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COASTERBOY - THE MUSICAL
NICK HUTSON presents an article and downloadble pdf libretto of his podcast musical.
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How many musicals can you name that are set in theme parks? Thought so. Not many. (However, Big does have a scene in a carnival complete with rides!) But not many musicals are set entirely in a theme park. Until now.
One could argue and say this is an "internet musical". Written for an Internet radio show and podcast, and distributed online this show has not been "performed" anywhere other than on the ipods and computers of thousands of devoted listeners of this particular podcast and in the studio it was created. However, I do feel sorry for the audience as they're not receiving a Tony award winning performance my singing is nothing to
well
sing and dance about! Mike Collins, the main presenter of CoasterRadio wasn't one to shun my singing commenting that he liked the fact I sung all the parts; it really made the musical mine.
CoasterRadio.com is a theme park and rollercoaster podcast that I grew interested in about halfway through its 2 year run and I was instantly hooked with the presenters' humour, wit, intelligence and slick production values that their weekly podcast provided.
They presented a normal Joe's view on coasters and theme parks and I admired that. Due to their everyday look at theme park topics, they also made fun of the archetypal coaster nerds, which sometimes appear on various theme park and rollercoaster message boards. This, they called a Coaster boy. Thankfully, Eric B, one of the show's highly skilled comedic presenters had created this character complete with a lisp and an incredibly sourly grating personality.
So, how did the musical come about, I hear you scream? Let's rewind back to January of 2006, when Collins wrote on the Coasterradio.com forum:
"Just as in Buffy, we're planning an all-musical version of CoasterRadio.com soon.
The whole show centers around a coaster enthusiast named CoasterBoy who haunts a local theme park. He runs around the park with a white half-mask and a long cape telling people that their coaster facts and figures are wrong.
Whenever a ride breaks down, all of the ride ops look around and blame it on him. But of course, he shows up to blame the designer and claim that he could do it better if given the chance.
I wonder what songs would be in that musical?
I saw Phantom (of the opera) last year. It's ripe for a CoasterBoy parody."
So I saw this one day at work during my lunch break, and my brain started ticking. The story was practically written for me! Thanks Mike. All I had to do was, you know, write it!
So, in the 55 minutes left I had for my lunch hour, I jotted out some lyrics and then deleted them all by accident. Whoops. That night, at home, I rewrote what I could remember and, as always is the case, came up with some much better lyrics.
Halfway through, after stealing Collins' story of the dilapidated figure of CoasterBoy haunting a local theme park (Thanks Coasterradio.com! Ding!) I thought the story needed even more of a conflict and the CoasterRadio crew. Therefore, I added a whole back story of how CoasterBoy turned out to be hiding in the underground caverns of the theme park and why he wishes to hold hostage the crew of CoasterRadio.com. Upon a review on the actual podcast, the entire team decided it was "strange, and mildly creepy" which is just what I was going for! The whole concept is strange.
"Gosh this sounds completely entertaining
and mildly creepy"
Of course, I tried my best to make the score intelligent along with (what I hope) are some witty lyrics, too. I wrote an overture which I hardly ever do. I thought reverting to traditional musical theatre structure would add to the comedic effect of the score; i.e. by having this ridiculous scenario be taken completely seriously. I created a leitmotif for Coaster boy himself that is featured heavily in the score and had fun with a range of musical styles and influences.
My score makes use of Rock n' Roll, Lounge Jazz, Funk, Hard Rock and blatant pastiches of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alan Menken and Buddy Baker (composer of Disney's theme park attractions Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion). Don't ask me why. I was writing for an audience (the same audience as CoasterRadio) so I was trying to fulfil unseen criteria to make everyone happy.
A popular section of the score that stands out for me is "The Jeopardy of CoasterRadio" where I ripped off the score for the Jeopardy TV Quiz show to introduce the classic "Great Debate" section of CoasterRadio, which made a "cameo" appearance in the musical.
Non-fans of CoasterRadio will find a lot of the references in this musical will go over their heads. The musical libretto is literally littered with CoasterRadio references with everything from the afore mentioned "Great Debate", to the musical taking place in the "CoasterRadio.com Amphitheatre", to mentioning the teams dislike for teenagers at theme parks to referencing CoasterRadio's friendly rival podcast: "In The Loop".
A recently added song in the musical is actually not by me at all. It was a song written by Mike to the theme music of "Dukes of Hazard" summing up in 55 seconds what I took 26 minutes to say. I added it as a coda on the end of the show purely because of the fact it was written by a true member of the CoasterRadio crew and featured Mike's great singing. I couldn't add it earlier on to co-inside with the release of the musical because the CoasterBoy song (by Collins) wasn't played on CoasterRadio until the final episode. So now it has a place in the musical, and I am happy it's there.
Writing for a theme park fan audience enabled me to write lots of theme park references into the libretto. I set the musical in a great theme park called Cedar Point (the epicentre of theme park enthusiasts) so in a list song we are greeted with every coaster at the park sung by the ensemble to represent their excitement at being at this great park. I was also able to quote stats, figures, ride manufacturers and other nerdy information that would mean nothing to a non theme park fan.
The reception, however, went beyond anything I could ever think of. Listeners of the show literally said it was the best thing ever! Success! It even got some air play on an episode.
So, you're holding the libretto for Coaster Boy The Musical: my first full (or half full) musical. Maybe it will be elongated one day
I hope so. It certainly is entertaining and there's certainly already an audience for it. Thanks, Mike for enabling me to do this musical it's been a great up-hill journey with lots of great airtime.
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