After watching an interview with Betty Hutton on Turner Classic Movies in 2000, Tony Award-nominated director Craig Rhyne decided that the “Incendiary Blonde” needed a theatrical biography to illustrate her fantastical life. The only person he knew capable of the task was his friend, award-winning theatre actress Peggy Taphorn.

Together they created their own act, a tribute to the songs of Betty Hutton entitled A Square In The Social Circle, and performed it for several years in New York and across the nation. In an interview with satinsandspurs.com, Taphorn revealed, “Craig did research and we refined and culled from her repertoire until we had a show that would do Betty justice…and that I could perform more than once! She certainly has proven to be the hardest character I’ve ever played onstage, as she was such an energetic performer!”

Taphorn won rave reviews with her performances, and when she left the National Tour of Sweet Charity to become of the artistic director of the Temple Theatre in Sanford, North Carolina, transforming the cabaret revue into a Broadway-style musical was one of the first things on her agenda because “there was more to her life story than could be told in a revue”, and as she puts it, “Betty’s life certainly has all the elements of a full scale drama/comedy!”

With the cooperation of Betty Hutton’s estate, Taphorn and Rhyne have teamed with writer Frank J. Avella to develop Bluebirds In My Belfry, a new musical poised to take its place alongside such classics as Gypsy and Funny Girl to showcase the fascinating and never before told story of Betty's rise from poverty during Prohibition to Big Band singer to major stardom in Hollywood and then her sudden, tragic fall and disappearance from the public eye for 50 years.

Using tunes Betty made famous in her heyday, the score is full of songs written especially for Betty by the great American songwriters: Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael. There are loads of jumpin' jivin' swing tunes, and it all captures the Hutton "can-do" spirit and what made Bob Hope call her "a vitamin pill with legs!"

Bluebirds In My Belfry presents the story of Betty Hutton's life from her early days to her "lost" years, from the bright lights of Hollywood to the rectory of a church in Rhode Island where Betty finally found what she spent her entire life searching for. It's a swingy, tuneful show with a warm heart and a story you won't believe and won't forget. There’s plenty of surprises, including guest appearances by Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Cecil B. DeMille, and other figures from Betty’s career. And wait till you see Peggy singing and dancing like she was a War Bond baby!

Temple Theater audiences were the first ever to get a glimpse of this exciting new musical, when a staged ready and fully sung version of the script was previewed during a limited three-day preview in January 2008.

Taphorn stated that the show is currently on hold because of her schedule demands and that Craig Rhyne is working on re-writes in New York. But she is very enthusiastic about the show’s development. “We would love to continue working on the script and score and to do more future productions. The show is certainly an entertaining as well as educational night of theatre. What a life Betty led and what fabulous songs and dances!” she said.

Stay tuned to satinsandspurs.com for further information as this new musical production continues to develop.