Rock Icon Melissa Etheridge Announces Solo Off-Broadway Show

Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)
Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)
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Rock Icon Melissa Etheridge Announces Solo Off-Broadway Show

Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)
Melissa Etheridge will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories this fall off-Broadway. “Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages. (AP file)

Rocker Melissa Etheridge has found a new stage: The Grammy- and Oscar-winner will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories off-Broadway.

“Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” will play 12 performances only starting Oct. 13 at the midtown multi-stage venue New World Stages.

“While I’ve been telling my life stories through my lyrics and concert tours for many years, this is going to be something new for me,” Etheridge said in a statement.

“I cannot wait to feel the exchange of energy and deep connection that’s provided by an intimate theater experience. That’s going to rock.”

Etheridge, best known for her songs “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One,” has been smitten by theater all her life and even stepped into the Green Day musical “American Idiot” for eight shows in early 2011 on Broadway, replacing Billie Joe Armstrong.

Like Bruce Springsteen’s recent Broadway run, her new show will have songs and stories, “from tales of her childhood in Kansas to her groundbreaking career highlights – with all of life’s hits and deep cuts between,” producers said in a statement.

Etheridge’s career and life have many twists, including winning an Oscar for writing “I Need to Wake Up” from Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” being diagnosed with breast cancer, and receiving two Grammys.

The show has been written by Etheridge, with additional material by Linda Wallem-Etheridge, the co-creator and showrunner for the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series “Nurse Jackie.” It will be directed by Amy Tinkham.

Prior to hitting the New York stage, Etheridge will finish her One Way Out national concert tour and release a graphic novel “Heartstrings” with Z2 Comics.

Etheridge, Springsteen and Armstrong are just a few rock stars who have played New York stages in their own shows, a list that also includes Sting, David Byrne and Sara Bareilles.



‘Wicked’ Director Wants Fans to See Characters Soar

“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)
“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)
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‘Wicked’ Director Wants Fans to See Characters Soar

“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)
“Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande attend as Universal Pictures presents a special New York City “Wicked” Screening at Metrograph on Dec. 03, 2024, in New York City. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures/AFP)

Jon M. Chu, the director behind the musical film "Wicked", felt pressure from both himself and the rest of the team at Universal Pictures to make a masterpiece.

"For ourselves to fulfill the promise that we had to these characters when we first walked into this, I'm really excited," he told Reuters. "We love the show. We love these characters."

"Wicked", based on the Broadway musical hit that tells the story of a green-skinned student of magic who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, pulled in $114 million at US and Canadian theaters, and $50.2 million in international markets during the Nov. 22 opening weekend.

Starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the movie is the first installment of a two-part film adaptation of the multi-Tony award-winning Broadway musical of the same name based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, which is based on the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."

The first installment of "Wicked: Part 1" was written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, with songs from renowned composer Stephen Schwartz.

The fantasy-musical movie also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage and Michelle Yeoh.

The story follows Elphaba played by Erivo, an outcast young woman because of her green skin, and Galinda played by Grande, a popular young woman, who become friends at Shiz University in the mystical land of Oz. After meeting the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship is met with unforeseen challenges.

Chu views the film as an opportunity to normalize Hollywood's diverse talent, as the film includes actors of color, actors with disabilities, and other historically underrepresented groups.

Making the movie with "real" and "authentic people" in the lead roles was never a question for him.

"To me, it was normalizing this stuff. We don't even have to make it a huge conversation. It just is," he added.

Following the success of "Wicked," Chu teases that the second installment of the film will not disappoint.

"If you think you saw everything of Cynthia and you think you saw everything of Ariana, just wait, because the best is yet to come with them. It is juicy and yummy and all the things. I think people will be satisfied with where we end up."

"Wicked," distributed by Universal Pictures, will be available for at-home streaming that can be purchased digitally on December 31.