Utopia

I love collective spaces. Today I went to the beer garden at Alexandra Palace, and I would have assumed this would have been a palace that was repurposed from a royal residence, due to its grandeur and the incredible view. Upon further research, I learned that it was built in the 19th Century to be "The People's Palace," and was originally intended to be a place where commoners can engage with arts and culture, the outdoors, and each other. I fell in love with this, and thought about the community spaces I had access to growing up: run down, drabby community centers with more concrete than grass, fluorescent lighting, and large parking lots. I don't think there was anything I can think of that was built for the people, outside of Central Park, in the United States that was purposefully built for the public to have a beautiful place, likened to a palace.

The Production:

A musical about a young prince that wants to open his palace to the public. He faces opposition from his rigid, class-obsessed parents, who threaten to rescind his titles if he doesn't stick to the status quo. The prince escapes the palace and befriends a musician where they stage a secret music festival to change the hearts and minds of the monarchy. They work together to use the power of art to break down the hierarchy, and remind the king and queen who they represent: the people!