Black Friday (musical)
Black Friday is a comedy-horror musical with music and lyrics by Jeff Blim and a book by Matt and Nick Lang.[1] It is the twelfth staged show produced by StarKid Productions and takes place in the same setting as their previous musical The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, though in an alternate universe where the events of the previous musical never happened. The show ran from October 31, 2019 to December 3, 2019 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The music and lyrics were both written by Jeff Blim, the book by Nick and Matt Lang, and directed by Nick Lang. A live recording of the musical was uploaded on YouTube on February 29, 2020 and sold on DVD.
| Black Friday | |
|---|---|
| Music | Jeff Blim |
| Lyrics | Jeff Blim |
| Book | Nick Lang
Matt Lang |
| Premiere | October 31, 2019: The Hudson Mainstage Theatre, Los Angeles |
Funding for the show was done through Kickstarter, similarly to StarKid's most recent shows. The project raised US$547,439 through 111,704 backers out of its $155,000 goal.[2]
Black Friday was intended to feature the entire cast of The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals in new roles alongside new cast members. However, soon after she was announced as Lex, Mariah Rose Faith was cast in the national tour of Mean Girls, making her the only cast member of the prior musical not to appear in Black Friday. Angela Giarratana was then cast as Faith's replacement. Black Friday is also notable for the return of Dylan Saunders, a founding member of StarKid, who had not appeared since Twisted in 2013.
Synopsis
Act 1
The Sniggles, led by Uncle Wiley, advertise the new Tickle-Me-Wiggly Doll from Uncle Wiley’s Toys ("Wiggly Jingle").
As they listen to the ad on the radio, Paul Matthews and Emma Perkins are driving on Black Friday to Emma's brother-in-law Tom Houston's house. Tom lost his wife, Emma's sister Jane, in a recent car accident. Paul and Emma arrive at Tom's house but quickly discover that Tom only invited them to babysit his son Tim. After Tim angrily leaves the room, Tom tells them that he's actually going to get Tim a Tickle-Me-Wiggly as a surprise for Christmas. After learning that they are running out fast, he leaves right away and vows to get the doll any way he can to make up for their loss the year before ("What Tim Wants"). Once he arrives at the mall, he runs into Lex Foster, a delinquent high-schooler and an employee at ToyZone who used to be a student in a class he taught before he was fired due to the violent outbursts he suffered from because of the PTSD he developed being deployed in Afghanistan. As Tom goes inside, Lex's stingy boss Frank Pricely tells her to unpack a box of the Tickle-Me-Wigglies. After he leaves, she sneaks one into her backpack. Lex's boyfriend Ethan Green surprises her with her troubled and possibly clairvoyant sister Hannah, who speaks in vague mystical warnings. Ethan tells Lex what a hot ticket item the doll is and how their plans to sell Lex's stolen doll have changed. While the doll originally sells for $49.95, Ethan found a buyer willing to pay $7,000. They celebrate and plan to move to California. Lex writes a letter to her alcoholic mother telling her that they are leaving and taking Hannah ("Califor.M.I.A."). Getting ready for her shift, Lex gives her backpack containing the stolen doll to Hannah to calm her down from one of her spells and to hide the doll.
Linda Monroe, a rich trophy-wife and mother of four beautiful blonde boys, enters on the phone with her husband Gerald. She finds the line outside ToyZone and bribes her way to the front of the line. Nurse Becky Barnes attempts to rally the crowd into shaming Linda, but no one is interested. Linda berates Becky for still being the same as she was in high school, and for the abusive relationship she endured while no one bothered to speak up. The argument is interrupted by Tom who bumps into Becky. They instantly recognize each other. The shoppers gossip about Becky and Tom and their relationship in high school before they split up when Tom left to fight in the army. They awkwardly babble and try to catch up to make up for the lost time ("What Do You Say?"). Becky admits that she misses Tom, but before they can continue catching up, Frank and Lex open the store ("Our Doors Are Open"). However, when middle-aged toy collector Sherman Young attempts to buy all the Tickle-Me-Wigglies, a fight breaks out amongst the shoppers. Frank, blinded by his greed, allows a bidding war to start, resulting in chaos and mayhem that spread to the rest of the mall as the desire for the doll becomes greater ("Feast or Famine").
