The Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell, or better known to their legion of fans as Posh, Scary, Baby, Sporty and Ginger Spice were back together in Britain Tuesday for the “Viva Forever!”Musical 12 years after they split and seven years since their reunion tour.
While tensions and tantrums were believed to cause the ultimate breakup of the “girl-power” group years ago, Tuesday’s meet-up was without incident.
Did they need prying to come together after so many years?
“I don’t think it took (us) any convincing at all,” Chisholm told a small group of reporters. “It’s something we’ve spoken about a lot over the years. I think that our music lends itself really well to theater and when we reunited in 2007 that was when we started to talk about it more seriously.”
Beckham, in a black outfit made by her own fashion brand, added: “We always said if we do this we want to work with the best people, because that’s what we’ve always done. Everything we’ve done we’ve done properly and we’ve got the ‘A-team.'”
While the Spice Girls were consultants of sorts for the musical’s storyline, other involvement is not clear.
“As much as we’ve written the songs, we also didn’t want to creatively stifle Judy and Jennifer,” Beckham said. “So, somewhat, we have let them do what they do. Their success speaks for themselves. We really gave them the freedom to do their thing. We had a lot of faith in them.”
Beckham further explained the group’s desire is that the musical brings forth girl power to a new audience.
“We talked about girl power for a long, long time and we’re hoping to introduce a whole new generation. What we do individually as well is empower women and its fun – we want to have fun and we’re excited.”
“Viva Forever!” is not a rehashing of the Spice Girls’ rise to global stardom after they formed in 1994 though their hits like “Wannabe”, “Spice Up Your Life” and “Viva Forever are included. Rather the musical centers around four characters that audition for a TV talent show.
“It’s not about actually us, it’s the essence of the Spice Girls,” said Halliwell. “There is a talent show in there, but actually, really what it’s about is about friendship, it’s about motherhood and then there is a little bit of how do you juggle between success and friendship?”
Asked about how they had got along since coming together to promote and work on the musical, Halliwell replied: “We actually do have quite a good time together when it’s just us lot.”
Brown bantered with reporters, calling their questions “crap” since none had inquired about how great they look.
Are you interested in the “Spice Girls” movie?