October 22, 2024

The MSM Musical Theatre program presents Good Luck in Space: The creative team—the creators of Urinetown—give us a preview of what to expect

This post was written prior to the successful, four-performance run of Good Luck in Space (Oct. 25-27).

From Friday, October 25 to Sunday, October 27, for four performances only at The Riverside Theatre, MSM Musical Theatre presents the first developmental production of the new musical comedy Good Luck in Space.

Greg Kotis (book and lyrics) and Mark Hollmann (music and lyrics) tell us about the show and what to expect.


Writers Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis

MSM MUSICAL THEATRE

Good Luck in Space

Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis
Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann

Meghan Finn, Director and Choreographer
Eric T. Johnson, Music Director

SYNOPSIS

It is the year 2224! Women rule the world! The fate of Humanity hangs in the balance as a deadly virus ravages the Earth! An all-female crew of elite astro-soldiers races across the cosmos while battling asteroids and space pirates to rescue a French research scientist who has discovered the cure for, well, everything!

Good Luck in Space is a new musical comedy by the creators of Urinetown that enlists 1960s-era science fiction to explore the changing power dynamics between the genders.

MSM: Can you tell us a bit about your new musical? It sounds hilarious and has a very timely “save the world” theme.

Mark Hollmann: It’s about a future when women have taken over the world. It’s a sci-fi musical, which is a first for me. Greg and I have already written a musical that is set at the beginning of time, and now with Good Luck in Space we are heading into the year 2224.

Greg Kotis: Mark and I, as a writing team, tend to gravitate toward unlikely subjects. We have a show called Yeast Nation that is set in the year 3,000,458,000 BC on the bottom of the primordial floor. We have another show called ZM about a fast-food franchise that launches a new sandwich that, apparently, turns people into zombies. And, of course, there’s Urinetown.

So, setting a show in space, and centuries in the future, seemed up our alley. One point of departure for this show is it’s less preoccupied with environmental issues and more interested in changing gender dynamics, but hopefully in a fun and funny way.

Rehearsing a scene from Good Luck in Space at MSM on October 16

MSM: Good Luck in Space was workshopped with the MSM Musical Theatre program in the fall of 2023 and is now having its first developmental production—can you tell us what this process has been like?

Mark: The fall 2023 workshop at MSM, which was part of the Musical Theatre Lab Series, showed Greg and me that we needed to revise the show. Greg made changes to the book, which is what we call the script in musical theater, and he and I discarded five songs and five reprises, writing three new songs and three new reprises as replacements. Now that we are in rehearsals with this new material, we feel that we have made well-informed decisions about our revisions and that the book and score are stronger because of this opportunity to work on our show. Such opportunities are hard to come by, so we are grateful to [MSM Dean of Musical Theatre] Liza Gennaro for inviting us to develop Good Luck in Space in MSM’s Musical Theatre Lab Series as well as the 2024–25 MSM Musical Theatre Production Season.

Greg: Developing a new musical, for me, is a little like hauling a couch into a walk-up apartment.  There are periods of intense activity, which involve creating the first draft and then each subsequent draft, the hauling-the-couch-up-a-flight-of-stairs part. And then there are periods when the project sits in the proverbial drawer but you’re still mulling it over somewhere in a corner of your mind, the catching-your-breath-on-each-landing-before-attempting-the-next-set-of-stairs part).  The only difference is, with new musical development, you don’t know how many flights you’ll have to carry the couch before it feels like you’ve arrived at the apartment.  I’m not sure which floor we’re on with this current draft; that’s something the audience will reveal to us over the coming four performances.

The workshop cast of Good Luck in Space at MSM in fall of 2023 posing with—in center of photo— its creators Greg Kotis (bearded) and Mark Hollmann (to the left of Greg).

What has it been like working with MSM students on this production?

Mark: My time working with MSM students has been valuable and productive. The professionalism as well as musical and acting talent of our cast has shown our material to its best advantage and has helped us gauge the viability of our show.

Greg: The MSM students are a really special group. They are smart actors, excellent singers, and I’m consistently impressed with their positive spirit and professionalism. It’s really helpful to us as writers when developing a show to work with actors who are game to throw themselves into the process heart and soul, and the MSM students did that and more.

What do you like best about the production so far?

Greg: Just the experience of seeing the whole thing on its feet.  It’s easy to sweat over the small details, all of which are critical, but the real test is when you are able to sit back and see, hear, and feel the story as a whole. As the writer, you can never see the show for the first time. But developmental productions like this one, and in particular the first developmental production, give you the best chance to experience it as an audience member experiences it.

Mark: I have greatly enjoyed watching Meghan Finn, our director and choreographer, and Eric Thomas Johnson, our musical director and orchestrator, work with the students, who in turn have proved to be troupers and very pleasant to work with. Also, our design team has done excellent work in realizing our show on stage, our stage management team has kept us on schedule and in good running order with grace and efficiency, and the first-rate production team at MSM has made it all possible. Finally, it has been inspiring merely to be in the Manhattan School of Music building and walk down the hallways hearing a new generation of musicians practice in their practice rooms.

Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis were present at the rehearsals of Good Luck in Space : in photo seated third and fourth from the left. Music Director Eric T. Johnson is on the left; Director and Choreographer Meghan Finn is on the right.

What will be the next steps for the musical after its run at MSM?

Greg: We don’t know yet. That depends on whether and how decision-makers like producers and artistic directors connect with the show. In my experience, it tends to come down to one decision-maker deciding that they love your show and will move Heaven and Earth to bring it to the stage. Fingers crossed!

Mark: We have invited producers to the MSM production and hope to have the show optioned for a commercial production.

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