"Tonya & Nancy" | the rock opera?

PORTLAND — A musical version of the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal is set to open Feb. 21 in Portland, Harding's hometown.

"Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera" features 20 freshly crafted rock 'n' roll songs bearing such titles as "Whip Her Butt," "Watch Your Back" and "When You Wake Up Sleeping in Your Car in Estacada."

On Jan. 6, 1994, a man clubbed Kerrigan, Harding's Olympic figure-skating rival, on the right knee as she left a practice session for the national skating championship. Six days later, Harding's bodyguard confessed to the attack and implicated Harding, her ex-husband and a couple of friends in a conspiracy to knock Kerrigan out of the competition.

Two months later, Harding pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution in the case and was banned for life by the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

"The whack is only part of their wacky, wacky world," said Don Horn, producer and director of the new show.

Horn said he first had the notion to stage the show after reading a newspaper article describing how Elizabeth Searle, a Massachusetts novelist, and her niece, Abigail Al-Doory, a classical composer, had written and staged a one-act chamber opera based on the Harding-Kerrigan affair. He liked the idea, he said, but thought it could improve if the script delved deeper into the skaters' histories, personalities and entourages.

"Why did these girls ever get to where they came to be? ... Maybe it needs to be something else, like 'Jerry Springer: The Opera.' "

Horn contacted Searle, who wrote the original libretto, and they have collaborated ever since, beefing up the script and writing new music. They enlisted help from composer and arranger Michael Teoli, whose résumé includes work on music for "Bee Movie," "The Simpsons Movie" and "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King."

The result includes "incredibly catchy" music, said Searle, a self-described rock 'n' roller and novelist who devoured newspaper clippings about the Harding-Kerrigan scandal and its aftermath. She used direct quotes from the clips when she wrote the libretto for the chamber opera, and she dredged up more juicy details, Searle said, for the rock opera.

"I've been haunted by this story for years in my writing life," she said. "This is the first time I feel like: Finally, I've said everything I want to say. ... Every aspect of the story that interested me" is in the new show's script or lyrics.

When asked whether he'll invite Harding, who now lives in Washington, an ebullient Horn replied: "C'mon, girl!"