Center REPertory Company presents Becoming Britney, from October 28 through November 14, 2010. Directed by Daya Curley, Becoming Britney is the first production of Center REP’s 2nd Off-Center season.
How does a pop sensation wind up bald and trapped in her own musical? Becoming Britney is a caustic (but loving) PG-13 fable that chronicles the rise…the dip…and the salvation of a foolhardy celebrity phenom. The show features eleven original songs that pay homage to multiple musical theatre genres including shows like Annie and Rent, and composers like Roger and Hammerstein among others. The songs include a comical waltz between Britney and K-Fed as they both agree the other is, “The Love of My Life (So Far)”…a show-stopper called “Push It Out” in which Brit has two babies…and “Out of Control”, a swingin’ jive number about her downward spiral with the help of friends Lindsay and Paris.
This show features NY Fringe award winning actress Molly Bell (A Marvelous Party at Center REP and World premiere of Memphis) as Britney. Book, music and lyrics by Molly Bell and Daya Curley who directs the production.
Molly Bell (Performer) is delighted to return to Center REP with the musical Becoming Britney after having just performed in A Marvelous Party. Molly recently appeared in Timothy Near’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at San Jose Rep. A regular at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, she has been seen in Bat Boy: The Musical, Merrily We Roll Along, Memphis, and Snapshots. Molly is the creator of Charitable Fabulosity, a soon-to-be non-profit organization created to financially aid individuals and families who are battling cancer by putting on concerts and events. As part of this program, she produced the 6th annual Divas For Life, which starred the Bay Area’s best musical theater actresses at San Jose Rep. Also a writer and composer, she is happy that Center REP is producing the first show she and co-writer Daya Curley wrote, Becoming Britney: A Snarky Musical Adventure, as part of Center REP’s off-center season in which Molly will star in the title role. She is currently at work on her second musical entitled Ten Minutes. Molly teaches dance and runs her own private vocal studio, but most importantly is mom to 3 year old Ryder and wife to husband Kurt Kuckein. missmollybell.com.
Daya Curley (Director) had been a professional performer in The San Francisco Bay Area for a number of years as David Curley. She has temporarily retired from performing and is now concentrating on writing, directing and filmmaking. A constant fixture on local stages, she won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for her performance in the Eddie Albert role in Irving Berlin’s Miss Liberty. As David, she was also in the casts of the hit Northern California premiere of Bat Boy and the world premiere of Memphis with TheatreWorks of Palo Alto. Daya found even bigger thrills as a regular in TheatreWorks’ New Works Festivals, performing in musical workshops with artists like Andrew Lippa, David Lindsay-Abaire, David Austin, and Brian Crawley among others. That training ground proved very fertile as Daya and her collaborator Molly Bell created their first musical together called Becoming Britney.