Posted by: Michelle Conlin on August 30
Comes now the latest skewering of Wal-Mart…a musical called WalMartopia that was the audience coup de foudre at last summer’s International Fringe Theatre Festival. WalMartopia opens Off Broadway on—ahem—Labor Day in New York City’s Greenwich Village at the Minetta Lane Theater.
Judging from the music on the PR firm’s hold button, the tunes are Phantom’ish catchy. There is something in the dystopian theme song—rolling electronic organ riffs, dissonant chorus—that is reminiscent of Vincent Price on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album.
WalMartopia tells the story of one Vicki Latrell, a noble single mother who dares speak truth to power. After complaining about the sweatshop-like working conditions in her store (sound familiar?), she’s spun, Oz-like, into the future. This is a place Wal Mart has colonized. Think Urinetown meets Bentonville.
As a special, Labor Day wind-up, here’s the lyrics to aforementioned theme song:
We are one under Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart feeds us all
We were were born to consume
From the cradle to the tomb
Never may you fall
One nation under Wal-Mart
Wal Mart makes us free
And our minds are at rest
Mother Wal-Mart knows what’s best
WalMartopia!
Med-Mart has the pills to pop
When the nightmares just won’t stop
School-Mart teaches us to shop
How to stock and sweep and mop
News-Mart tells us what is real
What to think and how to feel
Smash our enemies all apart
at National Security-Mart
I AM WAL-MART!
WAL-MARTOPIA!
HAPPY LABOR DAY EVERYBODY!
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