New York Musical Theatre Festival,

Sept. 29 (2 PM) and 30 (11:30 AM and 5 PM)

Manhattan Theatre Club’s Creative Center, 311 West 43rd St.

Readings

Cast:
DeeGee Brandemour (Granny)*
Michael Cone (Hugh, General Kril)
Bernardo De Paula (Blake, Zur)*
Marc dela Cruz (Marty, Lieutenant Parak)
James Donegan (The Zandozan, Stage Directions)
Brian Earp (Alex Rogan, Beta)
Paul Jackel (Harry, Enduran)
Bruce Kimmel (Otis, Grig)
Joseph Kolinski (Centauri)*
Georga Osborne (Elaine, Manzar)*
Abby Duke Polalrd (Jenny, Miss July, Segeant Taura)
Catherine Remmert (Darlene Zur's Assistant)*
Michael Restaino (Louis)
Jonathan Richard Sandler (Jerry, Gnur)
Maureen Silliman (Miriam Rogan)                                                                                                                                                                                 Jessica Skerrit (Maggie)

*Member of the original 2004 Cast

This sci-fi musical romance starts off in Spring 1983 in a Sierra Nevadas trailer park. Teenager Alex Rogan's hardworking, unrewarded life takes an unexpected turn when he breaks a video game record and is spirited away by the game's inventor, the alien huckster Centauri, to fight for the Star League in another galaxy. Beta, a body double droid, covers Alex's absence with his mother, brother and beloved girlfriend Maggie while Alex battles the evil Zur and the Ko-dan Armada. Comic misunderstandings between Beta and the trailer park residents (and shape-shifting alien assassins in pursuit of "Alex" on Earth) alternate with Alex's heroic achievements as the universe's last hope.
 

October 15th - October 30, 2004

Music by Skip Kennon
Book by Fred Landau
Adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Betuel

7:30 PM: The Last Starfighter
Book by Fred Landau
Music and Lyrics by Skip Kennon
Based upon the screenplay by Jonathan Betuel

From the beloved 1980s sci-fi film comes the cosmically entertaining The Last Starfighter. Alex Rogan is eighteen and stuck in his small town with nothing much to do but master his favorite video game. Little does he know that the video game has been placed on Earth by Centauri, a con man from another galaxy desperate to save his people. And when Centauri offers Alex membership in an elite cadre of space pilots charged with protecting the universe, Alex has to reach inside himself to discover his true potential — the universe and his life depend on it!
 

Interview for the sixth annual festival of new musicals

Why did you choose to write this particular musical?

Fred Landau (FL): When I first saw the film The Last Starfighter, it hooked into an idea I’d always found fascinating, that something you’d least expect would change your life could indeed change your life. And after working on the book for a while at the BMI Workshop, I showed the work I had done to Skip.

Skip Kennon (SK): I’d thought this material could make a good musical from the first time I saw it, but I didn’t think I could get the rights. So when Fred did the research and found out the rights to musicalize the screenplay might be available, I jumped at the chance to work on it. It had right from the start that special element that sang – the story of a little guy being placed in an extraordinary situation. Plus, the screenplay’s set-up had a real musical feel, with the Cinderella-like kid not able to go to the lake because of his chores, the Oz-like yearning to be in a better place, a Tommy-like element of a boy being a whiz at a video game and that ability leading to further adventure.

FL: And just to add, of course, the film had Robert Preston in full Music Man mode taking the boy to an Oz-like far-away land, and the musical

possibilities became even more clear.

Who or what are your inspirations?

SK: Inspirations for this show are the elements of Jonathan Betuel’s wonderful screenplay that merge sci-fi with romance. Then add the idea that someone can come from nowhere and wind up with great accomplishments, if only his or her true talents are tapped into. 

FL: And sometimes those talents can be tapped into totally by accident, with the right person taking an interest or the right external factors falling into place.

Which comes first, words or music?

SK: The book! In writing the songs, I generally wrote the lyrics before the music, taking cues from either the draft of the book or from the screenplay, as well as discussions where we’d just sit in a room talking about what and how much should be sung versus spoken.

 How long have you been working on the piece, and have you enjoyed the journey?

SK: We actually got the rights in the underlying screenplay of the film in 1999. There was a good deal of down time in writing the show, because we were both involved with other projects during the period from getting the rights until we had a complete draft. At first we had been pretty literal with our adaptation, but realized that even with $20 million, we could never outdo the effects of the film industry. The show really clicked for us when we discovered the theatrical conceit of the trailer park people telling the story, and then the adaptation came together in months.

FL: Steps along the way included presentations of parts of the book at the BMI Workshop, where the fellow Workshop members would actually read the script material aloud. That enabled us to test a few different approaches and actually hear the book material with people playing the roles, even switching actor types from one presentation to another. It was a very enjoyable experimental journey. 

What do you hope to get out of the presentation of your work at Village Theatre?

SK & FL: Of course, we’d be delighted if the Village Theatre wanted to give the show a production! But for this particular presentation, we hope to take a look at the adjustments we’ve made to the book and score since the last version of the show. The history of Village Theatre Festival suggests that it’s a good environment to see if those adjustments play before an audience that clearly loves musicals. We’re very grateful to Village Theatre for the opportunity to be part of the Festival.