“That’s not writing, that’s just typing!”
Mrs. Popov
1959 NYC, the year Sputnik went into space. Enter the Firefly Café where all the fun begins. Meet Mrs. Popov, a Russian immigrant woman whose aspirations have gone awry when she is faced with losing her café and has also been receiving threatening letters. To top it all off, her daughter Natasha has just dropped out of college to become a full-fledged beatnik! That is the last straw for Mrs. Popov! Her NYC café has become a local hangout for this lovable gang of no-good beatniks: Nicky-9-doors (paranoid poet and comic relief) ; Jackie (beatnik-in-training) ; Rita (tough biker beatnik) ; and Natasha (daughter of Mrs. Popov).
Things get worse until a wandering minstrel beatnik from Louisiana J.P. Troubadour shows up, falls in love with Natasha, and even breaks through to Mrs. Popov. However, danger still looms at the poetry reading when an FBI agent crashes the scene to arrest Mrs. Popov for subversive Communist activities. Can Mrs. Popov be saved?
The music is essentially a collection of original jazzy numbers and hep adaptations of Russian songs. There are two songs based on Shakespeare’s MacBeth put to music (We 3 Beats and MacBeat Makes the Scene). Words and Music by: Peter Forrest
The complete script can be downloaded, and all of the sheet music is now available for evaluation. Download the entire score in a single PDF (915K pdf). For performance royalty information, contact me.
| ACT I – song name | Audio | Piano/Vocal Sheet Music | Demo Song description |
| Overtur-O | – simple overture with bass beat | ||
| We 3 Beats | – MacBeth Act I, Scene I à la Beats in the Firefly Café | ||
| For a Few Rubles More | – Russian song of comic lament by Mrs. Popov | ||
| Oh Daddio, Where Ya Gonna Go? | – the Beats chase away the mysterious Daddio | ||
| King-O’ Bohemi-O’ Blues | – Nicky-9-doors sings the blues with tough Beat chick Rita | ||
| 3/4 Cuppa Jazz | – Mrs. Popov learns to swing to jazz despite her classical upbringing | ||
| Beatnik Chick | – Natasha returns to NYC and is the hippest Beat in town | ||
| ACT II – song name | |||
| How do I get to Beatville? | – J.P. Troubadour sings where one can find “Beatville” | ||
| Siberian Tiger | – Mrs. Popov finally accepts the Beats | ||
| MacBeat Makes the Scene | – Beats at the Poetry Reading doing MacBeth, Act I, Scene 3 | ||
| Row that Volga Boat, man! | – Beats do a swingin’ Russian song | ||
| Kerouac Goes Beatnik | – fast moving finale song with the theme that everyone can be a beatnik! |