A little over a year ago, Jason Powell’s sci-fi musical comedy Invader? I Hardly Know Her hit the stage of the Alchemist Theatre. The show featured some of the most offbeat, intellectually complex lyrics to emerge from the usually quite simple format of the American Musical.
This October, Powell teams-up with the Milwaukee Opera Theatre to present a super hero musical comedy. Powel’s Fortuna the Time Bender vs. The Schoolgirls of Doom is evidently about Fortunashe’s a superhero who’s new in town. Her first challenge?a sinister British super-villain named the Headmaster aided by a group of equally sinister students.
The Milwaukee Opera Theatre site states, “A comic book never sounded so good!” Okay, but Bono (from U2yes that Bono) is working on a Spider-Man Braodway musical which should be out shortly . . . the Sunset Playhouse site phrases it this way, “comic books meet the collected works of Gilbert and Sullivan in the mind of writer/composer Jason Powell.” That sounds interesting. A modern super-hero spoof written to old Gilbert and Sullivan tunes could be interesting.
Exactly what a fully-staged production is going to look like is unlikely to be determined anytime soon . . . but the show does make a premiere of sorts this month as the Sunset Playhouse presents a staged reading of the offbeat musical in its studio theatre. Tickets are $15.
Jason Powell’s Fortuna the Time Bender vs. The Schoolgirls of Doom runs October 28th – 30th.
