What We Once Felt by Anne Marie Healy is being produced at the LTC3 theater, part of the Lincoln Center campus. As near as I can glean from reading all the reviews, it takes place in a woman-only future, where you get pregnant by swallowing a special pill — which can be downloaded off the internet. But this otherwise idyllic future world has a caste system: Women are divided into Keepers, who are beautiful and perfect, and Tradepacks, who have some "preexisting condition" that may make them unhealthy. The ugly, unwanted Tradepacks do all the crappy jobs, except for a few who are able to pass as Keepers. There's a movement afoot to get rid of all the Tradepacks, by convincing them that they can go to Paradise if they all die.

Talking to New York Magazine, Healy explains the reasoning behind the Keeper/Tradepack split:

It started with the health-care debate, and people with preexisting conditions being denied health care. In this world, the information about what diseases people had and their preexisting conditions became part of a database, so that the society began to divide into two parts. There's the world of the Keepers, who are supposedly perfectly healthy, and they're allowed to procreate and they're allowed to live the life of the Haves, and there's the part of the society that has been genetically sequenced, and there's no indication that they will be sick, they've just been systematically marginalized.

And meanwhile, book publishing is all but obsolete — and an ambitious young writer, Macy O. Blonsky, wants to have her novel be the last print book ever published. (I'm wondering if anybody would be reading the last print book ever published — presumably it's the last book because people have already stopped reading them?) In any case, Macy makes a faustian bargain with a book publisher, Claire Monsoon — Claire is secretly a Tradepack who's passing as a Keeper, and she wants to borrow Macy's "scancard" so she can trick the social apparatus into letting her download a baby and get pregnant.

It all sounds very silly, and more than a little contrived — but also potentially fun. NewYorkTheatreGuide.com gives it one star out of five, but other reviews are a fair bit more upbeat. In any case, it's always nice to see a new take on dystopia.

Variety reports that the work stoppage is down to "cash flow obstacles" that Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment and other producers are already trying to resolve, and offers the possible explanation that the problem is simply mobilizing money already committed to the show, which has already cost more than $40 million (Alan Cummings' Green Goblin doesn't come cheap). This current work stoppage would appear to be the second in as many months; the New York Post reported last month that a work stoppage due to a problem with permits had been resolved. That story, however, also talked about rumors that the production was looking for additional funds from existing investors after a bank loan for the show hadn't come through. One unnamed producer was quoted as being pessimistic about the show's financial success:

By the time they're done building the show and the theater, they could easily be spending $50 million. They'll have to run at capacity for five years just to break even. That is impossible.

Officially, a rep for the show told Variety that the current problems won't affect the show's February 25th 2010 opening date, but we're more than a little unconvinced... and curious about just what's going on over there. Should we cancel our plans for a big Broadway night out already?

'Spider-Man' musical halted? [Variety]

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will, as rumored for months, star Evan Rachel Wood as Peter Parker's long-term love interest Mary Jane, alongside X2: X-Men United's Nightcrawler, Alan Cummings, as arch-villain Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. The actor playing the eponymous hero remains unknown, however; although Wood's co-star in Across the Universe, Jim Sturgess, has been linked with the role many times over the last few months, open auditions were also held for the part earlier this year.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will officially open in February next year, following previews running throughout January.

Evan Rachel Wood catches 'Spider' [Variety]

Blogger Michael Avila was one such visitor, and he was excited by what he saw:

They had video of actors in harnesses flying through the air on wires, along with some special effects that looked to be in the early stages. There was also a shot of a drawing of Spidey's Rogue's Gallery, featuring familiar faces such as Electro, Carnage and Sandman... [I]t looks to have visual effects unlike anything Broadway's ever seen (makes sense, with the estimated $40 million price tag). There were two shots shown (one of which I caught in a pic) that featured these effects. More important, I glimpsed one guy flying around with some kind of wingspan, not in any way resembling how Spidey would look web-swinging around town. My first instinct was this was a look at one of the villains in the show. The Vulture, maybe? Morbius?? The Green Goblin perhaps, although it did not look like someone sitting on any type of Glider.

