BRATTLEBORO -- At least David had a slingshot. A plucky husband and wife team is standing up to a corporate Goliath with nothing more than song and dance.

Fortunately, they have a talented team of actors, directors and tech staff on their side.
They also have Vermont going for them.
"Walmartopia," a new musical created by Brattleboro area native Andrew Rohn and his wife Catherine Capellaro, begins its preview performances tonight at the Minetta Lane Theatre in the New York's Greenwich Village. It opens for real, fittingly enough, on Labor Day.
Described as an irreverent satire of big business and eternal smiley faces, "Walmartopia" tells the story of Vicki Latrell, a single mom and Wal-Mart employee who speaks out against her company's working conditions and finds herself and her young daughter jettisoned to 2037, into a future where Wal-Mart dominates the entire world.
Standing up to this Wal-Mart-dominated world?
The little state of Vermont.
"It's 2037 and Wal-Mart has the whole world, but Vermont has seceded, and Wal-Mart is at the border trying to move in," explained Capellaro, who wrote the book for the musical. "We sort of envision a landscape that's like an endless mall. The population is kept in control by giving them an endless supply of consumer goods. There are constant images of Uncle Sam, Sam Walton, who tells people what to buy.
"There's no government. It's all one corporate state that runs School-Mart and Prison-Mart," Capellaro said. "National Security-Mart handles the war on Vermont."
And National Security-Mart isn't happy with us.
"In Vermont, they've learned to live off the Wal-Mart grid," Capellaro said. "It's sort of a confluence of factors to set up Vermont as an antidote. We pose Vermont as the alternative. ... Vermont evokes something in audiences."
The pair comes by its appreciation of Vermont honestly.
Rohn was born in Vermont, spent his first few years growing up in the area and then every summer in Putney. His father, artist David Rohn, taught at Windham College. Andrew describes a childhood steeped in art of the highest quality -- sculptor Chuck Ginnever was a family friend and young Yellow Barn musicians would practice in Rohn's house.
"It just seemed like people were working and creating at a high level," he said.
Rohn's love of the theater was kindled in the Putney area, too. He recalls appearing in a local production in "Sorry, Wrong Number" at a young age and acting a lot with Neil Pepe, who has gone on to establish his own impressive career in the theater, most notable as artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company, which, under his tutelage has won four Tony awards, six Obie awards and much acclaim.
It was a natural move to set up Vermont in opposition to Walmartopia.
"Even though I've spent a lot of time there, perhaps I do have a romanticized view of Vermont," Rohn said. "To me, it's the ultimate example of something so beautiful it would be destroyed if there were Wal-Marts all around. ... I lived in Putney, which I think of as a jewel of a place."
"Walmartopia" was born in another progressive jewel of a place, Madison, Wis., where Rohn and Capellaro first created it as a one-act performed by the Mercury Players. It garnered favorable reviews at the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival, where it was picked up for production off-Broadway. Earlier in their careers together -- they met in 1992 at a theater where Rohn was composing and Capellaro performed -- the two created the cult musical "Temp Slave" about the experience of temp workers.
For them, Wal-Mart was a good subject because it is a symbol of consumer culture.
"We haven't had a bad Wal-Mart experience because we avoid the place," Capellaro said. "Wal-Mart is not the full reason for spiritual decline but a big contributor on a large level to what's happening to this country ... on a spiritual level, it's a country were consuming is a pastime."
Still, there is much to "Walmartopia" that is specific to Wal-Mart. Capellaro has a background in journalism and spent much time researching the company. The main character in the musical, Vicki Lattrel, is based on Betty Dukes, the leading figure in the class action anti-discrimination suit against Wal-Mart over its treatment of women.
While in Madison, Wis., Capellaro and Rohn connected with labor unions, and they take seriously their responsibilities as artists to comment on the world around them.
But they are quick to point out that "Walmartopia" is meant to be fun, and their research merely served as jumping off points for their creativity.
"This is based on a lot of real stuff at Wal-Mart. ... The fun part is we didn't have to stick to the facts. It's the best of both worlds," said Capellaro.
Right now, Capellaro and Rohn's world is centered around family life with their twin 8-year-old sons in New York, where they moved in January -- and on the hard work of getting a musical up and running.
"The whole team is just a dream to work with," Capellaro said.
That team includes director Daniel Goldstein, who has Broadway and national tour credits, choreographer Wendy Seyb, music director August Eriksmoen. Other team members include David Korins (sets), Miranda Hoffman (costumes), Ben Stanton (lights), Tony Smolenski and Walter Trarback (sound), Erik Kennedy Lunsford (make-up, hair and wigs) and Leah Gelpe (production design). It is produced by WMTopia, LLC. The Production Stage Manager is Bess Marie Glorioso.
In the lead role as Vicki Latrell is Cheryl Freeman, who starred on Broadway as the original Acid Queen in The Who's "Tommy." Other cast members, all with Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater and television credits, are Nikki M. James, Sarah Bolt, Bradley Dean, Stephen DeRosa, John Jellison, Brennan Leath, Andrew Polk, Pearl Sun, Helen Yorke, and in the role of Sam Walton's head, Scotty Watson.
As a couple, Rohn and Capellaro have produced 10 short musicals, some of which were combined to create "Attack of the Mini-Musicals" in 2002. Rohn has performed with a Javanese Gamelan, drummed in a Led Zeppelin cover band and composed radio, TV and film themes for "The Onion's" Scott Dikkers. His tuneful and eclectic score for "Walmartopia" incorporates pop, rhumba, marches, anthems and power ballads, set against a book that is campy and caustic.
Capellaro has worked as a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines and an editor for the Progressive Media Project and Rethinking School. She also worked as a producer, reporter and anchor for WORT community radio and Wisconsin Public Radio.
They both perform with the disco band VO5 and create children's music with the Madgadders Band.
Performances of "Walmartopia" at the Minetta Lane Theatre are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are priced at $65 and $45, and may be purchased at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 212-307-4100.