For Elton John and his husband David Furnish, televangelist Tammy Faye has long been a figure of fascination.
The two were drawn to her not only for her over-the-top style, including her bold eye makeup and mannerisms, but also her compassionate interview with pastor Steve Pieters, a gay man living with AIDS, in 1985 on her popular Christian television show Tammy’s House Party. That moment, as well as her complicated legacy intertwined with the rise of televangelism and the downfall of her former husband and their television empire, led John and Furnish to option the rights to turn her story into a West End show and now a Broadway musical.
“I toured America for so long and so often that she became someone I was very, very interested in, and that pivotal moment when she did have the pastor on was equivalent to Princess Diana holding the man’s hand in the Lighthouse in London. I thought, ‘This woman is incredible,’ just the way she looked, the way she talked, the way she acted, she was so vibrant. She was full of life, joy and forgiveness, and so I was always incredibly fascinated by her,” John said.
“So when we got the chance to write the musical, I jumped at it, because I love interesting people like that who have had great success and then been banished and lost everything, and then come back because of their faith and because of their belief, and turn the tables,” he continued.
Sitting in a Manhattan hotel room in early October, days after performing at the New York premiere of a documentary about his life, John had also just seen a run through of the musical for the first time with the Broadway cast. John said he was “very, very happy” with what he heard, and with the show’s new choreography.
After gaining the life rights 12 years ago, with the blessing of Tammy Faye Messner’s second husband, Roe Messner, John and Furnish assembled a creative team that included book writer James Graham and director Rupert Goold. John wrote the music for the show and worked on the score with the Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, who wrote the lyrics. John had long been inspired by music from America’s South and drew on some country twang to create the musical’s sound.
“All the great music from America came from the South. Everything started there,” John said, quipping. “I’m a born-again Southern person.”
The musical premiered at London’s Almeida Theater in 2022, with The New York Times calling it “spectacularly entertaining,” and now is set to open on Broadway on Nov. 14 at the newly renovated Palace Theatre, with a largely new cast, save for Katie Brayben, who is returning as Tammy Faye, after winning an Olivier award for her portrayal. Christian Borle plays Jim Bakker, Faye’s first husband, co-host and co-founder of their PTL Television Network, and Michael Cerveris plays Jerry Falwell, a fellow televangelist who took over PTL after scandal.
The story of Tammy Faye has also been adapted for screen, notably in the 2021 Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield-led film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and been the subject of several stage adaptations.
John has previously written the music for several stage shows, including The Lion King, Aida, Billy Elliot: The Musical on Broadway, and most recently The Devil Wears Prada, which comes to the West End this month after a mixed Chicago premiere. As for why Furnish and John saw this as a musical, Furnish said it was inherent in her story.
“It’s also such a bright, brash, colorful world, it’s larger than life and music was such an integral part of that world. Tammy was a great singer. The importance of hymns and music and faith. That fits musical theater so brilliantly. It was just screaming out,” Furnish said.
The musical’s take on her story includes an examination of the rise of televangelism in the U.S. and the parallel rise of the conservative movement under Ronald Reagan. That plotline may “jangle a few nerves,” John says.
“A lot of people who are evangelicals might not like what we’re saying, but the truth is that when Jerry Falwell convinced Ronald Reagan to bring the church into state, it changed the whole face of America forever,” he said.
John compares Messner herself to Evita, or Eva Perón, another high-profile woman who became the subject of a musical, in that she’s “complicated, complex, but you can’t take your eyes off of her.” While Messner had gained favor, particularly among the gay community, for her compassion toward Pieters and those living with HIV/AIDS, she was also part of a television empire that collapsed after her then husband, Jim Bakker was convicted on counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, after claims that he used church donations to fund their lifestyle and for , hush money for former church secretary who accused him of rape.
Amid the scandal, Messner also struggled with drug addiction and fought cancer, all while continuing to speak to the importance of love, forgiveness and faith, making her life a “very Shakespearean story,” John said. His goal is for audience members to see the musical and say “Wow, we were wrong about her.”
“She’s an incredible character, the good, the bad and the ugly. You couldn’t take you can’t take your eyes off her, because she was right in your face. She did bad things, but I don’t think she was aware of what the bad things were, the consequences were of the PTL and Heritage USA [the Bakker’s theme park] and stuff like that. It just ran away with itself,” John said.
“It got ahead of itself. It got too big. It got way beyond her,” Furnish added.
“And that happens to people in show business. It’s the same sort of thing. But she never lost her faith and she never lost her goodness. She didn’t do it deliberately. And so for me, she’s a hero, and to write about a hero or heroine is an absolute pleasure and a gift,” John said.