Skip to main content

ASTROTURF

never produced
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Scott Miller
Winter 1984
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Purchase the vocal selections here.

SYNOPSIS
Astro Turf is a twenty-minute one-act musical written as a special project for a history of astronomy class at Harvard University in 1986. Five major astronomers, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, come together and present in song their views on the nature of motion and the creation of the heavens.

THE CHARACTERS
A Voice Not Unlike God
Aristotle (Greek, 384-322 BC)
Claudius Ptolemy (Greek, c. 125 AD)
Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish, 1473 - 1543)
Tycho Brahe (Danish, 1546 - 1601)
Johannes Kepler (German, 1571 - 1630)

THE REVIEWS
(i.e., my professors' comments)

“This is really quite super! There is obviously a lot of research and thought here, and a lot of very subtle points! Bravo!  A+” – Owen Gingrich, professor emeritus of astronomy and the history of science, Harvard University

“A magnificent survey of the history of astronomy, so detailed, so insightful. They’re all excellent, but the Kepler piece is simply brilliant!” – D.W. Latham, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BREAKING OUT IN HARMONY

New Line Theatre presents a world premiere Book, Music, and Lyrics by Scott Miller based on an actual court case, Island Trees School District v. Pico March 18-26, 1994 New City School Theatre, St. Louis Purchase the script here . Purchase the vocal selections here . SYNOPSIS Based on one of the most important book banning cases in U.S. history, Breaking Out in Harmony (a rewrite of The Line) explores the personal conflicts and powder keg emotions behind a simple act that snowballed into a U.S. Supreme Court case, Island Trees School District v. Pico. A small group of parents in a quiet suburban town break into their kids' high school library one night to remove "objectionable" books they've found on a list from a national conservative parents group. When their kids find out, the town is soon split in two – and so are some of the families – and the kids end up taking their parents and their school district all the way to the Supreme Court. THE CAST Tucker...

IN THE BLOOD

New Line Theatre presents a world premiere Book, Music, and Lyrics by Scott Miller May 5-20, 1995 St. Marcus Theatre, St. Louis Purchase the 1995 original cast recording here . Purchase the script here . Purchase the vocal selections here . Purchase the sheet music for "The Tale of Zachary Church"  here . SYNOPSIS Part romance, part Gothic horror, part comedy, In the Blood explores the unlikely romance between the vampire Zachary Church and Adam Graham, a hematologist with HIV, in the early years of the AIDS pandemic. If vampires are the only ones who can't be affected by the AIDS virus, do they have some responsibility to pass on their immunity? And for someone with AIDS, what price is too high for acquiring that immunity? When Adam asks Zach to turn him to vampirism so he won't die, Zach is torn. He has vowed never to make another vampire, never to subject anyone else to the horrific loneliness he has known for so long. Ultimately, Zach has to choose b...

JESUS & JOHNNY APPLEWEED'S HOLY ROLLIN' FAMILY CHRISTMAS

New Line Theatre presents the world premiere Book, Music, and Lyrics by Scott Miller Original Orchestrations by John Gerdes Nov. 30-Dec. 16, 2023 Grandel Theatre, St. Louis http://www.newlinetheatre.com/hrfxpage.html Purchase the vocal selections here . Purchase the script here . Purchase JJHRFX and "Hoo-Hoo of Steel" merch here . SYNOPSIS It's 1959 and there's pot in the Christmas cookies. What could go wrong? What happens when a family’s secrets are all revealed on one outrageous, pot-fueled Christmas Eve in 1959? Poor Harry Goodson finds out, as he’s visited overnight by his dead brother Jerry, Jesus Christ, Sandra Dee, and Johnny Appleweed, and he finally learns what his family already knows, that the answer to all his problems is marijuana! A wacky, adult, companion piece to the unintentionally hilarious 1936 scare film Reefer Madness , this new musical is a tongue-in-cheek response to the War on ...