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Jailbirds


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Published: Apr 2, 2008

Runs April 4-12, $20, Ritz Theatre Company at Studio 5 at Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut St., 856-858-5230, ritztheatreco.org

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I've often admonished playwrights for not writing more women's roles. As if in reply comes Jailbirds, a new musical by New Jersey's Alex Wilkie (book), André Vermeulen (music) and Randy Petersen (lyrics). Wilkie found inspiration in an article about Alderson Federal Prison, the U.S. government's first prison for women. Though known as "Camp Cupcake" for its relaxed, campuslike atmosphere and famous for incarcerating public enemy Martha Stewart, Alderson held a fascinating group of cons in the early 1950s: Billie Holiday (heroin possession), Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (socialist union leader), Mildred Gillars (Nazi mouthpiece "Axis Sally") and Blanca Canales (Puerto Rican nationalist).

Wilkie fictionalizes them in Jailbirds — adding wrongly accused Lulu (Lauren Cupples), whom the gals help escape through an historically accurate talent show. "Although the premise seems implausible," says Wilkie, "the prison was — and is — run with a minimum of security." Squeaky Fromme, who famously took aim at Gerald Ford and missed, made news a few years ago because "she 'escaped' by wandering off the grounds, and was found strolling along a road several miles away," Wilkie says.

Jailbirds has already received accolades from Philadelphia Music Theater Works, which will showcase selected songs in a June revue. Oaklyn, N.J.'s The Ritz, which has premiered several of Wilkie's comedies, sponsors this premiere in the Walnut's Studio 5 — with eight great roles for women in the nine-character cast.