Metropolis (musical)
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| Metropolis | |
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| Original Film Poster | |
|---|---|
| Music | Joe Brooks |
| Lyrics | Joe Brooks Dusty Hughes |
| Book | Dusty Hughes |
| Based upon | 1927 film, Metropolis |
| Productions | 1989 West End 1990 Cicero, Illinois 2002 Salem, Oregon |
Metropolis is a musical based on the 1927 silent movie of the same name that was staged at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in 1989. The music was written by Joe Brooks who also collaborated with Dusty Hughes to write the lyrics. The show was directed by Jerome Savary. The cast included Judy Kuhn (Maria/Futura), Brian Blessed (John Freeman), Graham Bickley (Steven), Jonathan Adams (Warner), Paul Keown (Jeremiah) and Stifyn Parri (George).
This version of the musical made its North American Premiere in 1990 at a community college. Morton College's theatre, also known as the Jedlicka Performing Arts Center, is located in Cicero, Illinois. In 1994, an elaborate staging by Morton College Theatre Department's Dante Orfei produced by Christopher Eck and Futura Productions, Ltd. began a nine month run at Cicero's Olympic Theatre.
After that time Joe Brooks worked with American Randy Bowser at editing the already finished musical. By 2002 they had created a more complete libretto to the show, and it was first produced at the Pentacle Theater in Salem, Oregon.
Main changes between the silent film and the musical are name changes for many of the characters (Joh Fredersen = John Freeman, Freder Fredersen = Steven, Rotwang = Warner), slightly different religious themes, a completely different ending, and a larger focus on the children ("Metropolis the Musical").
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[edit] Synopsis
The city of Metropolis, in around the year 2000. The workers operate vast machines below the city. They power the privileged lives of the upper class on the surface of the city. For the workers, it is forbidden to read and to learn. They never see daylight.
The city was built by John Freeman, who now runs it like a despot. His son Steven lives the privileged life of the sons of the upper class, playing at games and taking his pleasures in the Eternal Gardens, ignorant of the dark secrets below the city.
That is, until he sees a young woman from the lower depths of the city. Maria escapes briefly from "down below", showing some of the children of the workers how the rich enjoy themselves. In pursuit of this vision, Steven ends up at one of the machines: shocked by seeing how the workers suffer for no apparent purpose, he trades places with worker 11811 (George). There is a group of discontents who attend talks by Maria in the catacombs.
Meanwhile the inventor Warner has developed the human-like machine 'Futura'. John Freeman wants to use the machine to deceive his son Steven and the workers as an attempt to break down the burgeoning resistance. Freeman wants the machine to take the form of Maria and to use it to discredit and destroy her...
[edit] Musical Numbers
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[edit] Future
It has been announced that the musical will be staged again in early 2007 in Berlin, Germany, produced and directed by Sabine Otto with a slightly reworked score by Joe Brooks.
[edit] External links
- Joe Brooks at the IMDb
- Judy Kuhn at the IMDb
- Brian Blessed at the IMDb
- Stifyn Parri at the IMDb
- Graham Bickley at the IMDb
- Jerome Savary at the IMDb
- Dusty Hughes at the IMDb
- Paul Keown at the IMDb
- Metropolis at the "Guide to Musical Theatre"
Works Cited:
Personal interview, Randy Bowser, March 2004.
"Metropolis the Musical." Randy Bowser. <http://rbowser.tripod.com/metropolis/indexc.html>
