Flaming Lips Musical Coming?

Yesterday we said if you wanted to see a lot of people arrested for drug possession and all kinds of screwy behaviour, all you needed to do was show up to a theatre on 4/20 to see the new Phish 3D film. But here's another opportunity — granted, this has to become a reality first, so don't make any plans yet.

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne recently told the World Entertainment News Network the band have been approached by Des McAnuff — who helmed The Who's Tommy — to turn 2002's Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots into a musical.

"We've talked about doing something with Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots now for about five or six years," he said. "They did it with Tommy and Des McAnuff was the director, and he's the one that wants to do Yoshimi.

"We've actually pursued it to a certain extent and I think that where it sits is really just me deciding to dedicate a couple of years of my life to making it.

"It's a strange opportunity but I know we've talked about it since 2003. We would incorporate all the songs and probably write some other music that told a little bit more of a story. I guess my biggest dilemma is there's not really a story with Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. It's just a series of unconnected songs that sound connected when you listen.

"That being said, I don't think it would be overly impossible to draw some connections and come up with some type of emotional storyline."

Of course, this is nothing but an amazing idea, mainly because we can totally picture some kind of hallucinogenic stage set-up with huge, pink Transformers-esque robots for parts one and two of the (kinda) title track and "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21."

Plus, there should be some kind of Lewis Carroll-ish "I clearly thought of this while high" set-up for "In The Morning Of The Magicians," and how amazing will it be to see the backdrops and costumes for "Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell"?

I think there should be a full choir for "Do You Realize??" — although that does run the risk of being a little too Polyphonic Spree-ish, so it needs to be done carefully. And there definitely needs to be a mini hot air balloon on stage for "Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia)."

In 2007, Coyne didn't have an idea of how the Broadway musical version of Yoshimi would look, either. A concept had been proposed, which the singer said sounds a lot like Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

"There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world," he told Entertainment Weekly then. "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."

Entertainment Weekly also reported then that Aaron Sorkin, creator of the West Wing, would script the musical, which Coyne joked would make the stage set-up like "a giant tube that's always moving!"

The Flaming Lips are touring in support of last year's Embryonic, and you can see them here:

April 15 Charlottesville, VA @ Charlottesville Pavilion
April 17 Poughkeepsie, NY @ Mid-Hudson Civic Center
April 18 Ithaca, NY @ Barton Hall at Cornell University
April 19 Montclair, NJ @ The Wellmont Theatre
April 21 Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater
April 22 Bloomington, IN @ Indiana University Auditorium
April 23 Bonner Springs, KS @ Sandstone Amphitheater
May 1 Memphis, TN @ Beale Street Beach, Music & Arts Festival
May 13 Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House Of Blues Orlando
May 14 St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre
May 15 Gulf Shores, AL @ The Hangout Music Festival
June 6 Houston, TX @ Eleanor Tinsley Park
June 11 Manchester, TN @ Great Stage Park (Bonnaroo Music Festival)
July 3 Oxford, ME @ Oxford County Fairgrounds (Nateva Music & Arts Festival)
July 4 Atlantic City, NJ @ House Of Blues Atlantic City
July 22 Lewiston, NY @ Artpark
July 26 New York, NY @ Central Park SummerStage