Musical adaptation of The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots gets a première date
After languishing in production purgatory for the past five years, the theatrical adaptation of The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is finally going to see the light of day. The play will première Nov. 6 at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California.
Written and directed by Des McAnuff (Broadway's Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy), Yoshimi follows a young, Japanese artist “adrift from her family and lover” who “journeys alone into a fantastical robot world where she wages a war with fate.” Described by the theater as a “dazzling, multimedia experience,” the musical uses music not just from its namesake, but also from The Lips’ The Soft Bulletin and At War With The Mystics.
Last year, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne told Billboard the show is “hokey and wonderful and poignant and powerful,” and that somewhere close to 30 songs would be incorporated. Weirdly, Aaron Sorkin was involved in the project for a while, but left (supposedly) when the play became a sung-through production, meaning there was no witty, overly wrought dialogue for him to pen.