Graciela Daniele, attached to the show in its previous development in readings and workshops, will direct and choreograph the musical that is based on playwright Wasserstein's illustrated children's book.
Performances will play Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View, CA, April 5-30, 2006.
A family musical about a 13-year-old girl whisked (by her Aunt Louise) into the Broadway theatre district to see a show (and to experience all the backstage excitement, too), Pamela's First Musical was one of several projects Tony Award-winning composer Coleman was working on at the time of his sudden death in fall 2004. Lyrics are by his City of Angels partner David Zippel (The Woman in White, Princesses).
"It Started With a Dream," a standout song from the show, was the name of an album of music released by Coleman in recent years. The song celebrates the creative process. Cabaret singers such as Jana Robbins have snagged the tune and started to disseminate it in nightspots.
Librettist Wasserstein is the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of The Heidi Chronicles, Isn't It Romantic?, Uncommon Women and Others, The Sisters Rosensweig and Old Money. The show was originally announced to be part of the Goodspeed Musicals 2005 season in Connecticut, but the details of the deal could not be worked out and the plan was scrapped.
TheatreWorks is run by artistic director Robert Kelley and managing director Randy Adams. The troupe is currently enjoying its 35th season.
TheatreWorks' 36th season will also include the world premiere of Bay Area playwright Tanya Shaffer's romantic comedy Baby Taj; the West Coast premiere of Tom Jones and Joseph Thalken's Harold & Maude: The Musical; the American premiere of Frank McGuinness' Dolly West's Kitchen; and the Northern California premieres of Intimate Apparel, Anna in the Tropics and Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House.
TheatreWorks produces at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, CA, and Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View.
In 2004, the company presented the Broadway-aimed world premiere of A Little Princess by Andrew Lippa and Brian Crawley. Susan H. Schulman directed.
Graciela Daniele's current project is Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Dessa Rose for Lincoln Center Theatre.
For more information, visit www.theatreworks.org.
