WALMARTOPIA

Walmartopia in NYC!

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Walmartopia The Musical!, wowed audiences in its home town of Madison, was a sensation at the the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival, (and as a festival favorite was invited back for the Fringe Encore Series) and will soon have an announcement concerning its future plans. The irreverent new musical send-up of big business and eternal smiley faces was called “genuine Fringe fun” by the Village Voice, is written by Catherine Capellaro (libretto and direction) and Andrew Rohn (music and lyrics), and features a lead performance by Anna Jayne Marquardt, who received the Outstanding Actor Award at this year’s Fringe Festival.

With a cast of 17 and a 5-member band, Walmartopia tells the hilarious and timely tale of Vicki Latrell, a single mom who speaks out against her company’s working conditions and finds herself jettisoned to 2036, into a future where Wal-Mart dominates the entire world. Yes, the musical features the singing head of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

Walmartopia The Musical! premiered in Madison in a sold-out record-breaking run in 2005 (and an encore engagement earlier this year). Since then, the show has become something of a legend in the Badger State . The Wisconsin State Journal raved, “Campy, caustic and comically irresistible;” while Madison Magazine dubbed Rohn and Capellaro “a hip Rodgers and Hammerstein.”

Walmartopia is an agit-prop piece that's part Wizard of Oz,
part Michael Moore film, part after-school special.

Madison ’s Mayor Dave Cieslewicz even declared “Walmartopia Days” with an official proclamation. And in Wisconsin ’s finest progressive tradition, Walmartopia is becoming a lightning rod for its prescient message (Wal-Mart has faced increasing scrutiny in the past years for its stingy health insurance plan and treatment of its workers and producers abroad. The company also faces the largest sex-discrimination suit in history – 1.6 million women).

In an ironic twist, the real folks at Wal-Mart hired a New York firm to create a musical for their shareholders meeting in Bentonville , Arkansas in June. This bears an uncanny resemblance to Walmartopia, which features its heroine being drafted into Wal-Mart-sponsored musicals in the present and 30 years from now. As a response to Wal-Mart’s musical, the playwrights of Walmartopia have updated the show with a new number, “A Woman’s Place is at Wal-Mart”. This means that Walmartopia could be the first musical in history to respond to a musical responding to a musical.

"Run, don't walk to this rollicking song-and-dance show.... the show's
sneaky tunes'll play in your head for weeks to come."

Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn have performed and written musicals for more than 10 years in Madison , and created the cult hit, Temp Slave. They met under the tutelage of the late iconoclastic theater director, Joel Gersmann of Broom Street Theater, for which Rohn wrote the music for The Grant (1992) and My Fair Arab (1993) and where Capellaro performed. The couple has produced eight short musicals, some of which were combined to create Attack of the Mini-Musicals (2002). Rohn is a composer of pop and jazz and is a pianist and drummer. He has performed with a Javanese Gamelan, and played Kora with a Ghanian group, among other adventures. Capellaro performs with the dance band VO5 (trumpet and vocals), and has worked as a journalist for the Progressive Media Project. She is currently managing editor of Rethinking Schools. Their seven-year-old twin boys will accompany the troupe on the tour.

"...combines a serious political message, zany comedy and engaging
songs in an entertaining and thought-provoking production."