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With “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical,” TheatreWorks Silicon Valley offers a world premiere of a musical with roots in a cult-classic play and film of the same name. The 1970s-set show tells the story of the reunion of a James Dean fan club in small-town Texas. Back in 1955, the beloved heartthrob filmed the movie “Giant” nearby, shortly before his tragic death. As the James Dean disciples catch up and reminisce, they also stir up long-buried secrets, still-painful wounds and cherished dreams.
Based on the 1976 play by Ed Graczyk, the rollicking musical adaptation has a book by Ashley Robinson, with country, rock and gospel-tinged music by Dan Gillespie Sells and lyrics by Shakina, who also plays the character Joanne.
“I love stories of resilient women forging unbreakable bonds through life’s challenges, because I grew up in those circumstances, around those women, and I worked hard to become one of those women,” Shakina said. “These characters each have a wound and a secret that they’re trying to heal and reveal, and I guess as a writer, I have a gift of building that bridge, which then I invite our audiences to walk across, and experience their own resolution – which is the true catharsis of theater.”
Shakina is an artist and activist who works in television (including in “Connecting,” “Quantum Leap” and “Difficult People”) as well as in theater. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a doctorate in critical dance studies from the University of California, Riverside, and is the founding artistic director of New York’s Musical Theatre Factory.
Robinson and Sells, who previously collaborated on the West End stage adaptation of “Brokeback Mountain,” asked Shakina to be the lyricist for the project just before the pandemic.
“I think they knew they wanted to work with a trans artist because the show has a central trans character,” she said.
“When I was growing up, every girl in drama class was doing monologues from ‘Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.’ I always had a place in my heart for these iconic, larger-than-life women,” she recalled. “But I somehow forgot there was a central trans character. I went back and watched the film and said, ‘Oh, I must be a part of this!'”
Shakina’s past songwriting experience includes a collaboration with the Swedish pop band Brainpool, and working on her own autobiographical glam-rock show “Manifest Pussy.” For “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical,” she relished the chance to help bring more dimension to the characters through song.
“The lyrics allow me to give a new voice, an interior voice, to these characters, that were already so beautifully crafted,” she said
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli is directing the show and has been friends with Shakina for years. She used to head the company’s annual New Works Festival, to which Shakina brought her “One Woman Show” back in 2014.
Like Shakina, Sardelli has a lot of affection for Graczyk’s work.
“The play had a profound impact on me as a young actor,” she said, noting that her freshman year of college, she watched in awe as older students put on a production.
“It was the first time I had seen so many women on stage fully realized – being funny, being ugly, being sisterly, being mean – I really loved it,” she said.
In 2023, Shakina brought the songs and stories of “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical” to TheatreWorks for the first time, in a solo performance.
“Everybody said, ‘We’ve got to do that show!” Sardelli said, and the company was able to bring more of the team to the 2024 New Works Festival, where the material proved to be a favorite with audiences again.
“This piece is truly a celebration of the power of love, the power of being seen for who you are,” Sardelli said, “and that’s true for every single character in the piece.”
“I think it’s really bold in this moment for Theatreworks, having just come through such a phenomenal fundraising journey, to take the risk to center this boldly trans artist and boldly trans show, in a time when that type of inclusion can put an arts organization at risk,” Shakina said.
“Right after the last election there was a question of, just, ‘What’s happening? What now?’ Shakina texted and said, ‘I’m so glad we’re coming to TheatreWorks,’ and, basically, I felt this immense pride that our artists feel safe and seen and protected, and our community is safe and loving,” Sardelli said. “That is not the case everywhere.”
The musical’s cast includes Lauren Marcus as Mona, Stephanie Gibson as Sissy, Hayley Lovgren as Stella May and Ashley Cowl as Edna Louise, all of whom also performed in the 2024 staged reading, along with Judith Miller as Loretta and Ellie Van Amerongen as Joe, in addition to Shakina.
Courtesy Tracy Martin.
Shakina grew up in Southern California but “ideologically identifies with the Bay Area,” she said with a laugh. In addition to her connection to TheatreWorks, she has some personal ties locally as well. Her mom moved up to the South Bay, and her elder brother is a Stanford alum and physician who lives on the Peninsula with his wife, a former local school board member, and their two kids.
“One of the things that is the coolest is that my niece and nephew got to see me do a concert, then a workshop and now a world premiere,” she said of her family being able to witness the evolution of the new show from the ground up.
This summer, she’s also happy to have her beloved pup, the husky-shepherd mix Luna, along for the ride.
“She’s the best,” she said. “In all the years I’ve traveled for TV and theater projects, she’s always stayed home with my partner. This is the first time she’s come with me on a job.”
The team is excited to welcome both longtime “5 & Dime” fans and newcomers to the show.
“If you are a fan of the original, you’re gonna be obsessed with this musical, but we did take creative liberties,” Shakina said. “We contemporized things in a way that makes them more accurate and relevant and appropriate.” And for those new to the story, she said, “You’re going to fall in love with these women – and James Dean.”
“Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical,” runs June 18-July 13 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View; $34-$115; theatreworks.org.
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