Somewhere a snobby, homosexual indie-rocker with black-rimmed glasses is saying, “I told you it could be done.” [Note: Paris Hilton is not in the musical.]
Excerpt from All Things Considered:
The scene is a restaurant. Anne Frank sits at a table.
The actress says, “We have duck a l’orange, saffron couscous and steak. Or would you like to try some of our fine wines? Helga, darling? Please? Answer me?”
This is all in Frank’s imagination. In fact, she’s in a death camp, dying of typhus and losing her grasp on reality. Emma Feinberg plays Anne Frank. She’s a freshman at Lexington High School in Massachusetts and the play is called With the Needle That Sings in Her Heart. It’s about Frank’s final months at Bergen-Belsen. Faced with horror and brutality, she escapes into a world where prisoners and Nazi officers become circus performers.
If this sounds a little out there for a high school play, consider the source material: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, an album released in 1998. The group was part of a collective of musicians living in Athens, Ga., called Elephant 6. Strange, dreamlike lyrics reference a two-headed boy, the king of carrot flowers, and Anne Frank, though never by name.
Read the rest of the article and listen to a sample song here.
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May 12th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
It’s not really a musical, per se. Yes, songs from the album are integral to it and are performed by the cast.
And Amanda Palmer didn’t write it. The cast, Amanda, and their director workshopped it and wrote it collaboratively.
May 12th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
thanks Denis! that’s everything i just thought while reading this.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
And Paris Hilton isn’t promoting the album.