I’m directing a reading of the Broadway-bound new musical The Happy Hooker, which will be presented October 7 at The Cutting Room in Manhattan.

First published in 1971, Xaviera Hollander’s memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story (co-written with Robin Moore and Yvonne Dunleavy) has now sold over 20 million copies.

Producer Cindy Sibilsky presents the invitation-only reading of The Happy Hooker: The Musical, which features music by Warren Wills (The Penelopiad for the RSC) and a book and lyrics by Richard Hansom (Plan 9 From Outer Space). Xaviera Hollander herself serves as co-author and creative consultant for the musical.

Featuring musical direction and arrangements by rock legend Mike Garson, David Bowie’s pianist since 1972, the reading will also feature Matilda‘s Betsy Struxness in the title role of Xaviera Hollander, as well the talents of Christopher Tierney (Spiderman, Movin’ Out, Dirty Dancing), Richard Blake (Matilda, Wicked, Legally Blonde, The Wedding Singer), Jason Mills, Michael Zegarzki, Abe Goldfarb, Elyssa Brette Mactas, Gabrielle Ruiz, MaryAnne Piccolo, Andromeda Turre, Kimilee Bryant and Sal Manzo. Josh Parkin-Ring is the stage manager.

A frank and informative account of Xaviera’s years as the most influential madam in New York, The Happy Hooker has been hailed as the most important book of its era on the subject of sex. Its delightfully explicit accounts of the swinger scenes of the late 1960s and early 1970s introduced its readership to jaw-dropping stories of lesbianism, bondage, fetishism and more, with a mix of shrewd observation and uninhibited appetite.

For more information, see happyhookerthemusical.com.

For more about my directing work, see jonathanwarman.com.