Play Based On Early Years Of VAN HALEN Opening Off-Broadway

According to The Pulse Of Radio, an unauthorized play based on the early years of VAN HALEN and the lives of singer David Lee Roth and guitarist Eddie Van Halen will be staged off-Broadway in New York City next year. Titled "Eddie And Dave", the play will open at the Atlantic Theater Company on January 10 and run through February 10.

The most unique thing about the production is that the two artists will be played by women: Amy Staats, who wrote the piece, will star as "Eddie" while Megan Hill will appear as "Dave." The show also features characters named Val, played by actor Omer Salem and perhaps meant to be Eddie's ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli, and Al, played by actress Adina Verson, who may be a version of Eddie's brother, drummer Alex Van Halen.

The production avoids using the VAN HALEN name, although the promotional art uses hairstyles that look suspiciously like those worn by Roth and Van Halen in the eighties. The theater describes the play as a "raucous retelling of the rise and fall of Pasadena’s most groundbreaking eighties rockers told through the foggy lens of a lonely, out-of-work MTV VJ." Vanessa Asilla plays the VJ. It will touch on "hubris, friendship, family, fame, musical genius and what happens when the person you need is the one you find most irritating."

The real-life VAN HALEN has been on hiatus for a while now, with the band's last gig taking place in 2015. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the group's classic self-titled debut LP, but there's no word on any sort of commemoration of that milestone.