He said that his family immediately purchased plane tickets when they found out he was working on this adaptation. Looking at it and reading the story just connects me way, way back to something 30 years ago.” So when Taryn and Synchronicity came to me with the idea of creating this production, I thought, ‘Wow, this is incredible!’ There’s a level of nostalgia attached to it for me. And one of the books she had, specifically for my sisters but for all of us, was Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. “And my mother had a lot of different books for us to read. “I come from a big family with four sisters, and, in our house growing up, we had a huge, huge bookshelf,” he said. Ross said the work was a family favorite when he was growing up. But this was our first opportunity to really create something together.”

We had worked together before and became friends over that process. Also, this was Rell and I’s first opportunity to write together. “So having the opportunity to put new material to it and tell it in this different way was really attractive. “We both knew this book and read this book, and it was a part of our lives growing up,” Janelle said. LeRell Ross, musical director and composer, says the book “Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters” was a family favorite. Janelle and Ross were both excited about adapting the book and began writing the music in August. Next, May contacted Janelle and Ross, who had previously worked on several of the theater’s shows - including the rock musical Wonderland and the Bob Marley-inspired Three Little Birds - about the idea. May reached out to the author’s daughter, Bweela Steptoe, who says she inspired both characters in her father’s work as a girl and proposed the creation of this new version. As their father prepares them to meet the king, who seeks a wife, the girls approach their journeys differently and both learn valuable lessons. There is Nyasha, who is kind and good-tempered, and Manyara, a bully with a mean attitude. Steptoe’s picture book, a variation of Cinderella told in the style of an African folktale, centers upon two sisters with wildly different personalities. The Randolph Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale will become an original musical at Synchronicity Theatre, running from January 27 to February 17 and bringing author and illustrator John Steptoe’s words and artwork to vibrant life onstage for audiences of all ages.Ĭollaborators Taryn Janelle and LeRell Ross created this new version of the project after Synchronicity Producing Artistic Director Rachel May sought to include a staged version of the story in the theater’s ongoing Family Series - but found that no musical version existed.

My Special Best Words by John Steptoe