When a new musical based on the life of BeBe Winans makes its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta this month, theatergoers will be transported back to the Reagan-era rise and scandal-riddled fall of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story, cowritten and composed by the Grammy-winning R&B and gospel star himself, tells the unlikely story of how Winans and his sister CeCe were plucked by the Bakkers from teenage obscurity in Detroit to perform on the Praise the Lord Network.
The musical, which Winans and his cowriter and director Charles Randolph-Wright spent years fine-tuning, has already earned approval from Oprah, who led the audience in a standing ovation when she attended an early reading. Now Winans and Randolph-Wright are hoping that it will join the handful of productions, including the Tony-winning The Color Purple and Aida, that have made the jump from the Alliance’s stage to Broadway.
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