The life of pinup Anna Nicole Smith is told in an opera coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She was a Marilyn Monroe wanna-be, heaving in flash and flesh and, finally, tragedy. Anna Nicole Smith is now the subject of an audacious British opera following her from poor Texas waitress to mega-mam maried Playboy pinup to octogenarian billionaire’s wife to fatal drug overdose. All by the age of 39 in 2007. In “Anna Nicole,” which makes its American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Sept. 17, New York soprano Sarah Joy Miller inhabits Smith’s outsize life and, with the aid of theatrical magic (and molded rubber), her overwrought rack. There’s a mix of opera performers, musical-theater vets, including James Barbour (who plays Anna Nicole’s father) and Mary Testa (who plays her aunt), and TV talents, including “Nurse Jackie” RN Stephen Wallem (who plays a Texas trucker in a strip-club scene). Performances are scheduled for Sept. 17-28 at the Gilman Opera House. The opera premiered at London's Royal Opera House Daily News.
A nice video explaining the show with few sneak peak of James Barbour.
James Barbour interviews the cast of "Anna Nicole The Opera" at Brooklyn Academy Of Music