Haven't yet heard of Brenda Bergman? Well, a new musical she's penned about her life may change that. The show, Endangered Species: The Brenda Bergman Story, will get an hour-long presentation for backers at an Off-Broadway space tonight, Nov. 17, at 6 PM.

With music and lyrics by Bergman and Gabriel Rotello, and a book by Bergman and director Kevin Malony, this piece showcases Bergman's intense, big-style singing and a self-mocking sex appeal. (Detour Magazine once wrote she had "an ability to penetrate a song's essence like Marianne Faithful on Prozac.")

A member of the original downtown shows, Neon Women and Women Behind Bars, Bergman will be backed on Species by The Bodacious Ta-Tas, under the musical direction of Jeff Kazee. The Ta Tas, Myra Schiller and Micki French, were formerly known as the Bon-Bons and have accompanied Buster Poindexter, Ronnie Spector, and the Delancey Street Hawaiians.

Thommie Walsh, a Tony winner for My One And Only and A Day In Hollywood, A Night In The Ukraine, choreographs. Walsh was also in the original cast of A Chorus Line.

Here's a quote from Bergman promo-bio: "Brenda Bergman has starred in other people's plays...and made them look better than they actually were. She once went to Beauty School...and made herself look better than she actually was. Now she's written a musical that will make you feel better than you actually are. See it before they make the movie." Bergman, a cult figure since playing Cheri in Tom Eyen's Women Behind Bars, is resurfacing after several years in New Orleans doing local theatre (Psycho Beach Party) and running her own recycling company.

-- By David Lefkowitz