Outsiders No More: Shaggs Musical Coming in 2011

The ShaggsRCA Victor The cover of “Philosophy of the World,” the debut album by the Shaggs.

How do you make a stage musical from the story of the Shaggs, the vintage-1960s girl group whose artless compositions were so, shall we say, challenging that their debut album, “Philosophy of the World,” has been described as “blessedly unrhythmic” by this newspaper and the band itself deemed “better than the Beatles” by Frank Zappa?

It’s not only a question that rock music aficionados pose to each other at certain hours of the night, but a very real challenge for Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen, whose musical “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World,” will be presented as a joint production of Playwrights Horizons and New York Theater Workshop next year.

Featuring a book and lyrics by Ms. Gregory, and music and lyrics by Mr. Madsen, “The Shaggs” chronicles the real-life story of sisters Dorothy Wiggin, known as Dot (vocals and lead guitar), Betty Wiggin (rhythm guitar) and Helen Wiggin (drums), who had no previous musical experience when their father, Austin, pulled them out of school and set them on a very crooked path to artistic immortality. (An earlier version of the show was presented at the New York Musical Theater Festival in 2005.)

Before joining the project, Mr. Madsen said he had never heard the Shaggs’ music, until Ms. Gregory gave him a CD copy of “Philosophy of the World.”

“I listened to that,” Mr. Madsen said, “and I found it profoundly depressing. Other people find a simple joy in it, but for me I just heard how they were forced to do this.”

He added: “I can hear where they’re just struggling to find something out of the chaos which is music.”

Concluding that this “amazing cacophony” would not necessarily make for good drama, Mr. Madsen said his original compositions would instead try to answer the question, “What did they hope they would sound like?”

Early on, he said, the songs are meant to evoke 1960s pop bands like Herman’s Hermits and the Association, who were popular at the time of the Wiggins’ sessions.

The tune from the title track of “Philosophy of the World” also recurs as a motif throughout. “It’s the one song that the dad wants to hear in a particular way,” Mr. Madsen said, “and the girls keep playing in a way that doesn’t please him.”

As family conflicts increase in the show’s second half and darker emotions emerge, Mr. Madsen said he wrote music that more closely approximates the Shaggs’ difficult style. “To me,” he said, “it sounds kind of like Stravinsky meets David Byrne meets I don’t know.”

Finally, in crucial “golden moments,” Mr. Madsen said, “we reveal actual Shaggs music. Some people find it depressing, some people find it charming and odd. There you have it.”

The new production of “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World” will be directed by John Langs and presented at Playwrights Horizons in spring 2011. Casting has not yet been announced.