Via Galactica

Infobox Musical
name= Via Galactica
subtitle=


caption=
music= Galt MacDermot
lyrics= Christopher Gore
book= Christopher Gore
Judith Ross
basis=
productions= 1972 Broadway
awards=

"Via Galactica" is a rock musical with a book by Christopher Gore and Judith Ross, lyrics by Gore, and music by Galt MacDermot.

Originally entitled "Up!", it offers a futuristic story of social outcasts living on an asteroid in the year 2972. Among them is Gabriel Finn, a space sanitation man who collects trash in a clamshell-shaped garbage ship called the Helen of Troy.

The storyline was so incomprehensible that at the last moment producers decided to insert a plot synopsis in the "Playbill", but audiences were still baffled by what they were witnessing unfold on stage. Pyrotechnic displays and other special effects did little to enhance the project.

After fifteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Peter Hall, produced by George W. George and choreographed by George Faison, opened on November 28 1972 at the Uris Theatre where, unable to withstand a universal assault by the critics, it ran for only seven performances. The cast included Raul Julia, Irene Cara, Keene Curtis, Ralph Carter, Melanie Chartoff, and Virginia Vestoff.

"Via Galactica", one of the first Broadway shows to lose more than $1 million, was McDermott's second flop of the season. His "Dude" had closed after 16 performances a mere five weeks earlier.

Via Galactica is also the name given to a freeware trading game set in outer space, published by Orange Tree Software. Widely distributed and available from freeware software download sites, it continues the tradition of roleplaying space trader software begun in the 1980s by games like Elite.

ongs

;Act I
* Via Galactica
* We Are One
* Helen of Troy
* Oysters
* The Other Side of the Sky
* Children of the Sun
* Different
* Take Your Hat Off
* Ilmar's Tomb
* Shall We Friend?
* The Lady Isn't Looking
* Hush
* Cross on Over
* The Gospel of Gabriel Finn;Act II
* Terre Haute High
* Life Wins
* The Worm Germ
* Isaacs' Equation
* Dance the Dark Away!
* Four Hundred Girls Ago
* All My Good Mornings
* Isaacs' Equation (Reprise)
* Children of the Sun (Reprise)
* New Jerusalem

References

*"Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History" by David H. Lewis, published by McFarland & Company (2002), pages 104-105 (ISBN 0-786-41269-0)
*"Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops" by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1998), pages 23-24 (ISBN 0-312-08273-8)

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3155 Internet Broadway Database link]