New Jersey Stage Issue 55 | Page 32

Shortly after Jersey favorites Franke & the Knockouts broke up in 1986, their former label head Jimmy Ienner called front man and main songwriter Franke Pre- vite and said, “I’ve got something for you that’s going to change your life.” An Oscar, a five-time diamond record and a beautiful home at the Jersey Shore later, Previte sure has had the time of his life with his association with the 1987 film, “Dirty Dancing” and its more recent Broadway stage ad- aptation. For the past five years, life is even better in a longtime personal and professional relation- ship with Lisa Sherman, the Jersey Shore-raised star of such Broad- way revivals as “West Side Story” and “Evita.” The couple has created a new show entitled “Calling All Divas,” a story-oriented adaptation of their “Decades of Divas” revue, which, in turn, was culled from Sherman’s one-woman show, “Songbird.” The musical tale of four women who form a singing group, The Un4get- tables, after they audition for the Listen to “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” by Franke & The Knockouts NJ STAGE - ISSUE 55 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 32