*Whoopi Goldberg has joined forces with producers Paul Lambert and Jonas Neilson to bring a new musical about 1920s performer Ada "Bricktop" Smith to Broadway.
Lambert and Nielsen, who also serve as producers for the Broadway-bound musical First Wives Club, as well as Goldberg, were on hand at the March 24 Musical Mondays Actors Fund Benefit Concert at Los Angeles' Pantages Theater, where Goldberg's involvement in the project was announced, reports Playbill News.
Composer Ron Abel and Chuck Steffan have written the score for the new musical, which follows the life of the dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and self-described saloon-keeper who owned the nightclub Chez Bricktop in Paris from 1924 to 1961, as well as clubs in Mexico City and Rome. Abel will incorporate standards and original songs into the score.
Earlier reports stated that the show's producers had approached "American Idol" winner and Broadway's The Color Purple star Fantasia Barrino about starring as the late Bricktop.
Described as one of the most legendary and enduring figures of twentieth-century American cultural history, "Bricktop" was noted for her red hair, freckles and signature cigars. Cole Porter was so taken with her talent, he wrote "Miss Otis Regrets" for her to perform.
Meanwhile, Goldberg's Broadway background includes the shows Whoopi, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (which she co-produced). She was also a producer of Broadway's Thoroughly Modern Millie.