Tony-Winning Playwright Mashes-Up The Go-Go's with 'Arcadia'

What would it have looked like had the Go-Go’s lived in the 1500s and the Elizabethan courts gone glam? Pink wigs, chain mail armor made of sequins, and dance routines by a choreographer who’s worked with Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and "So You Think You Can Dance" (or rather, their Elizabethan counterparts).

At least in the imagination of playwright Jeff Whitty, whose works plumb a wild imagination while still tackling challenging issues of race and sexuality. He’s best known for writing the book for “Avenue Q,” the adult-themed puppet musical that has songs like “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” and “The Internet’s for Porn.” It won three Tony’s and ran for six years on Broadway.

Whitty grew up in Coos Bay. And now he’s returning to the state to premiere a new musical at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It’s called "Head Over Heels," and it mashes up the music of the ‘80s all-girl rock band the Go-Go’s with, of all things, Sir Richard Sidney's Elizabethan epic, “The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.” It’s a tragicomedy that involves a king trying to defy his fate, a cross-dressing shepherd, two disobedient daughters, and all the other ingredients of a good Elizabethan tale. Indeed, Shakespeare himself cribbed from it.

"It had never been adapted for the stage and it's a really great story," says Whitty, who first read the book as an undergrad at the University of Oregon. "I said what if we put these two together because I like the inclusion of opposites — that makes it fun to write comedy improv of it."

The project started when Whitty's lawyer, who also represents the Go-Go's, told him the band's music was available for a jukebox musical. He initially said no, uninterested in writing a saccharine biographical musical. But after "Avenue Q" moved off Broadway and his loose musical adaptation of the cheerleader movie "Bring It On" closed, the self-described "practical man" found himself in need of an income. So he said yes, but only if he could do something completely different.

"It was not too much of a shock when he came and said he didn’t want it to be biographical—in fact, it was kind of a relief," said Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin. After all, the band’s early years were filled with drugs and dysfunction, although they’ve since made amends, tour regularly, and had been looking for someone to put their songs onstage. "But it was a shock when he told us what he wanted to do."

"On the first page – and this is when I burst out laughing," chimed in lead guitarist Charlotte Caffey from their Ashland hotel the afternoon before opening night. "He had a picture of Sir Phillip Sydney, and he had a plus sign, and he had a picture of the Go-Go's. And it said, 'Equals Head Over Heels.' I was like, oh my god. This is going to be insane."

But they were enamored with Whitty and told him to go for it. He began by making playlists and matching songs to plot points. Then he wrote a script in what he calls fusty language — thee’s and thou’s — but with a Whitty spin that results in lines like 'Please ventilate the belfry of thy mind.'"

"I read an early draft and fell head over heels in love," says Bill Rauch, the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. "I wrote Jeff back right away and said, 'Hey we’d sure love to produce this if it would help you in its journey.'"

He had been aware of Whitty’s work since directing Whitty’s play “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler” in 2005. In fact, he restaged it as his first play at the Shakespeare Festival upon taking the job in 2007.

"There are expressions of Jeff's in terms of the way comedy works and to help actors not to over ornament and trust that language that impact me and whatever I direct to this day," said Rauch. "He's made me a better director of new plays."

Whitty was able to convince his commercial producers that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, far as it is from Broadway, is uniquely suited to handle "Head Over Heels." Since the festival presents plays in a repertory style, the company actors have to be able to switch daily between Shakespearean language, song-and-dance musicals and cutting edge contemporary works. In "Head Over Heels," they have to do all three in one night.

Whitty wrote and workshopped the script over 14 months, but it was running long. So in the final four days before it was due, he rewrote it in iambic pentameter. The meter of Shakespeare requires every line be concise and to the point.

"That's where the show began to get very eery," he said, "because the idea of a beat, iambic pentameter, a heartbeat, that you're alive, we got the beat. All these crazy connections began happening, as though the Go-Go’s knew in advance what I was going to do."

The result is an over-the-top show that brings two vastly different worlds together like young lovers. Whitty's anachronistic script injects modern humor and tongue-in-cheek self-awareness into the "fusty" language, making it deliciously dense, and New York composer Carmel Dean added an Elizabethan flourish to the musical arrangements.

The final preview performance played just as well to fifth graders and teenagers as their parents. The students screamed like they were at a Justin Bieber concert, except they were cat-calling for men in exaggerated pantaloons and divas in corseted gowns.

"I keep saying, and I think people think I’m being dramatic, but I truly believe this: that this is the most exciting moment, in my mind, of the Go-Go’s career since the early 80s when we hit it big — I mean, this is huge," said Wiedlin. "Our mission statement is to bring joy to people. So if we can once again through this musical bring joy into people’s lives and hearts then I’m going to be really stoked."

If the preview audience is any indication, she will indeed be stoked — she and everyone else.

"Head Over Heels" runs at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through Oct. 10.

For more about Whitty and how his childhood in Coos Bay inspired his path to Broadway, listen to our story.

Jenny Graham

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Jenny Graham

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Jenny Graham

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Jenny Graham

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