Based on the life and work of Peter Noone — Herman of Herman and the Hermits — the workshop is produced by Kinky Boots' Hal Luftig and features a script by Jersey Boys' Rick Elice and direction by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell. Songs from the 1960s will comprise the score, including several Hermits' hits.
Christian Borle, who recently won his second Tony, for his work in the new musical Something Rotten!, is starring in the workshop, playing the role that is loosely based on Noone. The musical will spotlight the British musical groups that were a major part of American music in the 1960s.
Set in London, several of the scenes take place in the Bag O'Nails pub.
"It was sort of like the Brill Building of the London music scene," Luftig told the Post. "[Mick] Jagger and Marianne Faithfull were there, The Beatles were there. They were considered renegades at the time, the anti-establishment. But then they came to America and quickly became the establishment."
That influx of U.K. rock bands to the U.S. musical scene in the early and mid 1960s came to be known as the "British Invasion."
No timetable has been announced for a full production of the new musical.