NBC-TV, the network which has turned live broadcasts of Broadway musicals into a bonanza, recently announced that Jennifer Lopez would be starring in “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” its 2017 holiday offering. The bootylicious pop singer inhabits a more innocent America, playing secretary Rosie Alvarez who pines for a happy domestic life in the 1960 show which was inspired when Elvis Presley was drafted into the army in 1957.The show, revolving around a publicity stunt for pop idol Conrad Birdie to give a farewell kiss on live TV, became a long-running hit when it premiered on Broadway in 1960, starring Dick Van Dyke, as Birdie’s manager Albert, and Chita Rivera, as Rose, his sweetheart. Van Dyke reprised his role in a 1963 movie that saw a non-Latin Janet Leigh take Rivera’s role (a casting sacrilege) and Ann-Margret as Kim, the small-town girl chosen for the kiss.While the musical has been a popular staple of summer stock and high school productions, it definitely showed its age in the 2009 Roundabout Theatre revival, starring John Stamos and Gina Gershon. (“‘Bye, Bye, Birdie’ Guilty of Fowl Play,” ran the headline in the Daily News, as critic Joe Dziemianowicz declared that the show ended up with “egg on its face.”) What the musical has always had going for it is a snazzy score by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, yielding such standards as “Put On A Happy Face,” and “A Whole Lot of Livin’ To Do.”Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who are among the producers of the live broadcast, have enlisted Harvey Fierstein to adapt Michael Stewart’s book, a task that he also did on “The Wiz Live!” More recently, the veteran star and playwright adapted his own book for “Hairspray Live!” which will be broadcast on December 7 on NBC-TV. Fierstein will reprise his Tony-winning role as Edna Turnblad leading a cast that includes Jennifer Hudson, Ariana Grande, Kristin Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, and Martin Short. Robert Greenblatt, NBC’s entertainment chairman, said that Lopez and her manager, Benny Medina, had come to him wanting to do “Bye, Bye Birdie” - she includes “A Whole Lot of Livin’ to Do” in her repertoire - and part of the appeal had to be the opportunity to do “The Shriner Ballet.” It was this showstopper, choreographed by Gower Champion and introduced by Chita Rivera, that became a part of Broadway dance legend - a hot, sexy and funny scene when “Spanish Rose” stumbles into a Shriner meeting in the small Ohio town where the musical is set. The Latin Spitfire is such a cliché, but what the hell.No other creative personnel have yet been announced.
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