Go! feature

Most people have never even heard of Ellie Greenwich, but she was such a powerhouse of a person that it apparently takes two actresses to put her on stage.

“I had no idea about her, but I knew all the songs,” said Katie Buchanan, one of those actresses in the upcoming Greater  Hamilton Civic Theatre production of “Leader of the Pack.”

“I had no idea what the play was about except that it was girl group music,” said Julie Joyce-Smith, the other actress. “But I’d never heard of Ellie Greenwich, but it turns out she was one of the most celebrated songwriters of her time.”

Greenwich was the author or co-author of dozens of Top 40 tunes in the early 1960s, popularizing groups like the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes and the Crystals with tunes like “Be My Baby,” “Da Do Ron Ron,” “Chapel of Love” and the tune from which the play gets its title.

“She was pretty feisty and ahead of her time,” Joyce-Smith said. “She was very independent and career-minded, not very family oriented.”

“She grew up in a Jewish New York family,” Buchanan said. “Her parents wanted her to be a teacher, but she wanted to be a songwriter and started out doing some back-up singing.”

The story is framed as a flashback with Joyce-Smith playing the present-day Ellie and Buchanan as the memory Ellie.

“The play is about how she came up with ideas for the songs she wrote,” Buchanan said. “She ends up marrying (songwriter) Jeff Barry and a lot of the show has to do with their relationship. She was very driven to be a performer and writer, but he wanted to have a family. She wanted to be married, but didn’t like the idea of having a family.”

Director Janet Manley said she chose the show because it’s the kind of music that Civic Theatre audiences love.

“I directed ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ (about the songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller) a few years ago and it was very popular,” she said. “These composers all worked together in New York at the same time.”