Starting July 31, Salvage Vanguard Theater will present the world premiere of the new musical Bright Now Beyond. It's an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1904 book The Marvelous Land of Oz (which was the second in the author's long-running series of Oz books).
Bright Now Beyond is set decades after the events of The Wizard of Oz, and features a few characters from that story (the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and Glinda the Good all make appearences) along with many new characters not seen in the classic film. Co-writer Daniel Alexander Jones sees all the characters — the familiar and the new — as being at a crossroads in their life; that's one of the things that drew him to the story.
Jones is playing one of those characters, Jack Pumpkinhead. As his surname would imply, Jack has a pumpkin for a head and has only recently become a walking, talking being; now he's setting off on an adventure while dealing with his fears that his pumpkin head could crack or go rotten should anything go wrong.
Director Will Davis has drawn inspiration from silent film and Vaudeville theater in staging the show, creating a look that's "Dust Bowl does Oz."
See Bright Now Beyond at Salvage Vanguard Theater July 31 - August 23
