Leader of the Pack is a 1984 American jukebox musical based on the life and music of singer/songwriter Ellie Greenwich. The musical tells the story of Greenwich's career and personal life from the 1950s to the 1980s, using songs written or co-written by Greenwich, along with Jeff Barry, Phil Spector, George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Kent, and Ellen Foley. The musical was based on an original concept by Melanie Mintz, and the book (referred to as the "liner notes") was written by Anne Beatts, with additional material by Jack Heifner. The musical had a brief Off-Broadway run in 1984, followed by a 120-performance Broadway run in 1985. The Broadway production had a lengthy preview period, during which the musical was retooled and much of the spoken dialogue was cut, turning Leader of the Pack into more of a revue. In both productions, the young Ellie was played by Dinah Manoff, while Greenwich herself appeared as the older Ellie. Annie Golden and Darlene Love, both of them Greenwich's real-life friends and collaborators, also appeared as themselves; Love was the original 1960s recording artist of some of the songs heard in the musical. Background Leader of the Pack celebrates the life and times of the Brooklyn-born Greenwich, whose doo-wop sounds skyrocketed to the top of the pop charts in the early to mid-1960s. Beatts' "liner notes" serve as the book that link the songs and provide a look into the songwriter's professional triumphs and personal misfortunes. Production history The initial presentation of Leader of the Pack: The Songs of Ellie Greenwich (as it originally was titled), with a cast of six, had a brief run at Greenwich Village's The Bottom Line in the winter of 1984. After 53 previews, the much-expanded production, boasting a cast of nineteen directed and choreographed by Michael Peters, opened on April 8, 1985 at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 120 performances. Frank Rich, reviewing the show in The New York Times, called it an "embarrassment" and later wrote that upon closing, the show's producers engaged each other in litigation that "entertained Broadway for far longer than their show had." The production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, but lost to Big River. Leader of the Pack was unlike other shows on Broadway at the time. Though it ran in two acts, it was without an intermission and had a duration of 90 minutes.