Theatrical psych-pop legends The Flaming Lips are set to make the natural transition from the rock stage to Broadway.
The Oklahoma band, adored for their colourful and communal live performances, will be bringing their 2002 album 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' to the Great White Way, and they won't be taking any half measures.The Lips have enlisted the help of 'West Wing' creator Aaron Sorkin as well as Tony-award winning director Des McAnuff ('The Who's Tommy' and 'Big River') for the production.
'Yoshimi...', the group's tenth album, is considered by most listeners to be a kind of concept album, though vocalist Wayne Coyne's obtuse musings on love, pacifism and nature don't really form any clearly understandable narrative.
Coyne did, however, elucidate the plot of the stage musical, explaining, "There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that."
