Songs of the City

Michael Tolliver & Mary Ann Singleton


Michael Tolliver & Doctor Jon Fielden

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is set to become a musical, featuring songs by members of the disco and glam rock-inspired pop group Scissor Sisters.
Music and lyrics for the era-defining stories of Tales of the City will be created by Scissor Sisters lead male vocalist and songwriter Jason Sellard, who performs under the moniker Jake Shears, and keyboardist and co-songwriter John Garden. Producers Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum and Robyn Goodman said they hope the musical will be ready for the 2009-2010 Broadway season. The musical will mostly include stories from the original 1978 "Tales of the City" book, the first of seven in the series.


Dee Dee Halcyon

Originally a newspaper serial, Tales of the City follows a young woman from the American Midwest who moves to San Francisco and becomes intertwined in the lives of an eccentric group of characters living around her.
In the series, Maupin offered a vivid and timely portrait of the sexually and politically charged atmosphere in the city during the 1970s and 1980s — addressing issues such as homosexuality, drug use and the rise of AIDS.
The serial was eventually collected and published as a series of bestselling novels and also spawned a successful TV miniseries.