Notes of a Defeatist

No, that’s not the acid kicking in, Aaron Sorkin will be flexing his inner Gilbert to Wayne Coyne’s Sullivan as they bring Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots to stage.

“Sorkin is just one of many marquee collaborators attached to the project: Tony Award-winning director/producer Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy) will be overseeing the show. In fact, the unexpected collaboration grew out of McAnuff’s fondness for the Lips’ acclaimed Yoshimi album. ‘’When Des heard the record, he heard a lot about death and loss and the triumph of your own optimism… he had an emotional attachment to it,’’ Coyne says. The San Diego-based theater producer pursued the idea and convinced the band that the album would make a compelling musical — other songs from the Lips’ catalog will likely be included as well — despite the abstract, trippy nature of the source material. ‘’I tell people all the time, it’s not really a story. It’s more like a mood,’’ Coyne says. ‘’There’s a Japanese girl; she fights some robots; that’s five minutes. After that I don’t know.’’

 

Sorkin was brought in by McAnuff, who recently directed Sorkin’s play The Farnsworth Invention at the La Jolla Playhouse. According to Coyne, the TV scribe listened to Yoshimi while driving from San Diego to Los Angeles; the next day he signed on to write the ‘’book’’ of the musical. ‘’I didn’t know if that was a big deal or not,’’ Coyne explains. ‘’But then Des [McAnuff] called me and said, ‘Believe me, that’s a big deal!’‘’ (from EW.com)

tags technorati : Aaron Sorkin, Wayne Coyne, The-Flaming-Lips, musical, Yoshimi-Battles-The-Pink-Robots