Remember Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding? Yeah you do. In the mid-90’s they got more press attention than Sarah Palin tweeting about Snooki at a Justin Bieber concert. It seemed liked they’d never go away. Well guess what: they’re back, and this time they’re bringing a wall of sound and an operatic chorus. Prepare to get Gilloollied all over again. It’s “Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera,” an interactive theater experience coming to OBERON January 31-February 2. To get some opening buzz going, the first 100 people to RSVP to the show’s Facebook event can attend a 2PM final dress rehearsal on January 31 for free.
“Our show is a dark comedy, but we aim to do it with heart,” said librettist Elizabeth Searle, an Arlington, Mass. resident. Michael Teoli’s dynamic score does a terrific job of bringing out the primal emotions of this tale for our tabloid times.”
“The show is a musical puzzle with many themes that all fuse together in a progressive rock context,” adds composer Michael Teoli, a Berklee grad and native New Englander, “We rock hard, but at the same time I want to put the ‘opera’ back into ‘rock opera.’ I’m all about creating a ‘wall of sound,’ and with its screaming band fused with huge vocals, ‘Tonya’ certainly achieves that goal.”
“Tonya and Nancy” premiered in 2008, in Portland, Oregon, Tonya’s Harding’s hometown—to rave reviews. In fact, the notorious hit man-hiring figure skater herself attended a performance. Now the dueling Olympians on ice are coming closer to Nancy’s ‘hood.
Of choosing OBERON, the A.R.T.’s cabaret-style theater, host to such interactive spectacles as “The Donkey Show” and “Bohemian Bacchanalia,” producer Paul T. Boghosian says “This is not your father’s theater experience. This production is highly interactive. The audience is a key component of the energy of the show. The production happens not on a stage, but is all around and through the audience. We can promise a one of a kind theater experience—which includes a full bar at one side of the theater open throughout the show—for the metro Boston theater goer.”
Just be careful if you plan on drinking through the lutzes, triple sow-cows and power ballads; You may not want to leave your knees unattended.