Beepers: A Cautionary Cabaret
At the dawn of the small computer age, we find three office workers at their jobs Ñ all with their own struggles and doubts and longings.
Accused of being nerds, their lives and relationships are in flux.
We follow them through laments like Biodegradable Interface, High-Tech Wreck, and Power Failure in my Heart to tongue-twister patter songs full of puns like Edible Bytes and TheyÕre An Infomaniac.
With words and music by famed composer Dennis Bathory-Kitsz writing under his pseudonym Brady Kynans, Beepers is a tuneful cabaret full of earworms.
Even though Beepers was written in 1986, it has lessons as well as cautions for our own time.
This is a piano/vocal score. The written cast of Beepers is gender neutral, a relatively minor change from the 1986 book. In performance, the abbreviated names may be used or gendered names may be assigned to the available players.
E is Erika/Everett. E is a jaded social critic, somewhat of an outcast, and always on edge about our roles in modern technology. Alto or baritone.
R is Reba/Rafi. R is a sad, yearning young person, searching for both meaning and love in life, and certain it wonÕt be coming soon. Alto or baritone.
L is Ladislaw/Lydia. L is a shy, reticent programmer with little life experience and a hesitant manner, on the edge of sadness. Alto or baritone.
Choruses (Nerds, Color VDT Blues, and Infomaniac) are sung by E, R, and/or L, or other performers in any combination.