ROSE: THE MUSICAL STORY OF ROSE O’NEILL, THE KEWPIE LADY

Book by Max Golightly & Neil K. Newell

Lyrics by Max Golightly, Neil Newell and C. Michael Perry

Music by Neil K. Newell and C. Michael Perry

A FABULOUSLY TRUE STORY ABOUT ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC WOMEN OF AMERICA

A challenging musical that dramatizes the life of Rose O’Neill, one of America’s most glamorous and eccentric artists and the creator of, among other things, the Kewpie Doll. Her strong family support in the midst of almost overwhelming odds is a testament to the worth and viability of the family unit. Through divorce, death and financial disaster Rose and the O’Neill family weathered the storms of life — together. It wasn’t all bad. There was joy and harmony as well as the despair, among their tribulations. Though enormously wealthy during most of their lives, the O’Neills started with nothing but each other. And they ended with nothing but each other. This is a story for all ages and times.

As if her Kewpie fame was not enough, she was the inspiration for the song, “Rose of Washington Square” (with words by Ballard MacDonald and music by James F. Hanley) which was sung by Fanny Brice in Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic in 1920. She was the model for the baby-talking-cartoon character of Betty Boop, and her sweet way with that same baby-talking personality gave Booth Tarkington, a close friend, the idea to immortalize Rose as a character in his novel, “Seventeen.”

She was an artist, illustrator, author and outspoken advocate for women’s rights, being the first American woman (at age 18, even) to ever illustrate for a magazine or newspaper. As a philanthropist, she nurtured new artists and writers of every kind at all of her homes in America and abroad. She was the one-of-a-kind: ROSE!

This show began life as KEWPIE! but has been revised to create, ROSE!

SAMPLE SONGS: recorded live from the workshop production along with a few author demos using the Final Music Notation files

A Premiére Play with Premiére Theatrical Licensing