WALMARTOPIA Off-Broadway

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:16pm

Walmartopia Musical Headed for Off-Broadway



Walmartopia The Musical!, which had its New York debut at the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival, is headed to the Minetta Lane Theatre for a commercial run. The irreverent new musical political satire will begin previews on August 21 and open on Labor Day (September 3), directed by Daniel Goldstein. Casting will be announced shortly.

Walmartopia features a book by Catherine Capellaro and music and lyrics by Andrew Rohn. The plot centers on Vicki Latrell, a single mom and Wal-Mart employee who speaks out against her company's working conditions and finds herself and her young daughter jettisoned to 2036, into a future where Wal-Mart dominates the entire world.

The show's production material notes that 100 million Americans shop every week at Wal-Mart, which ranks as the nation's, and the world's, largest employer with 1.6 million "associates" (as the company refers to its employees). The musical features the singing head of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

The Walmartopia creative team includes Wendy Seyb (choreography), David Korins (sets), Miranda Hoffman (costumes), Ben Stanton (lights), and is produced by Leading Light, LLC and Outside the Big Box Productions, LLC.


Updated On: 6/27/07 at 03:16 PM

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:19pm

This looked interesting. Anyone see it? Is the music any good? I love fun, surreal musicals.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 5:08pm

I ushered at this show last summer. Worst thing I have ever seen. They took something that had the potential to be good and made it look stupid.

Updated On: 6/27/07 at 05:08 PM

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 5:10pm

That's not good to hear. All too uncommon, though, unfortunately.

Posted: 6/27/07 at 5:43pm

We saw it last August at the Henry Street Settlement, and while I wouldn't say it should have won a Pulitzer for its incisive treatment of wage slaves and labor unions, it was a fun, silly and entertaining musical -- and very kid-safe. Ironically, it was right around the time Wal-Mart was trying to slip a store into Queens, so many of the plot points were in the news.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 8:15pm

I agree, DancingThruLife. I saw it too - What a great idea, but weakly executed. A forgettable score. And a REALLY stupid wrap-up that made no sense at all.

[Elphie4ever]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 8:40pm

it sounds interesting...
after watching walmart the high cost of low prices i don't shop at walmart anymore

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 8:43pm

Well, I'm guesing it probably has changed a lot since the Fringe, so we'll see. I'm intrigued.

[glancingforward]

Posted: 7/10/07 at 8:36pm

it was ill conceived last summer when i saw it. it was boring i thought it would never end. i doubt it could be fixed. i cant believe somone actually is putting money into this.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 2:29pm

Has anybody seen this yet at the Minetta Lane?

[winston89]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 4:03pm

I too wonder if anyone has seen it at the Minetta Lane. I would be suprised if they didn't make some changes from their time at the fringe. They have had a little over a year to do so. I think that if the creative team knew that their show was headed for a noff broadway comerical run then the wyould make some changes here and there. Or at least look at the fringe run as an out of town try outs of sorts.

[stevenycguy]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 7:38pm

I can't speak for the Fringe production last year, but I found the Minetta Lane version to be very polished; practically everyone starred in various Broadway productions before. A lot of fun to watch and the audience seemed to like it quite a bit too. Campy fun.

[LuPonatic]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 8:06pm

I don't care if it's good or bad, those advertisements on BWW that keep me from using my back button make me HATE this show!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 8:24pm

How is it the ads that are making the back button not function?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 8/28/07 at 8:06pm

I just got a ticket for Saturday night to see WALMARTOPIA. I'll report back afterward.

[bially082]

Posted: 10/12/07 at 5:06pm

One of my former co-workers just got hired to replace the guy that died

[nymommy]

Posted: 10/13/07 at 2:28pm

Saw it this past week, and I was glad we got free tickets, or I would have been demanding a refund. Bad Bad Bad, B-O-R-I-N-G!!! I kept praying for the 1st Act to end. The second act was better, but that doesn't say much. The ending was random and I felt like the writers didn't know how to get out this morass, so they just gave it a happy ending. Some songs had great potential and the woman who plays the lead has an amazing voice. The guy who plays Lawernce was very funny. What a waste of money and talent. At least these actors have a job. A JOB!