Thursday, March 22, 2007

You too can be the star of a bloated self-indulgent musical...

...just hire Aaron Sorkin to write it, as the Flaming Lips have done.

I am not making this up. The Flaming Lips are bringing their 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots to the stage in New York.

So rarely does such a perfect storm of pretention manifest itself in one project. Yes, Sorkin wrote A Few Good Men, so he is technically qualified to work on this musical on some level, but still, I don't like where this is going.

I am so clearly not a devotee of the lively arts, but even I can see the horror that could unfold. After all, they do shoot musicals onto film as well, cast with the creme de la creme of the currently hot actors and actresses in Hollywood. And because the Flaming Lips have a popular following, well, I have a feeling that at some point I am going to hear Bebe Neuwirth or Patti Lupone singing "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" on a news program or talk show, and then I will lose it. That will be the breaking point of the Western Cultural Experience for me. Or how about "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" night on American Idol while a cast member of the West Wing sits beside the judges' table weeping. I also know that as soon as I typed that, it is exactly what is going to happen, because no one had thought of doing that until I entertained the idea(which is the only entertaining thing ABOUT this whole show).

It is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Though with this news, I think it is VERY safe to assume that indeed the sinking ship Studio 60 has finally hit the ocean floor after being swept away by popular apathy, which is a silver lining to this rather threatening cloud.

3 comments:

Greg said...

This sounds so awesome. I don't care where it plays-- I'm going.

robkroese said...

That's freaking weird. I keep watching Studio 60 out of a strange sense of obligation.

MC, Ccme play in my caption contest!

MC said...

Greg: To each their own I guess.

Diesel: I think I will.