Tammy Faye on Broadway Tickets

By: James Graham
Songs by: Elton John (music) and Jake Shears (lyrics)
Director: Rupert Goold
Choreography: Lynne Page
Cast list: Katie Brayben (as Tammy Faye Bakker), Christian Borle (as Jim Bakker), Michael Cerveris (as Reverend Jerry Falwell), Nick Bailey (as Paul Crouch), Charl Brown (as Steve Pieters), Mark Evans (as Billy Graham), Allison Guinn (as Jan Crouch), Ian Lassiter (as Jimmy Swaggart/Ronald Reagan/Archbishop), Raymond J. Lee (as John Fletcher), Max Gordon Moore (as Thomas S. Monson/Marvin Gorman), Alana Pollard (as Jessica Hahn), Andy Taylor (as Pat Robertson/Ted Turner), Autumn Hurlbert (as the Tammy Faye Bakker alternate)
Sets: Bunny Christie
Costumes: Katrina Lindsay
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: Nick Lidster for Autograph
Other info: Video design by Finn Ross; orchestrations by Tom Deering and Mark Dickman; music supervision, arrangements, and additional music by Deering

Tammy Faye Messner (née LaValley, formerly Bakker) was born in 1942 and passed away in 2007. Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the proliferation of television and popularity of mainstream Christianity gave her a vehicle to broadcast her progressive views, camera-ready personality, and colorful fashion through The PTL Club, with PTL, of course, standing for “Praise the Lord.” She worked alongside her husband, Jim Bakker, and it turned out love and labor didn’t always mix: the two dealt with financial scandals that eventually flattened Tammy’s media empire.

Nonetheless, Tammy endured as a television icon and a unique Christian at a time when more conservative views, during Ronald Regan’s presidency, gained steam. Tammy was known for her open-mindedness and welcoming demeanor; she is celebrated for accepting LGBT people and reaching out to HIV patients even as politicians marginalized those who died of complications due to AIDS. Controversial but undeniably influential, Tammy was one of the most recognizable American women of the late 20th century.

What to watch for

• Elton John and Jake Shears are no strangers to Broadway; John has written songs for Aida and The Lion King, and Shears has starred in Kinky Boots. Now, the two team up on their infectious score that blends musical theatre, gospel, and rock.
• Katie Brayben won her second Olivier Award for her performance as Tammy Faye.
• Tammy Faye was more than just the center of a beloved television program; she also oversaw a media empire that included Heritage USA, a Christian water park and theme park that opened in 1978 and closed in 1989. The rise of that attraction, and its eventual filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is explored in the musical.
• Tammy Faye deserves the royal treatment, and that’s what it’s getting on Broadway: following The Palace Theatre’s renovation, Tammy Faye is the first musical to reopen that Broadway house (following Ben Platt’s three-week concert residency).