For anyone who wishes that their life had musical accompaniment, or that everyday people spontaneously broke into song like they do in musicals, several new shows could be for you. These musicals, compiled by Erik Piepenburg of The New York Times, include Adam Overett's My Life Is a Musical and an upcoming movie from Disney, Bob the Musical.
My Life Is a Musical is about a young man, Parker, who lives in a world of song and dance that no one else can experience. It's a secret he must keep from the other people in his life, until he falls in love with a co-worker who can't experience the music. The show premieres Tuesday at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, N.Y., and will run through August 30.
Maybe it was that musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that got Overett and other composers thinking: what if you went to work one day, and everyone sang instead of talked? Meetings would be a whole lot more interesting. You could give your status report in a big, dramatic aria. If the boss came in to yell at you, it would be con molto agitato.
A similar idea inspired Bob the Musical, a Disney film still in development, about a man who wakes up to find the world he inhabits has become a musical.
Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the husband-and-wife team responsible for the song "Let It Go" from the movie Frozen, are writing the musical score to this new Disney endeavor.
The Lopez duo is also collaborating on a stage musical, Up Here, which features a man whose every thought becomes a song-and-dance number.
Also in development, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes is about a man who wakes up to discover he's in the middle of a big musical number. The show follows his attempts to escape from the elaborate musical in which he is one of the star performers.
Written by songwriting team Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, Howard Barnes will have a workshop production in August at the Village Theater in Issaquah, Wash., and will be premiered during the Festival of New Musicals in New York this fall.
Is it boredom with everyday life that caused all of these composers and writers to imagine: What if life itself had better lyrics and higher production values? What if scenes that play out in your head actually played out in real life, with Broadway-caliber talent? Here's hoping that their creativity keeps flowing. And then, maybe one day, your co-workers really will break out into song during interminable meetings.
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