Who was Dusty Springfield? We all think we know the answer – an international superstar loved by millions who never learned to love herself; a tortured soul forced into hibernation in California because of her sexuality; a washed-up has-been whose repatriation by the next generation of recording artists was cut short by her death from cancer. Poor Dusty, tragic Dusty.
The truth, like the woman, is rather more complex, and the many shades of her personality have been captured in Dusty, a new musical written by Jonathan Harvey and directed by Maria Friedman.