Rockin’ Icons

The band has appeared in the feature films “Woodstock” and “Grease” and hosted its own TV variety series. And, beginning Sunday night, Sha Na Na will be in Thousand Oaks.

The world’s best-known rock ‘n’ roll revival group will headline “Leader of the Pack,” the Tony Award-nominated 1985 revue of songs written by Ellie Greenwich.

Sha Na Na pianist Scott Simon explains the setup:

“The script we’re doing has a sort of show around the show, with Sha Na Na throwing a little dance party and telling Nora, a 16-year-old punk, about Ellie. This is a version of a girl’s life who was a songwriter. It’s going to rock. It’ll be fun for people of all ages, and by the end of the show, people will know who Ellie Greenwich is--her heights with [husband and chief collaborator] Jeff [Barry], their breakup, a dark period and then she was redeemed.”

Greenwich--sort of a street-level Carole King--was involved in the writing of such ‘60s staples as “Hanky Panky,” “Do Wah Diddy,” “Chapel of Love,” “River Deep Mountain High” and the melodramatic title song.

Darlene Love, one of history’s most recorded background singers and the featured voice on hits including “He’s a Rebel” (not a Greenwich song) and “Not Too Young to Get Married,” starred in the original version, first mounted at the Bottom Line nightclub in New York City, then moving to Broadway’s Ambassador Theater.

“Most of Ellie’s compositions are ‘girl’ songs,” notes Simon, “and we were trying to get the right voice to do the girl songs. Melodye Perry came in and hit all the right notes. Then we found out that she’s Darlene’s niece.”

This is Sha Na Na’s first go at a book musical, natural fit though it may be. “We always thought we were musical theater,” quips Simon.

Sha Na Na, formed by members of an a cappella ensemble at Columbia University in New York City, made an indelible national impression onstage at the 1969 Woodstock music festival and in the subsequent documentary, where the members’ gold lame suits and enthusiastic versions of rock ‘n’ roll oldies such as “At the Hop” stood out dramatically among such hippie icons as Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and the Who.

Two members of that original group, John “Jocko” Marcellino and Donny York, remain with the current incarnation; “Screamin’ Scott” Simon, also a Columbia student, joined after Woodstock when the group’s original pianist decided to continue his studies in medicine. Reggie Battiste has been with the group for nine years.

In addition to its syndicated television variety series, which ran from 1977 to 1981, the band opened for acts including the Airplane. Singers who opened for the group included Don McLean (“he’d written ‘American Pie’,” says Simon, “but it wasn’t a hit yet”), Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen (“several times”).

In a way, Simon says, he doesn’t regard Sha Na Na as an oldies act, although its repertoire stems from “1955 to 1965, the golden decade before the Brits came in and ruined everything by writing their own songs.”

The music, including many of the songs co-written by Greenwich, has become “part of the culture--everybody, every age, can sing along with ‘Be My Baby.’ ”

DETAILS

“Leader of the Pack” runs Sunday through Jan. 14 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Performances are Sunday at 7 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Jan. 13 and 14 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $29.50-$38.50, available through Ticketmaster outlets, by telephone at 583-8700 or from the Civic Arts Plaza box office. Special rates are available for groups of 20 or more; call 522-8010. Note that the Jan. 7 performance is classified as a preview, with no press invited but no reduction in price. For more information, call 449-2787.

Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.