PHILADELPHIA — Off Broadway and proper off Broad Street, Daryl Morey composed an offbeat sort of basketball roster. Bird, Magic, even Phil Jackson made the lower, solely in Morey’s world they’re 6-inch Lilliputians, fairly than giants in NBA historical past.
Yes, the group is even led by Michael Jordan.
Just not THAT Michael Jordan, a operating gag in an absurdist musical comedy orchestrated largely by Morey. The group president of the Philadelphia 76ers, Morey grew up contemplating a profession in musical theater. Maybe write some Broadway smash hits. He even sketched out a draft for a basketball-themed musical – an thought hatched years in the past when he linked with a theater firm in Houston.
“That theater I was working with approached me and said, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool to do a musical?’” Morey mentioned. “Yeah, sure, I have an outline of something that might be fun. Then we very smartly threw out my outline.”
From the ashes of Morey’s proposed guide got here “Small Ball,” a couple of small group with massive basketball goals set on the fictional Lilliput island out of “Gulliver’s Travels.”
Morey is an government producer. Mickle Mahler wrote the guide and lyrics. Merel Van Dijk and Anthony Barilla composed the music. The present was beforehand staged in Houston – the place Morey previously ran the Rockets – and Denver. It ran this week on the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia with plans in movement to provide it an extended run on the theater – and maybe past – down the road.
“We get closer to New York each time,” Morey mentioned laughing. “Musicals, for those who are real fans, take a real long time.”
Morey famous the Tony winner “Hadestown” for example of the lengthy highway to its 2019 Broadway debut after a begin in a small city in Vermont in 2006. Morey has been credited as a producer on Broadway exhibits, together with “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Parade.”
“I could win any sort of musical theater trivia,” Morey mentioned. “That’s sort of an embarrassing fact for myself.”
The Lilliputians named Bird and Magic and Pippin (spelled just like the 1972 musical, not the previous Chicago Bull) assist lure a Michael Jordan to the island as they attempt to be a part of a global basketball league. One downside, it’s not the precise Michael Jordan. Just a participant with the identical identify.
Colby Lewis, who starred as Jordan, mentioned he was a “washed-up basketball” participant whose declare to fame was shutting down Stephen Curry in North Carolina High School basketball video games. He’s since made visitor appearances on exhibits akin to “Blue Bloods” and “Law & Order” and loved the prospect to return to – although fictional – his basketball roots.
“It’s a fantastical comedy about grief, about what’s possible, and I think how the things we love like basketball affect how we process life,” he mentioned. “It’s unique in the way it brings a lot of unseemingly correlated elements together. If I had a theme for it, figuring it out is what most of us are doing.”
The acts are designed to imitate NBA press conferences.
“First you lose/Then they make you talk about your losing. First you fail/Then they make you say just how you failed,” notes one track’s lyrics.
76ers normal supervisor Elton Brand attended Wednesday’s staged studying of the musical. Missing? 76ers coach Nick Nurse – who did have to teach the group in Detroit – however just lately famous Philadelphia’s sports activities followers are so passionate as a result of, “there’s not too many people talking about what musical is coming to town next week.”
Morey, who lives a couple of block away from Philadelphia’s theater district, mentioned he’d wish to get Nurse to a efficiency.
“His tongue was firmly in cheek with that, I think. I think,” Morey mentioned, laughing. “Philadelphia, we’re spunky. We beat up on the New York sports teams. Maybe they do pretty well in theater. Who knows where it will go next.”
Maybe basketball will bounce Morey to Broadway, in spite of everything.
“It kind of fits my personality,” Morey mentioned. “Cool but different. Maybe just different.”
