Book, Music & Lyrics By Wendy Bichel
Bikers in Camelot is a four character musical romp, a romantic fable with a super natural twist and a lush score.
REVIEW
"Bikers in Camelot had its premiere in the multicultural city of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and was undoubtedly the most successful theatrical engagement in that city’s history. There were standing ovations nightly and people were coming back to see it two and three times. I myself found the show irresistible — charming premise, funny and sophisticated book, smart lyrics, and hummable melodies. It merits a much larger audience, and a spot in the standard repertoire of small-cast musicals."
— Fredric Dannen, Billboard
THE STORY
Michael and Holly, both authors, are soul mates. But Holly is suffering from writer’s block and it’s creating a lot of stress and doubts about their live-in relationship. Secretly, they have each taken to fantasizing about the main characters in their books. When Michael suddenly proposes to Holly, all hell breaks loose. In the throes of a nasty fight, they unwittingly materialize the characters with whom they’ve fallen in love. What ensues is a crazy and enlightening night in which the two learn to “be careful what you wish for.” Of course they rediscover each other . . . but their dream lovers aren’t going anywhere.
SCORE
PERFORMERS
Holly : Santa Claire Hirsch | Michael : Joshua David Cavanaugh | Kevin : Magnus Dorholt Kjeldal | Caroline : Clara Dunham
"Hidden in the Shadows"
Michael : Teddy Brunetti | Holly : Cass Morgan
SYNOPSIS
ACT I
Michael, who writes biographies of famous Victorian women, has just received a hefty advance for his latest, about Julia Princep Steven, Virginia Wolf’s mother. After three years he feels he can finally ask Holly, his successful live-in writer girlfriend, to marry him. But Holly is suffering from severe writer’s block and blames Michael. Although she loves him, she believes he lacks an adventurous soul. She knows she shouldn’t, but she’s begun fantasizing about the hero of her chivalric sci-fi fantasies, the Dark Angel, an intergalactic knight addicted to danger. When Michael proposes, she has a melt down and accuses him of trying to trap her. In the middle of their nasty battle, Holly calls upon the Fates to intervene. Thunder and lightening fill the sky and a motorcycle, ridden by a black knight, bursts through the wall of their loft. The two are terrified, but Tonio, the rider, calms them down and explains that he’s a stunt man working on a film nearby. When he informs Holly that he’s a huge fan, she drives off with him. Feeling thoroughly betrayed, Michael begins fantasizing about his own perfect mate, an elegant paradigm of Victorian virtue. When he, too, turns to the Fates for assistance, a British phone booth resembling Dr.Who’s Tardis, suddenly appears, and out steps Caroline, a timeless mystery woman. Sympathetic to his situation, she quickly offers him the kind of tender devotion he’s dreamed of. Holly returns home with Tonio, who makes her feel alive again. Both she and Michael are head over heels . . . but not with each other. Michael brings Caroline home and introduces her to Holly and Tonio, whom he caustically refers to as Sir Machismo of Camelot. Holly snidely asks him who his little housefrau is. But all in all they are well behaved and without a clue that they are face to face with their own creations. In a very civilized fashion, the two of them agree to give each other the space to pursue something more realistic.
ACT II
Tonio and Caroline soon notice that Holly and Michael are beginning to lose interest in them the way they are, and have unconsciously begun changing them. Caroline finds herself losing some of her Victorian virtues and Tonio, much to his disgust, is becoming vulnerable. Finally, they’ve had enough. Prepared to risk everything to recover their own integrity, they fire their creators. Stunned, Michael and Holly find themselves back together, and very grateful for it. They ask forgiveness for holding one another up to the ridiculous standards of their fantasies and rekindle the passion they had when they first met. But Tonio and Caroline are not going anywhere. In a ploy to take over Holly and Michael’s lives, they accuse them of being imposters who have broken into Tonio and Caroline’s loft. The four fight a duel and Tonio is wounded. Upon seeing his own blood, he knows he has realized his greatest desires — he and Caroline are alive and in love. They herd Holly and Michael into the street, forcing them to claim their perfectly imperfect love. Tonio and Caroline apologize for their little Oedipal moment and invite them to join their quest to become Bikers in Camelot — heroes in a world that sorely needs heroes. Holly and Michael, who, because of the danger, are both having doubts about ever writing again, accept their invitation. When Caroline suggests a double wedding before they ride off into the sunrise, Holly drops to one knee and proposes to Michael.
Book, Music & Lyrics
Wendy Bichel
After graduating from Stanford, Wendy sang jazz in Europe for three years before moving to NYC to begin a career as a singer-songwriter. Her first musical, Love, Sex & Rock & Roll, won her a full fellowship from the MFA Program in Music Theatre Writing, at NYU, the first of its kind. The show was then commissioned by Gail Merrifield Papp of the Public Theater, who later commissioned Give Me Your Eyes for the first ever festival of ten-minute musicals. Wendy Wonder and the Permanent Wave, about Miss Subways, was produced at S.N.A.F.U. in NYC. The Garden of Katan, a fantasy opera, was a collaboration with composer Andrew Wilder. Emir’s Adventures, a children’s musical, presents a palatable approach to death. The Millennium Medicine Show — The Goddess Returns, is a hybrid musical/pageant, that allowed her to work with the Tent Master of Cirque du Soleil. Something Borrowed, Something New, a jazz memoir, was produced at the Santa Ana Theatre in San Miguel de Allende, MX. Bikers in Camelot, produced at the San Miguel Playhouse, had its international premier in 2018 and was described by Fred Dannen, of Billboard, as “irresistible — charming premise, funny and sophisticated book, smart lyrics, and hummable melodies. It merits a spot in the standard repertoire of small-cast musicals." Bichel is currently working on Are You Dying to Live with Me, a vampire pas de deux, about the pros and cons of immortality.
SCRIPT
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