Burning Man enthusiasts who live in Southern California have a second chance to catch How to Survive the Apocalypse: A Burning Opera this Sunday night for one performance only at the King King nightclub.
How to Survive the Apocalypse: a Burning Opera was scored by Mark Nichols, with libretto by noted counterculture writer Erik Davis. Inspired by “the Burn,” the show combines rock opera, an electronic dance party, and a pagan revival show. The workshop version premiered in early 2009 at Stage Werx in San Francisco, and the Original Cast version ran in October the same year, with nine sold-out performances at Teatro ZinZanni. The San Francisco Bay Guardian’s theater critic Steve Jones wrote that the show is “both engrossing musical theater in its own right and a piece of art that truly captures the feel of the event and the Zeitgeist of its attendees.” Writing about the Ghostlight Gypsies’ successful production of the show in Los Angeles this summer, co-directed by Nichols, Stephan Hues, and Julie Lewis, the LA Weekly’s Bill Raden raved about the show’s “anarchic spirit,” and described the show’s score as “a Hair-era musical vocabulary of R&B and acid rock by way of Kurt Weill.”
The origins of How to Survive the Apocalypse lie in a Porta-Potty line at Burning Man in 2006. Ron Meiners made the comment to a friend that only opera could capture the multidimensional experience of the festival. Composer Mark Nichols, in line with his singer partner Julie Lewis, overheard the remark. As a stalwart figure in the Seattle music scene who had already written a number of demented pieces of musical theatre, Nichols loved the idea. Meiners brought in lyricist Erik Davis, a cult author and journalist who had been attending and writing about Burning Man since 1994. Davis in turn brought in director Christopher Fulling. With producer and creative advisor Dana Harrison in tow, the main team was assembled and creative obsession began. Today the project continues to evolve through the vision of Ghostlight Gypsies, with future shows in the works.
An abridged version of the score, recorded and produced shortly after the 2009 Original Cast run has recently been released on CD. The music is also available digitally through iTunes and Amazon. For more on the Original Cast recording and performance see www.burningopera.com.
King King, 6555 Hollywood Blvd., Nov. 20. Doors open at 7:00pm with the show starting at 8:00pm. The event is 21 and over. Tickets on sale here
Below, highlights of the original 2009 production in San Francisco.
