Sh-K-Boom Records has signed on to release the cast album of the upcoming Off-Broadway stagework Debbie Does Dallas. The CD will be released in November.
The album for the play-with-music — it is not being termed a musical — will feature Debbie Does Dallas star Sherie Rene Scott (Aida, The Last 5 Years and Sh-K-Boom recording star) singing songs by Andrew Sherman, Tom Kitt (An Evening with Mario Cantone, and also a Sh-K-Boom star) and the production's adapter-director Erica Schmidt.
Sh-K-Boom president Kurt Deutsch told Playbill On-Line "Because the show is not a traditional musical, the cast album of Debbie Does Dallas will not be a traditional cast album." He described the album as "somewhere between 'South Park' and the 'National Lampoon' comedy albums of the 70's."
Sh-K-Boom Records can be found on the web at www.sh-k-boom.com.
* Debbie Does Dallas centers on a smalltown girl and her quest to become a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. The production begins previews Oct. 8 at the Jane Street Theatre and opens Oct. 29. Sherie Rene Scott, a smalltown girl herself who had played the title role in earlier workshops of the work, will star in the Off-Broadway production. The cast that also includes Mary Catherine Garrison, Caitlin Miller, Tricia Paoluccio, Del Pentecost, Jon Patrick Walker and Jama Williamson. Additional casting will be released later.
"Once upon a time in a small town a little girl with stars in her eyes dreamed of growing up, moving to the city and making it big," according to the official tongue-in cheek announcement of the show. "That little girl grew up to be Debbie. Based on the American film classic, Debbie Does Dallas is a coming of age story about a group of ambitious young women who want nothing more than to help their friend Debbie get a spot on the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad. It is perhaps the most important theatrical event of the 21st century. No, not perhaps — definitely."
The production takes major liberties with the film and adds original contemporary music by Andrew Sherman. Erica Schmidt, who adapted the script, will direct. Tom Kitt is musical supervisor. The artistic team is Jennifer Cody (choreography), Juman Malouf (costumes), Christine Jones (sets), Shelly Sabel (lighting) and Laura Grace Brown (sound).
Debbie Does Dallas was conceived by Susan L. Schwartz. The show made its way from the curtained section of video rental stores to the stage as part of the New York International Fringe Festival in 2001. The highly anticipated adaptation received mixed reviews but sold out its run in the downtown Manhattan festival.
"We took the film and took some liberties with it, in terms of adding music and dance," producer Michael Rego of the Araca Group previously told Playbill On Line, of adapter director Erica Schmidt's work. "It's a much more theatrical event now as opposed to just a film on stage." Rego explained this "more vaudevillian" mounting versus the Fringe staging is "pretty radically different, you wouldn't recognize it. It's a totally new and different animal."
The Off-Broadway production (produced by arrangement with VCX Limited) is produced by The Araca Group (Urinetown, the Musical, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune), Jam Theatricals and Waxman-Williams Entertainment.
Jane Street Theatre is at 113 Jane Street. Tickets ($30-$35) are available through Telecharge at (212) 239-6200.
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Susan L. Schwartz, producer-adapter-star of the Fringe production of DDD, previously told Playbill On-Line that the idea for the production "came out of a discussion with a friend about how funny it would be to see a porn film being read on stage." A year later, the film-cum-stageshow made its world premiere, following some awkward research moments. Schwartz explained she went to the video store and couldn't find the title so she had to ask the clerk. "He smirks and I said, 'No, it's for an Off Off-Broadway show that I'm doing,' and he goes, 'Sure it is,'" Schwartz said.
— by Ernio Hernandez
