Superbia (musical)

Stemming from an earlier attempt at writing a musical based on Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Larson spent a six-year period from 1985 to 1991 working on Superbia, which for numerous reasons never went beyond the workshop stage of development.

Out lives and purchasing habits are controlled by the Media Transmitter (MT), an endless stream of television that also broadcasts the reality TV featuring the Ins.

The first workshop, on November 16, featured Stephen Sondheim and Charles Strouse as panelists, while the second, on December 16, included Peter Stone, Nancy Ford, and Tony Tanner.

In the basement of an OutLand house, Josh Out #177.5 is busy putting the finishing touches on his latest invention alongside his loyal dog, Romeo.

Eager to share his find, Josh heads upstairs to show it to his sister, Jennifer, but she is too engrossed in a broadcast about the upcoming Face Awards ceremony.

In another part of InCity, Elizabeth is writing an apology letter to Josh, reflecting on her behavior from the night before, while Studd Starr continues to try to get her to unlock her door so he can do his hair.

As oxygen depletes, Josh learns from Elizabeth's parents that the citizens' programming comes directly from the Master Babble Articulator, which also controls the Prods.

Furthermore, Larson introduced the concept of "Tapecopy" numbers, which served to elaborate on the lore of the world while also deepening the role of the Master Babble Articulator within the overarching narrative of Superbia.

The first half of the show, ending at "Ever After," was presented to Sondheim, Stone, John Kander, Stephen Schwartz, and Martin Charnin at the Dramatists Guild in April 1986.

The MBA declares to its Clone that humanity is no longer cost-effective and so plans to destroy Outland with nuclear weapons and let InCity's inhabitants die in the vacuum of space.

Josh impersonates the MBA by ordering the Ins to evacuate, and as he affirms his love for Elizabeth they open the music box and leave it running for the cameras.

Elizabeth tries to get through to him, only for Roi to smash the music box and send her to the Outer Obscurity prison satellite as the countdown to the final act begins ("Limelight").

then turns his attention back to the Clone and fills his memory banks with content about America's destruction and the commercialization of nuclear war ("Discopy #003 (The Decline of Man)") At Outer Obscurity, William Marcel brings Josh to Elizabeth's cell.

The M.B.A. reveals to Josh that he has created hundreds of Articulators, and will move to space to seek out the Bottom Line, leaving the humans to die in a nuclear holocaust.

[3]: 57 The tone of this version is even darker and more pessimistic, discarding much of the comedy seen in previous drafts, with the music box being notably absent and replaced instead by a rose, mistakenly referred to by Josh as a "tree".

It received many smaller rewrites, such as removing the character of William Marcel and expanding Mick Knife to take his role in the story, before being performed again at Village Gate on September 11, 1989.

The MBA declares that humanity is no longer cost-effective, so all people will have their limbs and torsos removed before being hooked up to life support, staring forever at their screens.

Elizabeth claims her undying love to the broken MT ("I Won't Close My Eyes") and accidentally electrocutes herself when she attempts to grab onto the exposed wires.

The script focused on key scenes of Winston Smith meeting Julia and his torture in Room 101, with visuals used to flesh out details.

"[3]: 42–43 However, while the Orwell estate showed genuine interest in Larson's project, he was ultimately unable to secure the rights to Nineteen Eighty-Four due to the upcoming film adaptation.

During this process, Larson received feedback from panels of various musical theater composers and writers, including his idol and eventual mentor Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim and some of his fellow panelists were complimentary of Larson's ambitions and desire to write in a new style, but others criticized the script's internal rules, complexity, and apparent weakness of its message.

Not only did Stone dislike the musical, he vocally disagreed with the political message Larson was trying to tell, claiming that the idea of media making people emotionally disconnected was ridiculous.

[1] With Sondheim's help, Larson won the Richard Rodgers Development Grant for Superbia at the end of 1987, and used the money to fund a reading in December 1988 at Playwrights Horizons, produced by Ira Weitzman and directed by R. J.

[1][11] The reading ended up being a disappointment for Larson, largely because he was unable to get a full rock band for his score, and was only allowed to have union performers, not the non-union actors whom he had written the show for.

[1] Unlike the Playwrights Horizon workshop, this concert used a live band and the non-union actors Larson had wanted in his cast, including Bart and Timothy Britten Parker.

[3]: 53–54 Larson had an opportunity to develop and possibly stage Superbia in the United Kingdom when it was shortlisted for the Buxton Opera House's "Quest for New Musicals" competition.

[3]: 56, 61  Retrospective evaluations of the musical note even Broadway theaters at the time would have been unable to handle the rock-concert style sound design needed for Superbia.

Larson himself was aware his style of music was largely beyond what contemporary theatrical sound designers were trained for, commenting on the eve of his death in 1996 that "I'm only as good as my soundboard operator.

"[3]: 62 Larson vented his frustrations over his stalled career in 1989 by writing a rock monologue titled 30/90, which depicted the aftermath of the failed Playwrights Horizons workshop.

Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim was Larson's mentor and one of the few advocates for Superbia .