Jennifer Saunders, top left, and Judy Craymer, top right, pose with the Spice Girls at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London on June 26, 2012
Posh, Scary, Ginger, Sporty and Baby have reunited exactly 16 years after they first catapulted to stardom to launch Viva Forever!, a musical based on their hit singles, in London’s West End.
While little is known about the script so far, it reportedly follows the story of a young girl named Viva and her quest for stardom. Producers of the show told the BBC that it is “the story of a beautiful, talented girl and her best friends who get swept up in the obsession of today’s TV celebrity culture.”
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Viva Forever! is the brainchild of Judy Craymer, producer of Mamma Mia!, based on the singles of ABBA, which paved the way for the ever growing trend of so-called jukebox musicals that incorporate the songs of popular artists. Comedian Jennifer Saunders of the cult British TV series Absolutely Fabulous wrote the script, and Paul Garrington, who previously worked on Mamma Mia! and a musical version of Dirty Dancing, will direct.
The launch took place on the staircase of the Renaissance Hotel in St. Pancras — the exact spot where the Spice Girls shot the video for their debut single, “Wannabe,” released on June 26, 1996.
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The group dominated the pop-music scene in the late 1990s, achieving No. 1 singles in over 31 countries and selling more than 75 million albums worldwide. The quintet had dolls made in their likeness, had their faces put on lunch boxes and started a trend for Union Jack dresses.
In 1997, the Spice Girls briefly crossed over into acting in the critically panned but hugely commercially successful feature film Spice World. But that proved to be the group’s high-water mark; the following year, Geri Halliwell, a.k.a. Ginger Spice, announced she was leaving the band. The remaining members achieved success with singles such as “Viva Forever” and “Goodbye,” but could not reach the dizzy heights of their early career and soon went their separate ways. The group reunited for a world tour in 2007, but the musical launch marked the first time since then that all five have been seen together.
Viva Forever! premieres on Dec. 11 at London’s Piccadilly Theatre.