Flaming Lips To Create Yoshimi Broadway Musical
Thursday March 22, 2007 @ 06:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips' 2002 opus, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, may someday come to life on stage. That's right, fans who've daydreamed about a tiny Japanese girl attempting to destroy an army of giant pink androids may be able to see that epic battle — robots and all — live on Broadway.

Lips frontman Wayne Coyne recently told EW.com that the band will team up with director/producer Des McAnuff, the man behind the stage adaptation of The Who's classic rock opera Tommy, to bring Yoshimi to the stage. Noted television writer Aaron Sorkin, best known for creating The West Wing and Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, has signed on to handle the script.

There's not much of a plot to work with from the album, so they could have their work cut out for them. "It's not really a story," Coyne admitted.

"It's more like a mood. There's a Japanese girl; she fights some robots; that's five minutes. After that I don't know."

The Lips and their collaborators have a few ideas, however, and they're about as trippy and perplexing (and potentially as fascinating) as the album itself. Coyne likened the concept to director Terry Gilliam's science fiction film, Brazil.

"There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that."

McAnuff is a Lips fan who convinced the band that the themes and music of Yoshimi, along with additions from the rest of the band's catalogue, would make for a compelling musical. Sorkin was then commissioned by McAnuff to write the book for the play. He reportedly listened to Yoshimi on a drive from San Diego to Los Angeles, and agreed to write the script the next day.

Since nothing about the play is set in stone yet, the musical's premiere date is still unknown. But hopefully the Lips will be a little speedier in finishing it than they've been with their long-awaited Christmas movie.

Lips fans can see Coyne on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on Thursday or the whole band at this summer's Bonnaroo festival.

—Natalia Manzocco