Have You Heard the News?

It's Official! Art of the Pin-Up Girl will present a concert version of the show at 

Pinned Miami! Hope you can join us on May 24th in Miami!

Art of the Pin-Up Girl: The Musical will premier at Pinned Miami: South Florida’s Pin Up Model, Photography, Culture, Art, Fashion, Tattoo, Rockabilly and Burlesque Festival, May 23-25, 2014 at The Miami Airport Convention Center!www.pinupfestival.com

PRESS RELEASE:

Pin-up girls − those iconic, perfectly proportioned beauties who have adorned magazine pages, posters, calendars and bedroom walls for more than a century – will come to life in a new musical set to premier in South Florida with concert staging in May.

The new show – Art of the Pin-Up Girl − is the culmination of a decade-long dream for Heather Storm, the Jupiter, Fla., based playwright, lyricist and singer/songwriter who has lovingly crafted the book and lyrics. The 15 original songs in the musical were composed by Gregory “Popeye” Alexander, Storm’s husband and a well-known South Florida composer, producer, singer and radio personality. Musical contributions and production of the soundtrack was provided by Alex J. Weir at Dreamhouse Studios, West Palm Beach, FL.

For the first time in South Florida, Art of the Pin-Up Girl will be presented in a concert format, highlighting 10 of the original songs with a historical and visual narrative by the playwright. The event will feature a live band, known as Popeye & the Pin-Ups, and performers from the South Florida area will bring the classic pin-ups to life onstage.

Art of the Pin-Up Girl tells the stories of actual people and events in history, weaving them into a tapestry that is a glorious musical trip through the time and space of Pin-Up Art in America. “Those women were real women, live models for the artists. They lived fascinating and often scandalous lives,” Storm says. “Their stories are firmly rooted in the lore of our American theatrical and entertainment culture – from the richness of the burlesque to the Greenwich and Ziegfeld Follies, to the Golden Age of Hollywood and yes, even Playboy.”

Familiar characters who leap off the pages in Art of the Pin-Up Girl include pin-up legends Bettie Page, Anna Mae Clift, Lena Horne and Rosie the Riveter, as well as acclaimed artists Alberto Vargas and Baron von Lind – who has created an original pin-up girl poster to promote the new musical. Lind’s lifelong obsession with pin-up inspired the narrative for the play, Storm notes.
“We are thrilled to be presenting a concert of the show’s music at PINNED” Storm says. “It has been our goal to bring this piece to South Florida since the NYC reading two years ago and the audience at PINNED is our dream audience. It will be thrilling to share this musical with people who love the beautiful world of pin-up as much as we do.”

To listen to musical excerpts from Art of the Pin-Up Girl and learn more about its origins and the pin-up icons who inspired it, visit www.artofthepin-upgirl.com

Art of the Pin-Up Girl on social media:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/artofthepinupgirl
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/artofpinup
Website: http://www.artofthepin-upgirl.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artofpinup
Tumblr: http://artofthepin-upgirl.tumblr.com/archive
Blog: http://artofthepin-upgirl.blogspot.com/
Smartphone App: http://artofpinup.app.gp/
Musical excerpts on Soundcloud:http://soundcloud.com/heather-storm

Pinned Miami is 3 days dedicated to the culture of Pin Up, featuring models, bands, photographers, artists, workshops, panels, burlesque, classic cars, exhibitors, vendors, films, tattoo artists and more! Get ready for the sexiest show on Earth!

The Facebook event page for PINNED MIAMI is now up! RSVP athttps://www.facebook.com/events/816931541655966/ and let us know that you're coming! www.facebook.com/pinupfestivaland www.pinupfestival.com

Welcome to the Jungle (The Fabulous Bettie Page)

When I wrote the song, Welcome to the Jungle (The Fabulous Bettie Page) it was late at night after copious amounts of wine.  My husband (and writing partner) began playing a blues intro and I started to improvise with the singing – very badly at first – since I had never sung a blues song, let alone written one.  But a few things started to gel and we kept going – entertaining only ourselves.  I got the digital voice recorder and tried to preserve what I knew could ever so easily be forgotten the next morning.

When I played it back the next day, I hardly recognized my own voice.  I knew logically that it was me, but it reminded me of someone from another time – almost like my grandmother.  And for some reason, the song kept coming.  Songwriters may tell you that there are a million melodies in the brain, but only some of them persist into becoming full songs.   Those songs can only be seen as a gift.  And this gift became a realization of my desire to be a fly on the wall during the famous jungle photo shoot when Bettie was shot by Bunny Yeager (pin-up turned photog) right here in South Florida.

About this time, I discovered the movie trailer for the film about Bettie Page’s life:  Bettie Page Reveals All.  I had never heard the sound of Bettie’s voice before, and when I played the trailer for this new film, which she essentially narrates, I had this haunting feeling – as though the voice coming out of me was hers.

I should qualify this by saying that when I began writing the script for Art of the Pin-Up Girl, I really was not interested in writing about Bettie.  I felt that her story had been told and what more could I say that would still be engaging to a pin-up savvy audience?  And also, my premise was to see the fantasy of a piece of art coming to life – not a girl that we knew as “real” already.  That was solved by the fact that Bettie had been painted plenty – and most extensively by one of my favorite artists, Olivia DeBerardinis.

And you may say, “How can you even think about writing a play about pin-up without paying homage to The Queen?”  Perhaps that is why the messages started coming through loud and clear.  If you wonder where my inspiration came from, well, I would tell you from Bettie herself.  She came in dreams on a nightly basis for quite a while.  The song kept playing in my head every single time I took a shower and I felt this sense of urgency to finish the song, to write the lyrics line by line and finally to record it.  Believe me when I say, Bettie was very specific about what she wanted.  This song should be a show stopper!

As we continued recording the other thirteen original songs, I kept procrastinating Bettie’s song.  I knew that I must do it justice and in many ways it was a monumental undertaking.  As a result it was the last song we recorded for Art of the Pin-Up Girl, and many of my dear friends who are familiar with this work have said that it is their absolute favorite.

On October 14, I was honored to be one of the first to see the sold-out work-in-progress screening of Bettie Page Reveals All at The Jacksonville Film Festival.  To say that it was an emotional experience for me would be an understatement.  So much of her life resonated with me.  The people who knew her had wonderful things to say about her, that she was a lovely person with a zest for life and a wicked sense of humor – just as her photos convey.  But then there were the tragic parts, such as the sexual abuse at the hands of her father and later in life the mental illness that brought her to a screeching halt.  Still, she lived her life with a sense of purpose and had a strong sense of self.  She radiated beauty and sensuality, but also struggled like we all do – perhaps she had more than her share of struggles.  The thing about Bettie Page is that she is every woman – extraordinary and complex, beautiful and mysterious, both naughty and nice.  Perhaps she is what every woman aspires to be in one way or another.  I can see how she has become an icon of feminine empowerment – ironically by doing an art form that was supposed to be for the pleasure of men.  I really cannot wait for all of Bettie’s fans to see her film and have the experience of knowing her more deeply.  She is, in my opinion, an American treasure.

And naturally, when Art of the Pin-Up Girl – a musical romp through the history of American Pin-Up - is staged it will be thrilling to see a young actress embody Bettie Page and with this song accomplish what our beloved Bettie deserves:  To stop the Show!!

 

Bettie Page Reveals All is directed by Mark Mori.