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Singer/songwriter Ellis steps out as the lead for the concert/reading of this new musical about the greatest woman athelete in history, Babe Didrikson!
BABE
An Olympic Musical
Book and Lyrics by Carolyn Gage
Music by Andrea Jill Higgins
This is a major new musical and a milestone in musical theatre. It's a play about women athletes, about world class competition, about mothers and sisters, and about the bisexual woman who broke all the rules to become the "Athlete of the Century"— Babe Didrikson.
The play traces Babe’s career from high school basketball star, to Olympic gold medalist in track, to vaudevillian sideshow, to first woman on the professional golf circuit. Her struggles for athletic achievement parallel her personal struggles for recognition and acceptance by her mother and sister. Babe’s sexual orientation emerges against a backdrop of feminine stereotypes and heterosexist constraints.
This musical celebrates the woman athlete at the same time it explores the darker themes of how women denied opportunities for professional advancement can sabotage each other, passing on poisonous conditioning from one generation to another. Babe’s founding of the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (the LPGA) is depicted as the crowning achievement of both her personal and her professional struggle.
The show is a big, brassy, full-cast, mainstage musical, featuring a high school gymnasium dance and beauty pageant, a choreographed jazz interpretation of a women’s basketball game, a pajama party on the Olympic train, a tango at the country club, and one of the most stunning love duets in musical theatre. Numbers include "Let the Boys Lead the Dance," "Raise the Bar!," "Fast Break," "Par for the Course," and Babe’s theme song, "Winning Makes Up for It All."
Eight women, eight men (can double several roles)
Men and women’s choruses
Two hours
Multiple sets
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