The Who started a trend with the 1969 release of “Tommy,” later projecting the concept album on screen in 1975 into a full-blown rock opera. Pink Floyd did the same with their 1979 release of “The Wall,” giving it full rock opera status with its 1982 big screen debut. Three years ago, ’70s icon Queen infested London’s West End theater district with “We Will Rock You,” its edgy musical filled with classics. It then seems only appropriate that mythical music legend Frank Zappa has his own psychedelic rock opera.
But this rock opera, “Billy the Mountain and Other Wartime Stories,” isn’t about a pinball wizard or a quest to find Freddie Mercury’s guitar. This Zappa-inspired production tackles the cultural effects Americans experience during stateside war.
“We are constantly bombarded with media and government propaganda about how to digest what’s going on around us,” says Annie Beserra, Striding Lion InterArts Workshop co-founder and co-artistic director. “With this show we’re just trying to get people to be more discriminating about where they get their information, what they take away from it and how they balance it.”
The show opens at the Elbo Room, 2871 N. Lincoln Ave., on Friday, March 18 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10; all shows are 21-and-up.
Beserra, choreographer and actor for the production, and her husband Colby Beserra, a musician and actor, have always been intrigued by Zappa’s work, beginning with his epic “Joe’s Garage.” On declaring the piece too lengthy and racy, the Northwestern alumni turned to “Billy the Mountain,” a 24-minute operetta that tells the tale of a mountain named Billy and his wife Ethel, a tree, who go on a trip across the United States. Crushing everything in their path, the government eventually stops Billy and Ethel’s journey by drafting the duo in the end. Written in 1979, the song’s apparent Vietnam references gave the theater company a chance to cover the timely theme of war.
“Politically as a group we’re primarily anti-war, and we’re definitely not championing war,” Annie Beserra says. “Zappa’s gonna keep us humble and make us look for the real moments, the quirky, idiosyncratic characteristics of culture during wartime.”
Colby completed Annie’s thought.
“We wanted to deal honestly with the issues, but we’re more interested in the cause and how we deal with things,” Colby says.
Using “Billy The Mountain” as a frame for original material, Striding Lion began their research on stateside sentiment for the show in September of 2004 through video-taped improvised workshops. The company brainstormed emotional and cultural war aspects and explored personal stateside experiences through original texts, such as poems and articles.
“I brought in letters from my grandfather during World War II and we had people bringing in their emails from Sept. 11,” Annie says. “Anything that each of us as individuals were interested in.”
The plot loosely weaves around Zappa’s bizarre song as Billy and Ethel travel from California to New York, encountering media warnings and propaganda along the way — anything from sexy explorations of terror alert drills, to Rosie the Riveter Vegas Showgirls, to 1950s quartet-style duck and cover drills, according to Colby. The majestic, non-linear piece also gave the company creative freedom in piecing together the story, according to Annie, connecting scenes visually with props and movement instead of fluid verbal transitions.
The new challenge then became performing the rock opera in the most non-traditional theatrical venue: a tiny, grungy bar.
“It’s raw — it’s like you’re walking into someone’s basement when you step in the Elbo Room,” Annie says. “We have to be able to go in an hour before the show and get out an hour after because there are bands after us. It’s not a big fancy high-produced laser light show — it’s rock and roll.”
Because of the lack of space, the audience is truly part of the show.
“We’re in and out of the audience the entire time,” Annie says. “You’ll be watching the stage but then something will be happening at the bar behind you.”
The actors also have the dual task of performing and shaping the set, according to Colby.
“We can expand the stage a little,” Annie says. “But for the most part it’s bodies creating the stage.”
But Striding Lion doesn’t view performing the show in a bar as an artistic setback. Rather the Beserras say they hope the medium of a rock opera will call all generations into the mix.
“If people are gonna pull this generation into Broadway, then how are we gonna do that?” Colby asks. “Characters breaking out into song is really a dying idea, not in a bad way, it just kinda ran its course. This generation is looking for something a little more integrated where music is the story as opposed to telling you how the characters feel. You get that with rock.”
Medill freshman Kate Puhala is a PLAY writer. She can be reached at [email protected].