Why Star Trek Fans Should Be Excited for “Khan!!! The Musical!”
Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff
Long-time readers know how much of a Star Trek fan I am. For new readers, here’s my evidence:
Exhibit A: I wrote this piece “proving” Star Trek is better than Star Wars (go ahead, @ me!)
Exhibit B: This sits proudly on my office desk:
Exhibit C: This is hanging in my basement:
So when it was announced that not only was an unauthorized Star Trek musical coming to The Players Theatre in New York City, but that it was named after the most iconic moment of the entire Star Trek movie franchise (with this as a close second), I mean, I immediately cleared out my calendar for opening night (May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, and don’t believe that is just a coincidence).
Now, why am I excited about this? Let’s run down the reasons:
1) It’s centered around the best Star Trek story of the canon
a. Oh sure, there are more complex and fascinating science fiction stories from the original cast episodes, and this is about as straightforward a revenge story as they come, but it is (by far) the best story Star Trek story ever made, featuring a top 10 movie villain performance (yep, Montalban is that good) as well as a great (no exaggeration) William Shatner performance about dealing with aging, as well as the best single moment of the entire Star Trek canon (see my funko picture above).
b. You might think it’s an obvious decision to center a musical around the one movie most non-Trekkies know, but, if you’re making a musical parody on Star Trek, there’s lower hanging fruit than Wrath of Khan. For example, they could have centered a parody around truly silly Star Trek TV episodes like “Trouble with Tribbles”, or shows with ridiculous premises like “Mirror Mirror”, or “A Piece of the Action”, or even center around a plot like Star Trek IV where they can show Star Trek Characters as fishes out of water. These are easy parody vehicles. No, they picked the best story, which means they know and understand the best qualities of Star Trek, even if it turns out to be loosely based on the story. That brings me to reason #2:
2) The musical appears to be in good hands with a true Star Trek fan.
a. Brent Black, a co-writer and music/lyrics composer of the musical, appears to be the type of Star Trek fan I want at the helm, meaning, a fan of Star Trek because of the movies.
b. This is a bit counter-intuitive considering the wide range of quality of the original cast movies, but the Star Trek movies represented the best of the IP because it let the characters cook in different ways, and they weren’t reduced to participating in truly silly plot premises like they were in the TV show. (Ok, trying to find God was a little silly, but there’s a lot more going on in that movie than just finding the Almighty.
c. Look, I enjoyed the TV show, and I get that the silliness was part of the reason it became iconic but run through the plot summaries of those three seasons, and you’ll be amazed, looking through 2023 lenses, how they made it to air and weren’t laughed off the network.
d. The movies, on the other hand, uniformly dealt with weighty issues, which is crucial to the sci-fi genre. Even “The Voyage Home,” by far the funniest Star Trek movie (and probably episode too), still dealt with the importance of protecting our vulnerable animal species.
e. To be clear, “Khan!!! The Musical!” is going to be a musical parody. But if it’s a parody centered around the point in time of these beloved Star Trek characters where they were truly allowed to show some range, then I’m expecting a great musical parody.
3) It’s gunning for mainstream appeal
a. Director John Lampe is on record as saying this show is looking to give a good time to people who know the canon frontwards and backwards, but also to people who have never seen a single second of Star Trek. This may seem a counter-intuitive reason for a Trekkie to be excited for a Star Trek musical, but this tells me they aren’t leaning too hard on fans to show up in force and enjoy the show for all the easter eggs that are likely in the script. To go for mainstream appeal, you have to have good music and funny jokes that everyone can get, and all musical theatre fans should welcome that. It won’t be enough to sit back and bathe in nostalgia, but you want a good time and add new songs to your playlist. His quote tells me they are setting up for a great time at The Players Theatre.
Tickets for “Khan!! The Musical!” are on sale now, from May 4th-June 4th.
I’m counting down the days.