S: Is for New Shows on the Horizon

I just watched a video that has me excited about a new show being commissioned by producer/entrepreneur Brian Dorsey. “THE RED ROSE GIRLS”, is being written by Jeff Blumenkrantz who has written music for Audra McDonald. If you have Audra's album Way Back to Paradise, the haunting "I Won't Mind" is Jeff's. He also write the music and won a Tony nod for "Urban Cowboy." This musical is based on the lives of four of the most fascinating, rule-breaking, determined, acclaimed, accomplished and renegade artists of the early 20th century. The combined lives of these four women turned Philadelphia upside down in their undaunted quest for the abject right to create immortal art. Violet Oakley, Jessie Wilcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green were the most acclaimed artists and illustrators in the country; against all odds. The fourth was Henrietta Cozens. In 1906 women were told they were not designed to create art for money. They were told that they were not to compete for coveted assignments at national magazines from men. They were told that the grandest architectural and artistic commissions were not to be competed for by women. The Red Rose Girls disagree. Vowing never to marry and to be each other’s family, they bought an estate and Henrietta accepted the conventional role of “wife.” They created art and illustrated life until the Philadelphia Press Corps began to review them as the geniuses, then things begin to change. A reporter insisting on attending their Fourth of July party asks probing questions about the “family’s” private arrangements. Violet explodes, her outburst causes a stir. Elizabeth Shippen Green shatters their sacred vows and accepts a proposal of marriage from the architect Huger Elliott. What happened next is history. "THE RED ROSE GIRLS” is getting ready to come to Broadway. Perhaps Broadway should be getting ready for “THE RED ROSE GIRLS”. This is the devastating decision of individuals to remain individual, despite the cost or the rumors and that should always be a F.A.C.T.