World Premiere of Greendale

The Undermain Theatre, Dallas, Texas will have the theatrical premiere of Neil Young’s Greendale on March 29-May 3, 2008.

For some, Greendale was a "half-baked, convoluted musical" and "beyond comprehension". For others though, Greendale was hailed as a "groundbreaking concept album similar to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Who's Tommy."

Even for Neil's biggest fans, Greendale -- as Sharry observes on Rust -- "inspires extremes of liking and loathing".

From Keep on Rockin’ in the Stage World: Neil Young’s Greendale at the Undermain:

"Rock operas, though, are odd ducks - more than a concert, less than a full-fledged musical. Few composers have written one, despite the huge success of the Who’s Tommy and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. So a rock opera by music legend Neil Young getting a world-premiere staging from the Undermain is a rare bird. It’s the first time anyone has performed Greendale without Young’s direct involvement. Until now, Young is the only one who has sung all the parts. This means that adapting Greendale has involved figuring out point of view, determining just who sings what. Katherine Owens explains.

Owens: If this person sings this, what does it say about what we’re saying about the dramatic action? We have not changed one note, one line, anything, nothing’s been changed. On a fundamental level, all we did was assign the parts. But that’s the whole issue.

Greendale has demanded a lot from the small but highly regarded company: eight months to get permission, assembling a sizable cast and band, even ripping out a back wall to expand the stage. It’s an ambitious, tricky project."

The live band for Undermain’s upcoming production of Neil Young’s Greendale will be composed of legendary musicians of the Deep Ellum [Texas] music scene. Leading the way as Music Director and lead guitarist is Kenny Withrow of New Bohemians. Paul Semrad of Course of Empire will perform on bass guitar. Joining the band on drums is two time Grammy award winner Alan Emert, of Brave Combo.

The Dallas Morning News reports that musical director Kenny Withrow "has worked hard to get Mr. Young's musical ideas across and to make sure the words come across, too. But there are limits.

'Kenny warned me that it is going to be loud,' Ms. Owens interjects. 'He says, 'It's rock 'n' roll, isn't it?' 'Plan your life [on it]'."

Greendale hits the stage at another particularly timely moment. We wish the cast and company all the best in their performance run. Because the inconvenient truth of Greendale is that Sun Green was right -- we've got a job to do.



And -- inconveniently -- the job is bigger than saving just Alaska.

The inconvenient truth of Greendale is that regardless of whether you loved it or hated it, it was -- as we wrote five years ago -- "the most important album of 2003, the musical equivalent of Silent Spring".


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