Apollo
Book/Lyrics by Ellen Johnston
Music by Emily Chiu
Apollo is a musical comedy with pathos, set in a shabby aquarium, about the rise and fall of an octopus oracle named Apollo, and the relationship he has with his best friend and fitness buddy, Keiko, an 88 year-old baked Yam-Van lady who feeds him yams on the sly.
Their relationship is torn apart when his prophecies are commodified and sold for the highest profit. Apollo’s score reflects its unusual cast of characters, ranging from ocean soundscapes to bombastic Ukrainian opera, Eurotrash electro pop, to Japanese folk-inspired songs. It’s a show about the dangers of the cult of personality, the inevitability of mortality, and a community of outsiders who come together despite, or perhaps, because of that fact.
Equally designed for precocious children and childish adults, this genre-bending musical comedy bounces between the silly and Sisyphean with equal measure.
(2 hr)
WATCH
LISTEN
00:00 - Prologue
02:24 - I Hate The Octopus (ft. Daniel J. Edwards)
03:12 - Barley Tea (ft. Mini Kim, Leanne Gadow)
04:24 - Apollo Knew (ft. Cori Jaskier, Trevor Bunce)
05:25 - Zaztro’s Circus (ft. David Merino)
05:59 - Kool Aid (ft. Emily Chiu)
07:11 - Free Apollo (ft. Cori Jaskier)
07:53 - Swimming Together
08:29 - Turning White (ft. Minji Kim)
PHOTOS
Photos by Sub/Urban Photography, from the Tisch New Musicals Workshop
ORIGIN STORY
Apollo came about when Emily was reading about the life of Paul the Octopus (an animal oracle who famously predicted the World Cup results in 2010) and Ellen was listening to a podcast about the last days of the oracle at Delphi. We decided that it would be interesting to write about the rise and fall of an animal oracle at an aquarium. With a combination of interests including marine biology, existential philosophy, the growth of personality cults, and the interplay of comedy and tragedy, the story began to take shape. The show was written straddling the 2016 election, which made several of these issues (such as the personality cults of Apollo and Zaztro, environmentalism, the collision of power and money, and the basic question of who are we as a community) much more prescient. We wanted to tell stories of those that do not normally get to appear front and centre, those who live on the fringes, those who possess “otherness,” including those who are not even human.
Emily is the daughter of immigrants and Ellen is an immigrant, herself. The fact that the heart of the show lies in the relationship between an older Japanese food-vendor named Keiko and an octopus who has been removed from his home to live in a tiny aquarium tank is not an accident. We are all searching for a place to call home, and it is often through relationships and something as simple as sharing food that we are able to find a place for ourselves wherever we end up.
Development History
(Currently in Development) Eight Episode Podcast Series
Highland Arts Theatre Playwright Unit, Nova Scotia, Canada(2021) Semi-Finalist
National Music Theater Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Waterford, CT(2020) Finalist
Live & In Color Musical Theatre Development Award, Salem, CT(2019) Semi-Finalist
Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition(Fall 2017) Developmental Workshop
Tisch New Musicals Workshop, in collaboration with New Studio on Broadway, New York(Spring 2017) 29 Hour Reading
NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, New York(January 2017) Writing Residency
Goodspeed Musicals, East Haddam, CT(Summer 2016)
Conceived at NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program, New York