Girl/Group
A magical, musical memoir by Susan Murphy featuring the songs of the Carmelettes & the Kittens...jum
"GIRL/GROUP” is a performance memoir and a celebration of generations of women in music. It is a story about mothers and daughters, of ambition and aging, about doo-wop and dreams deferred. At its center is the real-life tale of Jersey City’s own Carmelettes, an all-girl teenage harmony group who found themselves in the midst of one of the most exciting periods of American pop music history. Above
24/01/2024
Rest in peace, Melanie 🌼
24/12/2023
Have a gorgeous Christmas ✨🩵✨
21/12/2023
Carmelette. Kitten. Legend.
Happy 80th Birthday to the source of the music, my beautiful and brilliant mother Angela!
Thank you for the songs and inspiration, Ma…I love you! 💕🎶🩷🎶💕
31/10/2023
100% that witch.
Happy Halloween! 👻
29/09/2023
DiFi. The tip of the spear in so many ways. She broke glass ceilings time and again. She singlehandedly took on gun control. She literally covered Harvey Milk’s slain body with her own when fighting for gay rights was scandalous. She stood loudly and boldly against state-sponsored terrorism. That’s what her much-criticized old age was a testament to, which is why I found it so unfair.
Rest in peace and profound power, ma’am, and thank you for serving the people.
16/08/2023
Happy 65th, Madonna ✨✨✨
26/07/2023
Wow. 💔
26/07/2023
A phenomenal singer and musician.
A paisan.
A mensch.
He always reminded me of my grandfather, though he suffered from the same disease that took my grandmother.
I’ve loved him.
Rest well, Tony. Your golden sun will shine forever.
24/05/2023
Oh my God, the Queen is gone. Nam myoho renge kyo.
14/05/2023
Happy Mother’s Day, gorgeous! ✨🤍✨
17/03/2023
Happy St. Patrick’s Day ☘️🍀☘️
With love,
Murphy
(Artwork by )
09/02/2023
Dionne & Bacharach 🖤
23/01/2023
Happy Lunar New Year
16/01/2023
Love in action.
26/11/2022
I will be listening to “Fame” all day today in honor of this lovely lady. It rocked my world when it came out in 1980, and it brings every feeling back with crystal clarity.
Rest well, Irene. Light up the sky. ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
15/11/2022
This Saturday at 7pm at , I’ll be diving deep into the music that made me who I am…
BECOMING FANTASTIC: ELTON IN AMERICA 1970-1975
I’ll be joined by the killingest of bands with Seth Saltzman on piano, Nate Bloom on guitar, Rich Acciavatti on bass, & Ned Stroh on drums.
And the food & drink are pretty fabulous, too!
Tix/info: https://www.showtix4u.com/events/18134/?event=67514&date=178643
(Photo by Bev Grant)
07/11/2022
No joke.
11/10/2022
👑
08/10/2022
Next gig:
BECOMING FANTASTIC: ELTON IN AMERICA, 1970-1975…Saturday, November 19, 7pm, at . New material! Smoking band! Lil’ old me!
TICKET LINK: https://www.showtix4u.com/events/18134/?event=67514&date=178643
08/09/2022
Godspeed, Your Majesty. 👑
18/06/2022
The prettiest Beatle with the prettiest melodies.
Happy EIGHTIETH, Sir Paul.
17/02/2022
Rest in song...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/arts/music/beverly-ross-dead.html
Beverly Ross, Teenage Songwriter in Rock ’n’ Roll’s Youth, Dies at 87 With hits like “Lollipop,” she became a top woman songwriter in the early 1960s, but she quit the business in frustration over the theft of her work.
09/02/2022
Happy 80th Birthday, Carole King (QUEEN!) 🎶🖤🎶
12/01/2022
Ronnie. 🖤💗🖤
12/01/2022
LEGEND.
Rest in harmony, Ronnie.
Be My Baby - The Ronettes 1963 "Color" {Stereo} Stereo Remix by Tiger Rogers. Colorized video by "Colouring The Past." Further editing and remastering by Smurfstools STS Video 1963..... #2 U.S. Billboard ...
Our Story
"GIRL/GROUP” is a performance memoir and a celebration of generations of women in music. It is a story about mothers and daughters, of ambition and aging, about doo-wop and dreams deferred. At its center is the real-life tale of Jersey City’s own Carmelettes, an all-girl teenage harmony group who found themselves in the midst of one of the most exciting periods of American pop music history.
Above all, “GIRL/GROUP” is performer/writer Susan Murphy's own story -- a true one -- and one that evolved from a solo performance piece with music into a full-length theatrical work that premiered at the world-renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York in a 2-week sold-out run in June of 2011. Now, nearly a decade later, it is headed for the silver screen!
SUSAN MURPHY ON HER "TALE":
In the late 1950’s, my mother, Angela LaPrete, sang in a group called The Carmelettes, and with them recorded such hits as “Aching for You,” “Promise Me a Rose,” and “Something Tells Me I’m in Love” for Alpine Records. In truth, though, they were really just three little girls from Jersey City, NJ. Led by the fledgling songwriter Bea Verdi, Angela and her two friends, Vickie and Virginia, were discovered after they were unexpectedly asked by Neil Sedaka to sing back-up for his smash hit, “Oh! Carol”. In an instant, they were catapulted from their sheltered Italian-American working class neighborhood to the Brill Building music scene, where they sang for people like Don Kirshner and shared the microphone with the likes of Carole King. When the grip of ambition threatened the simple joy of singing together, the girls were faced with making the few choices there were to make for women of that time.
This piece is about me, Angela LaPrete’s daughter, and my inescapable desire to keep the song alive generations later.
In GIRL/GROUP, we follow my alter ego, also named Susan, who is fueled by artistic ambitions that her mother could never realize. Now, sixty years later, Susan is picking up where her mother left off. In her efforts to follow her musical dreams and desires, she falls back in time to an Alice-through-the-looking-glass adventure. There, she finds herself in the company of her own teenaged mother and her singing partners. The decisions and challenges that they face force Susan to face her own questions of identity and desire. What choices will Susan make to help her reclaim her mother's legacy and, in doing so, create one of her own?