Original Book, Music & Lyrics By Wendy Bichel
Bikers in Camelot, a four-character musical romp, a romantic fable with a super natural twist and a lush score.
"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
Holly and Michael are writers, lovers, and possibly no longer each other’s perfect match. Holly craves the adventure she writes into her novels. Michael dreams of the devotion he finds in his Victorian heroines.
When a marriage proposal sparks a bitter argument, they call on the Fates for their ideal partners. Enter Tonio, a knight in black leather riding a motorcycle, and Caroline, a Victorian dream stepping out of a red telephone booth.
Over one extraordinary night in a Brooklyn loft, fantasy becomes uncomfortably real. Their dream lovers have minds of their own, and being someone’s perfect partner turns out to require a few too many rewrites.
Be careful what you wish for. Your dream lover might refuse to leave.
PERFORMERS
Holly : Santa Claire Hirsch
Michael : Joshua David Cavanaugh
Tonio : Magnus Dorholt Kjeldal
Caroline : Clara Dunham
"Hidden in the Shadows":
Michael : Teddy Brunetti
Holly : Cass Morgan
ACT ONE
ACT TWO
ACT I
Holly is suffering from severe writer’s block and blames her live-in writer boyfriend, Michael. Although she still loves him, she believes he lacks an adventurous soul. She knows she shouldn’t, but she has begun fantasizing about the hero of her popular chivalric sci-fi fantasies, the Dark Angel, an intergalactic knight addicted to danger. Michael, who writes biographies of famous Victorian women, has just received a hefty advance for his latest, the life of Julia Prinsep Steven, Virginia Wolf’s mother. Now, he can finally ask Holly to marry him. But when he proposes, she has a melt down and accuses him of trying to trap her. In the middle of their nasty battle, she implores the Fates to intervene. Thunder and lightning fill the sky and a motorcycle, ridden by a knight wearing black leather and a medieval helmet, bursts through the wall of their loft. The two are terrified, but Tonio, the rider, tells them he’s a stunt man working on a film around the corner, and, coincidentally, a big fan of Holly’s. He invites her for a ride, and she drives off with him. Feeling thoroughly betrayed, Michael fantasizes about his own ideal mate, an elegant c of Victorian virtue, and beseeches the Fates to help him find her. A British phone booth suddenly appears, and out steps Caroline, a timeless mystery woman. Sympathetic to his situation, she treats him with the kind of tender devotion he’s always dreamed of having. Holly returns home with Tonio, who makes her feel alive again. Clearly, she and Michael are head over heels . . . but not with each other. When Michael brings Caroline home he introduces her to Holly and “Sir Machismo of Camelot.” Holly snidely asks him who his little “housefrau” is. But apart from that, 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 to change them. Tonio, much to his disgust, is becoming vulnerable. Caroline finds herself losing some of her Victorian virtues, and even becoming a little slutty, which she quite likes, until Michael starts trying to turn her into Holly. 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 of each other 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 during which Caroline and Tonio taunt Michael and Holly for their immature behavior toward each other. Then, with the irony of fate, Michael actually stabs Tonio. Upon seeing his own blood, Tonio knows he has realized his greatest desire – he and Caroline are alive! They rally and herd Holly and Michael into the street, where the confused couple claim their perfectly imperfect love. Tonio and Caroline appear, apologize for their little Oedipal moment and invite Holly and Michael to join their quest to become Bikers in Camelot – heroes in a world that sorely needs heroes. The couple accept the invitation, and when Caroline, in a very Shakespearean moment, suggests a double wedding, Holly drops to her knee and proposes to Michael.
A graduate of Stanford University, Wendy sang jazz in Europe for several 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 show was commissioned by Gail Merrifield Papp of the Public Theater, who later commissioned Give Me Your Eyes for the very first festival of ten-minute musicals. Wendy Wonder and the Permanent Wave, An Ode to 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, is a childrens’ musical which, like Coco, presents a lighter take on 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. Fred Dannen, of Billboard, called Bikers in Camelot, produced in 2019, a “rollicking success in every way.”
