Wonderful Town is based on the novel My Sister Eileen, which
itself is based on a collection of short stories by Ruth McKenney. It was then
made into a play, then a film, then the musical! The musical originally ran
on Broadway in 1953 and closed the following year. A production then opened
in London in 1955 and starred the likes of Shani Wallace and Sid James and a revival opened in 1986 at the Queens Theatre. A
Broadway production opened in 2003 staring Donna Murphy (Later Brooke Shields)
which earned her a Tony Award nomination.
Recently we saw the return of the
show when it toured the UK, this production starred 'How do you solve a problem
like Maria?' winner Connie Fisher.
Wonderful Town follows the story of two
sisters, Eileen and Ruth both of which want to make it in New York. Ruth who is
an aspiring journalist and Eileen who wants to be an Actress move into the city
and end up having a very hard time, they can't seem to catch a break. Eileen
uses her charm to try and help Ruth in her bid to become a professional
journalist but that goes wrong as someone who claims to have been able to help
was just using the situation to get to Eileen, the Marilyn Monroe type
character.
