Sixties icon Dusty Springfield subject of new stage musical
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NEW YORK (REUTERS) - She was a huge 1960s soul sensation, but Dusty Springfield's personal life played more like something out of grand opera.
Now the British singer's life story, from the elevating, catchy hit tunes to her struggles and heartaches, is about to play out on a New York stage.
Forever Dusty, which opens on Sunday at New World Stages off-Broadway after seven years' gestation, is the brainchild of co-writer and star Kirsten Holly Smith, who plays Springfield.
"I want to honoUr this woman," Smith said, reflecting on the extraordinary life of the singer with the dusky voice and blonde beehive hair-do. Springfield opposed apartheid in the mid-1960s, long before it became fashionable, and was a lesbian when the term was rarely uttered aloud.
