Ben Upbin-The Hero's Journey and Musical Theatre

     So yesterday I talked about how musicals are a great way of depicting the hero's journey, and I wanted to elaborate on that with a specific example of a musical that literally includes the elements of the hero's journey as plot points. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is a musical on youtube produced by Starkid Productions. The story centers around Paul, an average man who does not like musicals. Trouble occurs when a meteor crashes into town carrying an alien goo that is slowly turning everyone into a musical hive mind alien. 

    What makes the show so interesting is how self aware it gets with the hero's journey. The show opens with a song about the hero, Paul, but after that there isn't a song for the next 10-15 minutes. The singing occurs after the meteor has hit, and unlike in most shows, everyone is aware of the singing. When Paul first interacts with the aliens, they attempt to get him to sing with them about how nice the day is and how good his life is, but he refuses the call. Later on his boss who has already been turned sings to Paul about how everyone wants something so Paul must have something he wants. The aliens here are trying to get Paul to sing an I want song. The song Paul's boss sings is literally titled "I Want You To Want". These obvious allusions continue as each singer tries to get others to sing which will allow the aliens to spread. The aliens even refer to their domination as the apotheosis. Towards the end of the show one of the characters, in a surprise twist, sides with the aliens and as he begins to sing a song (as the only character who has not been apotheosized), he states "This is humanity's eleventh hour!" He was literally singing an eleventh hour number. The show ends with Paul succombing to the aliens as in his second  to last scene he finally has a want. He wanted to save the loe of his life from the aliens, and they used that to turn Paul.