Miss Spectacular is an unproduced musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman

Jerry Herman

Jerry Herman is an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage...

 and additional lyrics by Steve Lawrence

Steve Lawrence

Steve Lawrence is an American singer and actor, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as "Steve and Eydie"...

 and Michael Feinstein

Michael Feinstein

Michael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs...

.
Steve Wynn had asked Herman to write a musical that would be presented at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas

Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...

, possibly in 2000.Wynn planned to install the musical in its theater for a long-term engagement, but when the property was sold to MGM the new owners had no interest in the project.

In 2003, there were new plans for staging the musical in Las Vegas with Tommy Tune

Tommy Tune

Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...

 directing and the search for the leading lady done with a television talent show. There has been no further word on this project.

Its plot focuses on a girl from the Midwest

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

 who heads to Las Vegas in search of fame and fortune as a chorus girl.

Undaunted by the collapse of the arrangement, Herman gathered together a cast of Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 performers, including Lawrence, Feinstein, Faith Prince

Faith Prince

Faith Prince is an American actress and singer known primarily for her work on Broadway. Prince has won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical and received three Tony nominations.-Life and career:...

, Christine Baranski

Christine Baranski

Christine Jane Baranski is an American stage and screen actress, and is perhaps best known for her Emmy Award winning portrayal as "Maryanne Thorpe" in the sitcom Cybill, and her Emmy nominated portrayal of "Diane Lockhart" in The Good Wife...

, Debbie Gravitte, and Karen Morrow

Karen Morrow

Karen Morrow is an American singer – actress best known for her work in musical theater. Her honors include an Emmy Award and a Theatre World Award, and an Ovation Award and five Drama-Logue Award nominations....

, and a full orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 to record a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 that was released on the DRG label in 2002. His score is reminiscent of such early work as Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly! (musical)

Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....

and Mame, resplendent with old-fashioned, hummable tunes.

Song list

• Overture
• Miss What's Her Name
• Las Vegas
• Ziegfeld Girl
• Sarah Jane
• Ziegfeld Girl (Reprise)
• Where in the World is My Prince?
• No Other Music
• I Wanna Live Each Night
• Miss Spectacular
• My Great Dream

Source: Jerry Herman: Poet of the Showtune (2004), Steve Citron, p. 298, Yale University Press, ISBN 0300100825

External links

• talkinbroadway interview, date unknown