The heroic story of civil rights activist Rosa Parks is being put to song and dance.
The announcement comes from Playbill who reports that a full-scale production is being planned to launch a Rosa Parks musical in London.
Titled Rosa, the production will follow the life of Parks before and after being dubbed the “mother of the U.S. civil rights movement.”
Workshops for the musical are reported to have been in progress since July.
Written by Victoria Gimby (book and lyrics) and Stuart Matthew Price (music and lyrics) and produced by James Yeoburn, the hope for the play is that everyday people will find similarities in Parks’ story that rings true to their own ideas about the importance of civil rights movements, particularly in this day and age.
“This is a human story about an everyday person investing fearlessly in what she felt was right,” says Yeoburn.
“Rosa’s story is taught to all ages throughout the education systems both in the US and here in the UK. Her message remains strong and continues to empower our leaders of tomorrow.”
Rosa Parks is widely known for her refusal to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus for a white passenger in 1955. This demonstration is believed to have launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott that ultimately led to a Supreme Court ruling that called for the desegregation of buses in that city.
In 2013, the U.S. Postal Service released the Rosa Parks Forever Stamp in honor of the civil rights icon.
Rosa Parks died of natural causes at the age of 92 in 2005.
