year-old Tammy Faye, who represents innocence; the 1990s Tammy Faye, who represents the loss of innocence; and the present-day Tammy Faye, who represents scarred wisdom and the recovery of that innocence.
The writers have kept in touch with Messner and her agent, Joe Spotts, bringing them up to date on the musical's progress, but Dovalina said the writers don't know what she thinks of their work. "I have a feeling she wouldn't like the title because she is not at all pretentious, but it's an apt title because the show is built around her beliefs and her gospel of compassion."
"She was kind enough to send us her good wishes during the Cincinnati rehearsals," Dovalina said, and she added that she wished she could attend.
One of those present at the October reading, Marshall Mason, a retired Broadway director, told the writers that the show was about "heart." The writers said they zeroed in on that word as they rewrote and finished the musical.
The show was performed at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC), 1127 Vine Street between Central Parkway and 12th Street.
The performances were at:
8 p.m., Saturday, June 3
9 p.m., Wednesday, June 7
6:30 p.m., Thursday, June 8
9:15 p.m., Friday, June 9
8:30 p.m., Saturday, June 10
The Portland staged readings were performed at the CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh.
The performances were at:
8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Aug. 18 and 19
2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 20.
An additional staged reading was performed in Hood River at 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 17.
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