Song Reader: The Musical


Song Reader: The Musical is a stage production with music by Beck, and book and arrangements by Harvey Droke and Daniel Hornal, which premiered at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2016. The music is arrangements from Song Reader, a 2012 Beck concept album released only in sheet music form.

Synopsis

Act 1

A conservative mother and father are praising their young soldier at a farewell gathering the night before his deployment to war. The soldier's friends pressure the soldier to have some fun. Wanting to adhere to his father's moral standards he rejects his friends temptations but eventually gives in to his friends
desire to go to a strip club called "Old Shanghai".
The club's bouncer has reservations about military people and patronizes them upon entering. In the club, after Whorenet sings Larcen, the club owner, introduces the headline dancer, "Ziz" who does a dance number. Completely engulfed with Ziz's beauty, the soldier arranges to meet her after the show, with the help of a shady character called Pervert who hangs around the club.
Alone in Ziz's room, the soldier expresses to Ziz his love for her.. He pursues her until they have sex. Afterwards, he promises to come back for her when he returns from the war gives her his crucifix necklace as a token. Larcen and Bouncer barge into the room, beat the soldier and kick him out. Fearing that Ziz will leave his club to the soldier, Larcen attempts to manipulate her to sleep with him instead of working off her debt. Larcen continues to persuade her but eventually rapes her.
Feeling helpless, Ziz asks Larcen to leave as she looks
at the soldier's crucifix necklace she feels a sense of longing and realizes her willingness to change her life. Ziz and Whorenet plot to get Ziz out of the club
. Meanwhile, the soldier and his military friends head off to war.

Act 2

Ziz and Whorenet move in together, and Ziz and Soldier narrate their letters to each other. Soldier is becoming more distant, and we learn he was transferred to a forward base and was seriously injured in the war, and his friends died. He is drinking. His doctor and he talk about his relationship with his father.
Back at Old Shanghai, the girls are not happy.. Bouncer and Larcen plot to lure Ziz back to the club by starting a legal battle for custody of her newborn child.
Upon the soldier's arrival, his family goes to the local zoo where he and Ziz reunite. She is eager to talk to him, but he is cold. Pervert tells the soldier that he saw him have sex with Ziz, and that Larcen raped her after he left, and criticizes the Soldier for leaving Ziz alone with her kid..
Larcen tells Ziz that he will sue for custody unless she comes back to the club.. The Soldier enters the scene and tries to fight Larcen. Ziz separates them and tells them all to leave, and tells Larcen that it wasn't consensual sex. Larcen demands evidence. Pervert pops up and says he has everything on videotape. Pervert bargains for the deeds to Old Shanghai and a promise for Larcen to leave town. The Soldier apologizes to Ziz. Whorenet enters with Ziz's child which she had been babysitting.

Characters

  • Ziz
  • Soldier
  • Larcen
  • Whorenet
  • Bouncer
  • Pervert
  • Mother
  • Father

Musical numbers

As appears on the program
  1. America Here's My Boy
  2. Do We? We Do
  3. Old Shanghai
  4. Leave Your Razors at the Door
  5. Ziz
  6. Fondle Me
  7. Get the Money
  8. Ye Midnight Stars
  9. Garden of Love
  10. Rough on Rats
  11. Sarcophagus in Egypt
  12. Please Leave the Light On
  13. Why Did You Make Me Care
  14. It's Just Noise
  15. Mutilation Rag
  16. Dollar Bills
  17. The Wolf is on the Hill
  18. Last Night you were a Dream
  19. Why Does a Heart that Longs to Love You?
  20. We All Wear Cloaks
  21. Saint Dude
  22. Eyes that say I Love You
  23. Sorry
  24. America Here's My Roy