Rights ground Wonder Woman song

Wonder Woman has had her wings clipped in this year's comedy festival in Wellington.

The sister of Xena star Lucy Lawless has been forced to cut a song from her comedy, opening in Wellington today, after being refused performance rights.

Josie Ryan's show Sister Wonderwoman was to feature the theme to the 1970s TV series Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter.

The catchy theme includes the lyrics "In your satin tights, fighting for your rights.

"And the old red, white and blue."

Ryan, 30, had permission to play the theme song when her show was staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000 and in Auckland last November.

But Ryan said that when she contacted the theme song's publishers, Warner Chapell, in Australia two weeks ago she found she could not use the song in her Wellington show.

The Auckland-based actor said she was told performance rights had been withdrawn around the world because a Wonder Woman movie may be produced.

"It's such a bummer.

"We ran through the options - 'do we give it a go and hope no one finds out?'," Ryan said.

As a result, the show will have an original Wonder Woman theme song, with "cheesy" lyrics written by Ryan.

Ryan's show tells the story of "a Hollywood superhero has-been" and her "humdrum, homespun sister from the sticks".

Ryan, who started taking acting lessons in 1997, said the show was not a thinly disguised account of her being in the shadow of her successful older sister.

But she was comfortable with the audience trying to work out which scenes in the show were inspired by real-life incidents in the Ryan family.

- NZPA