About the show...
RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET
A musical by Bob Carlton.
Inspired by the motion picture 'Forbidden Planet'.
"Wittily inventive and endearingly self-deprecating.... Rockin' entertainment" - Daily Telegraph
Join Captain Tempest and his fearless crew on their journey into hyperspace... and beyond!
This winner of the 1990 Olivier Award for Best Musical bursts with red hot rock and roll hits, including Great Balls of Fire, Good Vibrations, Teenager in Love, The Young Ones and The Monster Mash.
So fasten your seat belts, set your ray guns to stun and get ready for a cosmic adventure of meteoric proportions! Bob Carlton's smash hit West End musical takes the 1956 film, with plot taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest, raids the Bard's other plays at will (and not always absolutely verbatim) and sets it to a score of great pop hits from the 1960s and 70s.
The Story : On a stormy night way back in the winter of 2009, mad scientist Doctor Prospero worked late in his laboratory, aided only by his wife, Gloria, as he developed the elusive formula with which he would change the world. The apparently faithful Gloria, however, duped him and sent him off into hyper-space in an old spacecraft. Unknown to Gloria, her infant daughter, Miranda, slumbered peacefully in the craft and was now catapulted light years into the future in her father's company. Fifteen years later, a routine survey flight under the command of the chisel-jawed Captain Tempest leaves earth's orbit with a new Science Officer aboard - a hard and bitter woman. As a shower of meteorites hits the ship, the Science Officer flees, and the craft is pulled inexorably towards the plant D'Illyria - the Forbidden Plant. The adventure begins .......
Instrumentation : Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Trumpet in Bb, Trombone, Guitars 1 & 2 (one book), Bass Guitar, Drums (2 drum kits can be used for theatrical effect; only one is necessary, however), Keyboards 1 & 2 (one book; ideally, one keyboard for piano sounds, one for synth/sound effects)
Note: The band line-up is VERY flexible and can be tweaked to suit whatever instrumentalists are available, as long as there is a basic core of Guitar, Bass, Drums and Keyboard. Importantly, it is intended that the players should improvise around their written part. The show is meant to be performed by Actor/Musicians, so the band should be onstage, but a pit band can be used if the principal actors do not play instruments.
