Sometime around 1993, Boyd Graham
and I were sitting around my place when I said to
him something like, "Ya know, we really oughta
write something for ourselves to perform." I
didn't really mean it, but I sort of did.
I didn't give it much thought but a light bulb went off in Boyd's head. He
knew this could be a show to which we could bring the “kitchen sink” and let
loose, entirely. Aside from lyric writing, he'd be free to display his
theatricality and unending inventiveness. Like "Eating Raoul" (but more so), which we
had written previously, I would write in every possible genre. And between the
two of us, we'd play just about every person (plus a few animals) who had ever lived.
The reason for this rather large canvas was the subject matter: The entire history
of the universe from The Big Bang to the present day.
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The conceit
of the show is as follows:
Boyd Graham and Jed Feuer, lyricist, composer, respectively, hope to lure investors
(that's you, the audience) into backing their new musical, "The Big Bang," which
acts out the entire history of recorded time. The production they envision will
feature a cast of hundreds, costumes by the thousands and 302 prosthetic devices.
Its twelve hour length, which will take up four of your evenings, is budgeted
at $83.5 million.
But for the moment, the team of Feuer & Graham is a little cash-strapped,
so they're forced to act out this backer's audition by themselves in the living
room of a borrowed apartment in Manhattan. As a result, they're forced to improvise
everything: costumes/sets/props, using anything they can lay their hands on.
Their old pal, Albert, is the pianist. For 90 intermissionless minutes, they
demonstrate how they'd do absolutely anything it takes to get their dream fully
financed (including giving out free food and during the Garden of Eden scene,
offering a modicum of frontal nudity). Among others, Jed & Boyd portray Nefertiti,
Jimi Hendrix, Minnehaha, Julius Caesar, Leo (a Christian-eating lion), Napoleon,
Josephine, two Jews who helped build the pyramids, the Virgin Mary, Shanghai
Lil, Christopher Columbus, Mohandas Gandhi's mother, Attila the Hun, Adam, Eve,
Tokyo Rose, Queen Isabella, Pocahontas, Janis Joplin, and Eva Braun.
In April, 1997, "Free Food & Frontal Nudity" (as it was titled
then) premièred at the PSI Theatre at the Durham Arts Council in Durham,
North Carolina to rave reviews. There we were, to our amazement, on stage, singing,
dancing, changing costumes a thousand times. And the critics were going for it!
Donald Loze, the producer, decided the next stop would be The Cable Car Theatre
in San Francisco. Again, raves. They raved about everything but the title which
they deplored. Although it now appears quite tame (after all, between The Vagina
Monologues, Urinetown, Puppetry of the Penis, and Menopause, the musical, to
name but a few, one could hardly quibble with FF&FN), we felt that "Free
Food & Frontal Nudity" had to go.
Needless to say, finding a strong title for a show about the entire history of
civilization was challenging and "Free Food & Frontal Nudity" did
at least refer to the desperation of the two authors who would offer anything
including free food and even frontal nudity to finance their show.
Given that everything started with The Big Bang, we went with it. Conveniently,
it's also the opening number.
In 2000, "The Big Bang" opened in New York City at the Douglas Fairbanks
Theatre and has been playing all over ever since.
Jed Feuer 2004
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