The Flaming Lips’ album ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ will soon be a musical and will see its debut at California’s La Jolla Playhouse, either in November or December… the play has in fact been in the works since 2007, and it’s cool the Oklahoma band has chosen California for the world premiere!
Whereas the first person attached to the musical was Aaron Sorkin, the LA Times is now reporting that the name of The Social Network’s director was missing from the press release, without any explanation. Rather, the production will be directed by Des McAnuff (director of Broadway shows like ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, ‘Jersey Boys’, ‘Big River’, ‘The Who's Tommy’).
If you are not familiar with the story, it is about this young Japanese girl fighting against death, embodied by robots, a sort of update of ‘Death and the Maiden’,… actually this is what Wayne Coyne declared to Entertainment weekly in 2007:
‘There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of cancer. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that.’
Poetic? Sure it is the Flaming Lips! And be prepare for a lot of ‘fireworks’ as La Jolla has announced that the show will feature ‘multimedia stage effects’…. No surprise there, knowing what the Lips can do with just balloons and confetti. But don’t expect only songs from the 2002 album, as the musical will also feature songs from other albums including ‘The Soft Bulletin’ and ‘At War with the Mystics’.
I just hope the play travels and hits Los Angeles!