'50 Shades of Grey' Arrives in Musical Form

A musical that plays off the popularity of the "50 Shades of Grey" novels is showing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City this month.

"50 Shades! The Musical -- The Original Parody" runs through March 30 at the theater. The musical follows a group of women in a book club who decide to read the raunchy romance trilogy, and the musical follows their interpretation in the form of dance numbers, original songs and a live band, according to Tiffany Dissette, who plays the character Pam.

"People come to see the show and they think they are going to get an exact replica of the story," Dissette said. "It's definitely a parody."

The original songs written for the musical include a hint at the book's sexually-charged plot, including "They Get Nasty" and "I Don't Make Love."

The musical is not for anyone under the age of 18, but it is suitable for a general audience, Dissette said. Mostly, the musical has the audience bursting out in laughter, according to Sheila O'Connor, who plays the character Carol.

"It's laid on so thick, it's begging to be satirized," O'Connor said. "... I think when you have a laugh about it, yeah, you actually do talk about things that are maybe a little bit sexy that you wouldn't have talked about it you didn't laugh first."

E.L. James' best-selling trilogy is being adapted into a feature film, set to be released in 2015 by Universal Pictures.

The erotic novels, which was originally written by James as "Twilight" fan fiction, follows the relationship between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

--City News Service