A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S MUSICAL COMEDY : A musical adaptation
Book, Music & Lyrics by Johnny Elkins
This musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream stays close to Shakespeare’s play. It is set in Ancient Athens and is very much about the fickleness of love. Four young lovers are mostly at the mercy of fairies who apply the juice of a flower that makes them (and the Fairy Queen who is quarreling with her King) fall in love with the next person or thing they see. It also involves a group of workmen, inexperienced with putting on a play, hoping to win (for a prize) the ability to perform for the Duke of Athens and his conquered wife to be, the distraught Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, on their wedding night.
Coming to CVREP on April 8, 2025 at 2pm.
Johnny Elkins
Johnny Elkins is a composer, lyricist and writer. He has had over 300 of his songs in film, television, videos, and on streaming platforms and CDs, by a variety of artists including Vanessa Williams, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ben Vereen.
Johnny’s first stage musical was written for the American Dental Association. Performed in schools, it’s called, Watch Your Mouth. Next, he was commissioned to co-write Leap for the Access theater in Santa Barbara. He then sold an animated musical for which he wrote the screenplay, music and lyrics.
Some of the films his songs have been in include Passengers (Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt), 21 Jump Street (Jonah Hill & Changing Tatum) and Begin Again (Keira Knightly & Mark Ruffalo). Among his many TV song credits, he has written for CSI, Ray Donovan, Criminal Minds, Shameless, The Unit, Sons of Anarchy, and King of the Hill.
Johnny just finished an animated music video he directed for an animated musical-comedy-sci-fi tv series he’s working on.
He is excited to have this reading of A Midsummer Night’s Musical Comedy at the Coachella Valley Repertory
ORIGINS: 2025
Read about the other great projects being developed in our 2025 Origins season.
OBSESSED
by Starr Shapiro
THE ROMEO AND JULIET SENIOR CITIZENS PROJECT: A COMEDY
Written by Jami Brandli
Story by Jami Brandli, Nina Sallinen and Ann Hearn Tobolowsky (and William Shakespeare, too)
DOUBLE HELIX
by Vince Gatton
For more information about Origins, please click here.
