Broadway professionals collaborate with Michigan State, local students on marijuana musical

Okemos High School senior Zachary Barker gets strange looks when he tells people what he’s been up to. Even his parents responded skeptically to his endeavor.

“I told them, 'Hey, I’m doing this thing where I’m growing marijuana and selling it in a high school,'” Barker said. “They were so mad — then I told them it was a musical and they’re like, 'Oh, really?'”

Barker is in the chorus of “Rocky Mountain High,” a new musical being workshopped at Michigan State University as part of the annual New Musical Laboratory (formerly known as ĭmáGen), which brings together Broadway professionals, MSU students and local high school students. It’s a joint project between Wharton Center’s Institute for Arts & Creativity and the MSU Department of Theatre.

Public performances will be at the Pasant Theatre at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 and 2 p.m. Sept. 17.

Unconventional plot

“Rocky Mountain High,” is being created by such luminaries as Mark Hollmann, the composer and lyricist for “Urinetown The Musical,” mother-son duo Kia Beth and Cooper Kofron, Drew Gasparini and Mark Acito.

The musical takes place at a football-focused high school teetering on financial ruin. The community rallies to transform their climate-controlled stadium into a thriving marijuana cultivation center, in no small part to thwart a conservative televangelist who is trying to take over the school and rewrite its curriculum.

“I just thought it was hilarious after I read the script and felt like I had to be involved,” Hollmann said. “There’s some outrageous characters that Kia and Cooper have written that are bigger than life. They both have this sense of what it means to put on a show and for the characters to really reach out to the last row of the audience. There was this supersized sensibility to the characters and the situation.”

Hollmann said while the situation sounds outrageous, it feels rooted in reality with schools being underfunded, marijuana becoming legal and religious entities attempting to impose their beliefs on school curriculums.

Barker and Holt High School Junior Lucy Prush took part in the musical development program last year and were eager to participate again. Like Hollmann, they both enjoyed the script.

“It tackles really eye-opening issues and things like self-doubt and how people react during hard times,” Barker said.

“And it does so in a humorous way,” Prush added. “It’s got a lot of relatable songs and things that aren’t often in musicals or talked about is in this musical.”

Musical laboratory

Hollmann has been working on the musical since 2018 and it has gone through several workshops including one in Colorado and one in New York. Both those readings resulted in major reworkings that will now get tested at MSU.

Hollmann took over composing duties from Gasparini and the two have melded their styles for the 20+ musical numbers in the show. Hollmann said Gasparini’s songs were more in the pop rock genre while his sound followed a more traditional musical theater approach, similar to what he wrote for “Urinetown.”

“I felt like this marriage of his music and my music could work,” Hollmann said. “There’s a good variety between our two approaches.”

The second act contains a moment that the students expressed excitement about — the marijuana dream ballet, an extended musical scene lasting seven to eight minutes.

“It’s not quite a full-blown song, but it’s a lot of different musical material with dialogue,” Hollmann said. “That’s one of the more experimental pieces of writing that we want to try to test at MSU.”

Empowering students

For Parker and Prush, who have been involved in musical theater since they were in elementary school, the program has inspired them and helped build their skills.

“We are surrounded by people who are so determined and dedicated to their craft,” Barker said. “And when you’re surrounded by people who know what they’re doing, it really elevates you. Being able to perform at the Wharton Center is just a dream of mine.”

He said this project, and such programs as “Take It From the Top” has provided him with an important foundation for pursuing an acting career.

“This program really helps show all of us how a professional show is run and what’s expected,” Barker said. “That helps you with your performance etiquette and your rehearsal etiquette. It teaches you discipline and how to properly navigate and spend your time during the day.”

Prush adds that the connections—both with professors and students at MSU and the many Broadway professionals that the program brings in—is a major draw to the program.

“I really loved the environment because everyone’s so nice and we learn the music at a faster pace than in high school,” Prush said. “I met a bunch of people last year like Jonathan Christopher (an actor who toured with ‘Hamilton’ and is now in ‘Sweeney Todd’ on Broadway) and it’s super cool that I know him. The number one thing is just the connections that I make and all the people that I’m getting to meet and that maybe I’ll get to meet again in the future.”

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Broadway pros collaborate with MSU, local students on musical