While we're as excited as the next fans at the idea of Spider-Man belting out new songs by Bono and the Edge (which is to say, slightly unconvinced and concerned that it may be a disaster), the mention of Carnage as a potential villain sends an unpleasant chill down our collective spine. Will we have to sit through lame 1990s knock-off villains as well as rock opera?

Exclusive!! Spider-Man Musical Info (sort of) [Popzone]

We've told you about the musical before, but with the show's opening just over a week away, Variety talked to those involved about what audiences can expect from the show. For his part, Coraline creator Neil Gaiman is happy with the musical:

There were people who grumbled about how faithful or otherwise the film was... Now, I can point to the stage play and say, this is completely faithful to the book. On the other hand, you have to come to terms with a world in which Coraline is played by a 50-year-old lady.

That "50-year-old lady" is actually 56-year-old Jayne Houdyshell, who plays the nine-year-old eponymous star of the story beside David Greenspan, who adapted Gaiman's novel for the stage as well as starring as Coraline's Other Mother. Director Leigh Silverman isn't worried about the age difference in casting:

It's not that she's parodying a child, but that in a way she's not playing it as a child. She's just sort of playing a character who happens to be 9.

The unexpected casting, of course, is just the norm for a show dominated by pianos of different size, shapes and even purposes. Composer Stephin Merritt explains the show's use of "prepared piano":

Prepared piano was done by John Cage in the '40s and '50s... It consists of putting erasers and screws and playing cards in between the strings of the piano, and it converts the piano into an 88-key percussion orchestra. No two notes sound alike.

Currently in previews, Coraline officially opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York on June 1st.

'Coraline' musical comes to life [Variety]

MTV breaks the news that the ill-fated 1960s Superman musical It's A Bird... It's A Plane... It's Superman is set to be revived next Summer in the Texan city, complete with new special effects - well, understandably - and more surprisingly, a new script from Marvel Comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Something that will make Jezebel readers happy) to frame the songs from the original production. Director Kevin Moriarty promises,

There'll be nothing mild-mannered about this action-packed show.

to which we have only one response: It's a Superman musical revival in Dallas, Texas. Exactly how excited are we supposed to be?

Revamped Superman Musical ‘It's A Bird… It's A Plane' To Premiere In 2010 [MTV Splash Page]

Sadly, Stephin Merritt won't be performing the songs he composed for the Coraline musical, but you can listen to little cuts from a demo with Merritt's vocals, and yes they are amazing. The music will be performed by a piano orchestra. What's that, you ask? Apparently a piano orchestra is a collection of a pianos from "a toy piano, a prepared and a prepared piano (a piano that has had its sound altered by attaching objects – such as tinfoil, rubber bands and playing cards – to the strings)." So while it's sad to imagine anyone else singing Merritt's work, this piano orchestra helps soften the blow quite a bit.

The musical was adapted by playwright David Greenspan and is being directed by Leigh Silverman. A special limited engagement runs on May 7th and will run until June 20th at New York City's Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Ticket for the performance goes on sale Monday March, 23 on the MCC Theater website.

The show - due to premiere in London this April before heading to the States - features the scores from the six movies, rearranged by John Williams himself and performed by an orchestra in front of a backdrop of re-edited footage from the movies, creating a 90 minute visual narrative accompanying the music. But that's not all that you'll see when you visit the show, according to Rolling Stone magazine:

[Tour producer, Spencer] Churchill said A Musical Journey is bigger than 90 to 95 percent of all rock tours because of the stage, the LED screen, and all the vintage Star Wars costumes that will be displayed within several thousand square-feet of "front of the house" space each night. Churchill can't detail specific artifacts from the exhibition but said, "It will be a lot of stuff. A few of them have never been seen before."

"Let's put it this way," says [Churchill's partner, Greg] Perloff, "We could sell tickets just for the exhibit and people will feel like they've got their money's worth."

