All the World’s a Stage
Adam Bernstr?mSamurai
An inhibited accountant who detest musicals struggles to remain sane when he wakes up in a world where everybody sing and dance.
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“After waking in a world where everyone sings and dances, an inhibited accountant who detest musicals must find a way to return to the real world before he’s driven insane.”
After refusing to rescue his best friend’s Broadway-bound musical with a loan because he loathes the theater, a rich accountant wakes up every day as the star in a world of non-stop musical comedy.
Adam Bernstr?m:
A rough draft. The question in my mind is what has he done to deserve such an, ironic karmic fate? His offense has got to be more than the fact he hates musicals. Why would an audience invest interest and empathy in a story where someone’s only dramatic sin his musical taste, or lack of it? (Is there a place in hell reserved for people who don’t like J.S. Bach? And another place for the billions who have never heard of him?)
It seems to me that it makes more dramatic sense for him to to hate musicals in a way that hurts someone else. And not just anyone, but someone near and dear to him, either a best friend or lover.
fwiw
dpg:
Thanks. I’m still kind of brain storming the idea, so nothing is set in stone.
At the moment it’s a new co-worker that either cajoles or wins a bet so he has to come along and see the off Broadway musical that the co-worker has two tickets for. I might change it to being a new next door neighbor.
I’m also having him voice his dislike for musicals in the intermission, and possibly be overheard by an actor, who sends him to the alternate reality. To top that off I’m thinking his cell phone rings during the show, and he pisses everybody off by taking the call from his boss, which I think would be linked to his goal of getting some kind of promotion.
I like the cell phone interruption — an inconsiderate nuisance everyone can identify with. Particularly if it’s a running gag in the setup, that is, something he does all the time. (I’ve been informed by reliable sources that there is a place in hell reserved for people who don’t turn off their cellphones — and it’s already packed wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling.)
Maybe it’s a new ‘mysterious’ and when the lead and his friend walk in, there’s a sign: NO CELLPHONES, STRICTLY ENFORCED
The lead ignores the sign because he has an important call. The call interrupts the play and the rest if the consequence of that.
—–
You might also want to set up why the lead hates musicals. possibly he was in an eighth grade play and something embarrassing happened to him on stage.
I meant a new mysterious theater that just opened.
If it’s important then he’s got an alibi. Like the Billy Murray character in “Groundhog Day” he’s got be shown be a certified, selfish, inconsiderate jerk. The call should be inconsequential — and when he isn’t answering calls, he’s texting and browsing.
Yes, like the cell phone idea as a trigger. Make him an obnoxious loud uncultured Wall Street trader who gets dragged to the Musical by his girlfriend and their friends, He is rude to them, doesn’t want to go, she insists. He’s so rude he is peeing when he agrees to go and he drops his cell phone right after agreeing to go into the toilet. He picks up a magical new cell on the way to to the show and takes a cell phone call during the musical, then it starts.
Thanks.
I like the school play idea. I didn’t think it would fit with what I had in mind at first, but then I got an idea on how to integrate it with my idea.
“struggling to remain sane” sounds like a tedious goal. How would I as an audience know whether he has succeeded or failed in achieving his goal? And the stakes implied therein are that if he fails he goes insane … even though your film STARTS with him waking up in a world where the laws of musical theatre and film are true … leading me to believe HE HAS ALREADY LOST HIS SANITY. Maybe the stakes need to be higher? (Liar Liar had a lawyer cursed to have to tell the truth trying to keep a promise to his son in order not to lose him, complicated by the fact that he was in the middle of a very important trial).
Good point by nicholasandrewhalls: it’s an insane world he wakes up in: what do you mean “remain sane”?
I see what you mean. I’ve written another iteration of a logline for this story, which I will post shortly. Fortunately I left that part about sanity out of that one… I had to check, though. 😉
I love every thing about this story. I would watch it if it were made into a movie.
Even without all the subsequent tweaks, I would watch this in a heartbeat! What a hilarious premise! (By the way, my Mitty life would be On Broadway!)