At the mall's movie theater, two shoppers, driven mad by their need for a Wiggly, attack Hannah and Ethan before realizing they don't have what they want. Hannah runs off into the mall while Ethan tries to hold off the shoppers, getting severely beaten up in the process. When Becky, holding a Tickle-Me-Wiggly, stumbles upon the scene, the two shoppers try to attack her but Tom rushes in and fights them off. They find Ethan and realize he is dying. Delirious, he promises to get Lex to California before slipping away. As Becky and Tom prepare to leave, a man in a hurry steals Becky's doll and stabs Tom. Elsewhere in the mall, Linda is found by a mysterious man who knows who she is. He explains what she's always known but never realized: that she doesn't want to be loved, but rather worshiped. The man shows her a vision of Wiggly and tells her to do what she does best in order to get one, be a mother.
Meanwhile, in the Oval Office, President Howard Goodman and his Cabinet are debating what to do about the mounting chaos across America. The Vice President produces the doll and the Cabinet members begin to fall under Wiggly's trance. They are interrupted by General John McNamara of P.E.I.P., a super-secret agency that handles paranormal, extraterrestrial, and inter-dimensional threats. McNamara informs them that they have to make a quick decision about what to do and the Cabinet decides to fight back ("Monsters and Men").
Act 2
As the movie Santa Claus is Going to High School plays ("Deck the Halls (of Northville High)"), Tom wakes up in the theater. Becky tells him that she has stitched up his stab wound and hid him in the theater. She tells him that the shoppers have banded together to find any remaining Tickle-Me-Wigglies in the mall. Tom admits that he feels responsible for Jane's death because he was driving. Becky confesses to stabbing her abusive husband Stanley and leaving him for dead. As they watch the movie and reminisce, they both admit they still have feelings for each other and try to console each other ("Take Me Back").
At P.E.I.P. headquarters, McNamara introduces President Goodman to his second-in-command Xander Lee and reveals to the President the existence of "the Black and White," a place between dimensions and the origin of the entity known as Wiggly. They believe that Wiggly is attempting to push its way into Earth's dimension where it will remake existence according to its own liking. "In essence," says McNamara, "we're trying to stop the birth of a god." To do so, they will send Goodman through a portal into the Black and White, where the President will attempt to work out a peace treaty with Wiggly. If that fails, they will deploy a nuclear bomb inside the Black and White, hopefully destroying Wiggly once and for all.
Sherman leads the mall survivors in a sermon worshiping Wiggly. Two followers bring out hostages Lex and Frank. Sherman introduces their Messiah, the prophet chosen by Wiggly itself: Linda. She preaches to the believers that Wiggly will only bless them if she gets a doll. After Frank tells her that there are none left, she kills him. Linda tries to get information out of Lex but she says nothing. A security guard tells Linda that with the security footage, he saw Hannah with the doll. Linda orders her followers to find Hannah and obey her ("Adore Me").
Hiding in the mall, Hannah sees a vision of Ethan, who tells her to give the doll to Linda. Hannah realizes that something is wrong. Ethan is really a manifestation of Wiggly from the Black and White. Hannah takes out the doll from her backpack and hears Wiggly's voice threatening to kill her. She is snapped back into reality when Tom and Becky find her. When Tom threatens her for the doll, she runs away, but the adults continue to search for her, intending to anesthetize her and steal the doll ("Do You Want To Play?"). They eventually find her, but Becky accidentally injects herself with the anesthesia. Tom finally gets the Tickle-Me-Wiggly and abandons Becky. Two members of the Wiggly cult find Becky and Hannah and take them to Linda.
As Goodman enters the portal, he encounters the same mysterious man who ran into Linda: Uncle Wiley. More terrifyingly, Goodman also encounters an enormous Wiggly creature. Wiley and the Sniggles taunt Goodman for the capitalist, consumerist culture that allowed their plan to unfold ("Made in America"). All of a sudden, McNamara appears unprotected, saving Goodman and allowing himself to be lost to the Black and White. Goodman returns to P.E.I.P. headquarters and tells Lee to release the bomb even though McNamara is still inside. The bomb, however, does not explode in the Black and White. Goodman and Lee receive news that a bomb has, instead, exploded in Moscow. Wiggly tells them that he has pushed the bomb through another portal that the Russians had created on their own. The President is taken to safety and Lee acknowledges that World War III has begun.
Back in the mall, Sherman holds Lex hostage, but lets her go when offered all the ponies left in the storeroom. Once free, Lex tells him that she lied and in anger, Sherman strangles Lex. In her dying moments, she laments over the failure of her life ("Black Friday"). At the last moment, McNamara appears to her, reminding her that she isn't dead yet and that she, like her sister, has powers. He offers her his gun, but because he is still in the Black and White, she has to reach through dimensions to get to it ("Monsters and Men (Reprise)"). She successfully manifests the gun, shoots Sherman, and follows McNamara's instructions to save the world from Wiggly. Finding Tom in possession of the last doll, she tells him that Tim doesn't actually want the doll and that it's all part of Wiggly's plan to make people think that a doll can fill a hole in their lives. Tom ponders the possibility of giving up the doll and eventually does so ("If I Fail You").
