Temple Beautiful: The Musical is a theatrical musical based on the album Temple Beautiful released by Chuck Prophet in 2012.
Temple Beautiful: The Musical is a theatrical musical based on the album Temple Beautiful released by Chuck Prophet in 2012.
Temple Beautiful: The Musical is named after a seminal San Francisco punk club circa 1980. [1] The collaboration between noted San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet and poet/songwriter klipschutz (pen name of Kurt Lipschutz) is a multi-generational, multi-ethnic ride through real and imagined San Francisco, inspired by Prophet’s much-acclaimed album of the same name, pitting aging punk rockers against Google employees on a city “orientation-come-sensitivity” bus tour gone sideways. [2]
In 2014, the songwriting team was commissioned by FOGG Theatre to develop the album into a musical. Director Emilie Whelan was brought in at the inception.
A first workshop, gathering creatives from Brooklyn, New Orleans, and San Francisco, took place in 2016 over five days at the old firehouse on Treasure Island. A second workshop, in 2018, lasted 10 days, culminating with a staged reading/performance under Emilie Whelan’s direction at PianoFight, [3] with five musicians and nine actors.
After that, former FOGG associate Clay David formed an alliance with Bay Area Musicals (BAM), which was set to premiere the musical, when the Covid pandemic hit. Like many others, BAM went under during the pandemic.
A 2022 table read, organized by the writers, took place at Sacramento’s B Street Theatre with Equity actors, including well-known comedian and actor (Curb Your Enthusiasm) Jack Gallagher in the protagonist’s role. After watching video of the table read, in late 2022, new producer Richard Friedman stepped in to bring the musical to the stage.
The songs, some in amended form, are from Temple Beautiful (2012), with additional material, all written by Chuck Prophet and klipschutz.
The book writers are klipschutz and Chuck Prophet.
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