USA's famed Tonya-Nancy icy rivalry skates into opera

New York: It was the knee whack that obsessed millions and turned figure skating into an international tabloid frenzy. A good twenty years later, it's coming to the New York stage decked in sequins.

Nancy Kerrigan performs during an exhibition event at the Izod Center in New Iersey on December 11, 2013

‘Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera,' tells of the blood, sweat and tears behind the fierce rivalry between elegant figure skating princess Nancy Kerrigan and hard-edged Tonya Harding. Kerrigan was queen of the ice: the brunette beauty dressed in Vera Wang, a mistress of million-dollar endorsements, who personified classy elegance in an image-obsessed sport.

Harding was the gutsy, brash-talking athlete, who overcame poverty and an abusive, alcoholic mother to become the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition. When Kerrigan was whacked on the knee in an attack ordered by Harding's ex-husband before the 1994 US Championships, the celebrity-gossip world exploded.

There had been nothing like it in the sport. "Dark yet perky, is to me the feel of this show," says American novelist Elizabeth Searle, who wrote the libretto about the two women. "There is all this glittery, sparkly fun... but underneath are all these dark currents and this brutal act, and that to me is a very interesting combination in the opera," added Searle.

The show billed as ‘dark comedy done with heart' makes its New York debut tomorrow as part of the city's annual Musical Theatre Festival, a spring board for eclectic new, off-Broadway productions.