Metropolis (musical)
| Metropolis | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Music | Joe Brooks |
| Lyrics |
Joe Brooks Dusty Hughes |
| Book | Dusty Hughes |
| Basis | 1927 film, Metropolis |
| Productions | 1989 West End 1989 Lüneburg, Germany 1990 Cicero, Illinois 2002 Salem, Oregon 2010 Seattle |
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, the lyrics by Dusty Hughes. The show was directed by Jérôme Savary. The cast included Judy Kuhn, Brian Blessed, Graham Bickley, Jonathan Adams, Paul Keown and Stifyn Parri. The musical marked the London debut of Judy Kuhn, who left the show shortly before the end of its run to be replaced by Mary Lincoln. The production was notable for its set design by Ralph Koltai.
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.
The main changes between the silent film and the musical are name changes for many of the characters (Joh Fredersen to John Freeman, Freder Fredersen to Steven, Rotwang to Warner, Hel to Helen), slightly different religious themes, a completely different ending, and a larger focus on the children.
The city of Metropolis - around the year 2000. It is the invention of John Freeman who now runs it like a despot, a city that exists in a world of perpetual night, a world that has had its energy resources exhausted. Metropolis is a beautiful experiment but it too is doomed because the only source of energy to power the city is human energy, which is harnessed ruthlessly for the benefit of the Elitists who live above. The workers operate vast machines below the city and power the privileged lives of the upper class on the surface of the city. Workers are forbidden to read and to learn, and they never see daylight. Among the workers who toil below is Maria who holds onto the memory of the world with a sun, flowers, birds and trees. She risks her life by giving clandestine lessons to the children of the workers so that the memory will never die and in the hope that someday freedom may soon be possible. Accidental deaths are frequent and when Jade, worker 11811 George's girlfriend, is mutilated and dies in the cogs of the machinery, Maria believes that the time is ripe for the children to be shown the world above. John Freeman's son, Steven, the heir apparent to Metropolis does not share his father's vision of total power: he has a conscience and his father, aware of this, attempts to keep Steven in ignorance of the appalling conditions in which the workers live and toil in the underworld.
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