This means respecting the movies and the fans, according to Churchill... which, in turn, means that you shouldn't expect to see someone dressed as Darth Vader appearing in front of the orchestra to try and get everyone to boo him:

Certainly you want it to be entertaining without it being kitschy and I think we are doing that completely. It's not a bunch of shtick. It's not R2-D2 going across the stage - that's what it's not going to be.

As long as the 90-minute re-edit of the movies excises Jar-Jar, I'll be happy.

Flick Image by PowerPig.

LucasFilm Says "Star Wars: A Musical Journey" Bound For U.S. [Rolling Stone]

Here's how San Francisco-based Nachtrieb describes his play:

Jo, a female journlism student, and Jules, a male marine biologist, meet in a subterranean biology lab for an erotic "casual encounter." But there's nothing casual whatsoever about this particular evening. Will meaningless sex have meaning? What's going on in the fish tank? And who is that woman, Barbara, pulling levers in the corner? Something is about to explode.

And here's how the Woolly Mammoth Theater describes it:

Can the apocalypse be the ultimate aphrodisiac? It certainly ups the ante when Jules, a marine biology grad student (Aubrey Deeker), attempts a random hook up through a personal ad that reads 'Sex to change the course of the world…' When he gets a response from a randy journalism major named Jo (Kimberly Gilbert), they meet at the subterranean lab where Jules studies fish sleep cycles for signs of impending global doom. This simple online connection quickly moves far beyond casual sex into the realms of ontogeny, phylogeny, evolution and extinction — all overseen by an odd docent-like woman named Barbara (Sarah Marshall). In this provocative sci-fi fantasy, the future of humanity hangs in the balance as irreverent young playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb asks: do we control our own fate or is someone else pulling the levers?

You can read the first 20 pages of the play here.

[Playbill and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb]

I'm as dubious about experimental theater as the next person, but I watched Condon's strangely moving proposal for the play, tentatively called "Case," and became entranced. He's got footage of Ray Radke, the radical who will play Case, talking about drugs and being a leftist activist in 1960s Missouri. Then he contrasts that with footage of the Baptist theater troupe's performance of a Shakespeare play, complete with a pretty awesome swordfight. And you get some glimpses of the giant red barn/stage, which is near the trailer park outside Columbia where Condon's stepfather lives.

I want to see a documentary about the making of this play, much more than I want to see the play itself. It sounds like total glorious madness. And I was sold on Condon when I saw some of his other art, which includes recreating medieval religious scenes in videogames, and an installation at an art festival comprised simply of several people playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons where every character was lawful evil (the piece was called "Lawful Evil"). He did another piece where he staged deathmatches with local members of the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is high art for nerds and I like it!

Neuromancer Play Proposal [via Tomorrow Museum]

Haydon writes:

At the National Student Drama Festival there came a piece called When You Cry in Space Your Tears Go Everywhere, made by a group of recent graduates of Dartington College called Tinned Fingers. It absolutely captured the zeitgeist around my generation's relationship to science fiction. At the start of the piece - a lovely, lo-fi, make-a-virtue-of-liveness performance constructed around childhood ideas of heroism and exploration - one of the performers reading out a list of thoughts and descriptions suddenly offers the gem: "space is a bit 70s".

It's a great line, primarily because it is so accurate. It seamlessly pinpoints a whole feeling that can be summed up by the T-shirt slogan "This Was Supposed to Be the Future" - the idea that we have now passed all the major dates that, when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s, signified the future: Space 1999, 2000AD, 2001 A Space Odyssey. Rarely have I heard a collective penny drop so loudly in an audience.

Perhaps this is part of the reason that sci-fi so rarely makes it onto the stage. As well as being regarded with a certain warmth, there's also a sense of mistrust around the genre. Writers fear that it's somehow a bit uncool - a bit 70s - and so we get interminable plays about Urgent Contemporary Issues rather than coolly speculative projections.

Is theatre sci-fi's final frontier? [Guardian Unlimited]