Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: "Sid Buddha Superstar" the musical (video)

Sunday, April 17, 2022

"Sid Buddha Superstar" the musical (video)

NMM; Writer Evan Brenner, John C. Reilly (Theater Mania); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Maitreya the Future Buddha

Oscar and Tony-nominated actor John C. Reilly directed Even Brenner's one-man play Buddha: Triumph & Tragedy in the Life of the Great Sage, Feb. 3-25, 2012, at Bootleg Theater, Hollywood.

Framed in an unusual and personal context, Evan Brenner brings selections from Buddhist texts to the stage, unchanged, to enact the extraordinary life of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama.

Jesus Christ gets a big boost by a Jewish production of his life emphasizing good Judas' role.

Siddhartha (Herman Hesse)

Writer and performer Evan Brenner's writing and directing credits include both film and television. As an actor, he appeared in such films as The Deep and Dreamless Sleep and Spare Me.

Director John C. Reilly is best known for his acting roles in films including What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Anger Management, Magnolia, Gangs of New York, Talladega Nights, and Roman Polanski's Carnage, adapted from the Broadway hit, God of Carnage.

Judas is shown in two sympathetic lights, Christian and Jewish

What the play really needs is a rewrite to make it a musical. Score the sutras quoted by Brenner and put together an ensemble of dancing actors Jesus Christ Superstar-style. Hollywood is waiting. See here for more information about Buddha: Triumph & Tragedy in the Life of the Great Sage. More

The Wisdom Quarterly art director suggests these beats/plot points:

So we've got the "lyrics" right from the sutras.
What we need now is a guitar-driven rock soundtrack, maybe reminiscent of the Sixties, with uprisings and sitars and mellotrons, a little Led Zeppelin feel like from The Song Remains the Same live album.
But let's open with an "Incense and Peppermints" vibe, Prince Siddhartha in his Scythian summer palace near the blue lotus pond.

We were lounging around in upper class ecstasy, navel gazing and tripping/

Pull back to reveal the splendor, luxury, all female upper floor for revelry.
Maybe they're smoking/imbibing soma and mare's milk.
Playing tablas, dropping veils dancing, singing ragas.
Then enters a pensive Sid (Siddhartha Gautama).
It's the end of the night, and he sees the sleeping dancing girls drooling in exhaustion, after the hedonistic excesses of the proud Shakyas/Scythians.
Begin with a soliloquy expressing spiritual longings for something deeper, revulsion with the temporal.

The Great Prince was "Dazed and Confused" as he set off on a journey

"Why do we suffer, and what is the solution?" is the question that dogs the future sage.
Enter his family, beautiful Princess Yasodhara (Bimba Devi), his stepmother (Queen Maha Pajapati), his sister (Sundari Nanda), and other relatives.
In fact, we already have a source for the detailed conversations between the main characters, like Sid and his wife Bimba (Yasodhara), written by our Bhante, Ven. Dr. Walpola Piyananda, who has imagined what the main figures must have said to each other in accordance with the extant texts we have to refer to.

Thus We Heard: Recollections of the Life of The Buddha (Ven. Dr. Bhante Walpola Piyananda)

Then flash to an archery scene, riding his white pony (Kanthaka), engaged in ancient Afghan sports and demonstrations of manly prowess.
Switch to quiet scene in a walled garden, longing to see the outside world.
Carry on in this way, establishing how he was raised until the great renunciation and his heroic journey as he sets off on a quest for enlightenment to save everyone from suffering by finding the reason for suffering so as to come up with a solution....