[adrotate group=”9″]
Wow, is it really five years since the Spice Girls last appeared in public together? How time flies…
In London on Thursday, Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown and Geri Halliwell reunited to announce the launch Viva Forever! a West End musical based on the Spice Girls chart-topping discography.
Tuesday’s nostalgic event was held at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, the same hotel where the group filmed the video for their first smash hit “Wannabe,” back in 1996.
The musical follows a “wannabe” singer and her best friend both trying to find fame through a reality show. The talented girl and her friend are then swept up in the obsession of today’s TV celebrity culture. It must end in tears!
Victoria was her usual stony-faced self looking more “military-miserable” than ever…even Beckham’s body language was set back from the other girls who were all smiles, hugging each other, whereas Posh stood chin-down inches apart as the former hit girl-group posed for the press.
Melanie Brown, AKA Scary Spice, tossed of one of her characteristic wisecracks when she suggested that the cast of “Viva Forever!” would probably “sing it better than us.”
The five women unveiled the news along with the musical’s writer, Absolutely Fabulous comedienneJennifer Saunders and the producer behind the success of Mamma Mia – Judy Craymer.
Speaking at the press conference, Craymer hailed the group: “I loved what the Spice Girls did for women’s confidence. There’s something very empowering about them.”
Saunders, who had a cameo in their movie Spice World, said: “The second I knew this project was up for grabs I rang my agent and said I had to be involved.”
The producers stress however, that the stage show isn’t a biography of Spice Girls, but there are plenty of real-life resonances for the 1990s “Girl Power” group. Saunders said: “It’s a tale of female empowerment and friendship tested by fame.”
“Viva Forever!” is the latest in a series of so-called Jukebox musicals, and everyone involved hopes it will introduce a new generation of audiences to the phenomenon that was Girl Power.
The Musical set to open in London at the Piccadilly Theatre on December 11.
[adrotate group=”8″]