In the mall's food court, the followers bring Becky and Hannah to Linda. Believing that Becky is dead, they focus on Hannah, ripping away her backpack in an attempt to find the doll. When Linda realizes that Hannah doesn't have the doll, she goes to stab the girl but is stopped when Lex rushes in holding the last remaining doll in the mall. Tom sneaks up on Linda and holds a gun to her head, shocking the followers. Linda, however, is able to distract Lex and disarm Tom. She finally gets her hands on a Tickle-Me-Wiggly and the followers praise their god ("Wiggle"). Having been forgotten, Becky gets ahold of the gun and kills Linda. Lex sets fire to the doll and the mall burns down, killing the followers inside. Hannah, Lex, Tom, and Becky reunite with Paul and Emma. Hannah recounts an ambiguous vision of an uncertain future ("What If Tomorrow Comes?"). In the last seconds of the day, the surviving shoppers gather together as a missile rockets toward them.
Roles
| Role | Los Angeles (2019) |
|---|---|
| Tom Houston | Dylan Saunders |
| Lex Foster | Angela Giarratana |
| President Howard Goodman | Curt Mega |
| Becky Barnes | Kim Whalen |
| Linda Monroe / Emma | Lauren Lopez |
| Hannah Foster / Tim Houston | Kendall Nicole Yakshe |
| Uncle Wiley | Joey Richter |
| Frank Pricely | Corey Dorris |
| Ethan Green / Christopher Kringle | Robert Manion |
| Wiggly / Gary Goldstein / Paul | Jon Matteson |
| Sherman Young / Noelle | Jamie Lyn Beatty |
| Xander Lee | James Tolbert |
| General John MacNamara / Man in a Hurry | Jeff Blim |
Note: All actors besides Dylan Saunders played additional ensemble roles.
Characters
- Tom Houston, a war veteran. He lost his wife Jane the year prior and has a son named Tim. He used to date Becky in high school.
- Alexandra "Lex" Foster, a teenager who works at ToyZone. She dates Ethan and takes care of her younger sister Hannah.
- Becky Barnes, a nurse. She used to date Tom in high school.
- Ethan Green, Lex's boyfriend. He is shown to care deeply about her and Hannah.
- Linda Monroe, a spoiled trophy wife to Gerald and mother of four boys. She later becomes Wiggly's prophet.
- General John MacNamara, a general for a secret agency called PEIP.
- Hannah Foster, a troubled young girl with possible psychic powers. She lives with Lex and Ethan.
- President Howard Goodman, the President of the United States.
- Frank Pricely, the greedy manager of ToyZone.
- Uncle Wiley, a mysterious man who works for Wiggly.
- Sherman Young, a middle-aged toy collector who wants to buy all the Wiggly dolls for himself.
- Xander Lee, a physicist and field agent with PEIP.
- Gary Goldstein, an attorney at law, who appears to be the only one in town as he represents multiple characters throughout the show, most notably Linda Monroe.
- Wiggly, a malevolent extra-dimensional entity that wants to rule the world. It takes the form of a doll.
- Man in a Hurry, a man in a hurry.
- Tim Houston, Tom's son who lost his mother the year prior.
- Christopher Kringle, a character in Santa Claus is Goin' to High School, a movie-within-the-play. He is Santa having taken the form of a high school student for some reason.
- Noelle, a character in Santa Claus is Goin' to High School and Chris Kringle's love interest.
- Paul Matthews, a guy who doesn't like musicals. He's dating Emma.
- Emma Perkins, a barista at Beanie's. She's dating Paul and is the sister-in-law of Tom.
Crew
| Crew member | Job |
|---|---|
| Nick Lang | Producer, Director, Writer |
| Matt Lang | Writer |
| Jeff Blim | Music, Lyrics |
| Corey Lubowich | Scenic Design, Producer |
| Gilly Moon | Sound Design |
| Sarah Petty | Lighting Design |
| Robert Merkel | Costume Design |
| Paul Gabriel | Stage Manager |
| Jack James | Technical Direction |
| James Tolbert | Choreography |
| Matt Dahan | Music Direction, Orchestrations, Keyboard 1 |
| Sam Johnides | Guitar, Keyboard 2 |
| Josh Fleury | Bass |
| Austin Farmer | Drums |
Musical numbers
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*Denotes ensemble-esque backup singing
References
- "Black Friday". StarKid Productions. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
- "StarKid's 10niversary Celebration!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2020-03-30.