Star power fuels ‘1001 Nights’ at Center for Puppetry Arts

“It was a year out or more that we put it on the schedule,” said Jon Ludwig, the Center’s associate artistic director and co-director of the new production. “Who would know? But I’m not surprised. It’s clear that [“1001 Nights”] is an early work, but you can see the genius already.”

The family-friendly take on “Arabian Nights,” originally produced by Flying Carpet Theatre in 1998, was one of the first works by Lopez, who became very popular, very quickly as a co-creator of the hilarious hit musicals “Avenue Q” and “Book of Mormon.”

Recently Lopez’s success took an almost exponential leap thanks to the runaway success of the Disney animated musical “Frozen,” to which he contributed the songs. In particular his “Let It Go” has become a tween and teen girl anthem, launching countless cover versions on Youtube.

The original production of “1001 Nights” was the inaugural show of Flying Carpet Theatre, a New York based-company that pays homage to old-school theatrical effects. Flying Carpet Theatre founder and “1001 Nights” co-creator Adam Koplan is a native Atlantan and Westminster alumnus, and he likes to bring the company’s productions to Atlanta every other year.

“I was first exposed to the ‘Arabian Nights’ tales and professional puppet shows through a production of ‘Aladdin and His Magical Lamp’ at the Center in the early 1980s,” he said.

Koplan followed his theatrical muse to New York City where he met Lopez in 1997. They were interns at the off-Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons when they created “1001 Nights” as a way to prove themselves.

“There was some muscle-flexing going on,” said Koplan, then an aspiring director. “I didn’t want to be bound by physical theater. I really wanted the piece to have an incredible, playful physicality, but also to take people on a very clear emotional arc.”

For Lopez, “1001 Nights” was an opportunity to write songs in a variety of styles while reaching out to audiences on an emotional level. “I don’t think I’d learned to connect with an audience yet,” Lopez said from his home in Brooklyn. “This was the first time I had written an almost full-length show to entertain people.”

“1001 Nights” was an important milestone for another reason. “It was the very first musical that I was paid to write,” he said. “I was paid something like $500, which seemed like a lot of money at the time. I felt like, ‘Wow, things are getting started!’”

Koplan and Lopez’s musical contains a modern-day framing device of an 11-year-old girl named Sherry who avoids doing her homework by recounting the story of Scheherezade, who in the original “Arabian Nights,” defers her execution by telling tales to a king. What follows are musical interpretations of such classics tales as “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves,” with Sherry’s stuffed animals playing multiple roles.

The original New York production of “1001 Nights” was a low-budget affair, with sets and props that amounted to little more than three puppets, some masks, a Persian rug found in a dumpster and a $30 shower curtain with an Arabian pattern. This year’s Center for Puppetry Arts production includes more than 50 puppets and a far more visually elaborate design.

Because of the show’s history, working on the new production has been a particularly satisfying experience for Koplan.

“People don’t really get to see things they played around with in their early 20s come to full realization in their early 40s,” he said.

As for Lopez, he says subtle traces of “1001 Nights” can be found in his subsequent work. He sings a few bars of his biggest hit as an example. “The bridge in “Let It Go” – ‘My power flurries through the air’ – I think was a little bit inspired by the genie song, ‘On Time,’” he said. It’s got some of the same sinuous, serpentine quality.”

When Lopez, who co-wrote “Let It Go” with wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez, won the Oscar earlier this month, he became one of 12 people in entertainment to complete the “EGOT,” having won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. He won multiple Tonys for “Avenue Q” and “Book of Mormon”; a Grammy for best musical theater album for “Book of Mormon”; and two Daytime Emmy Awards for “Wonder Pets.”

Before winning the Oscar, Lopez said he kept his awards downstairs and out of sight.

“We didn’t want to have the reminder of ‘You have to live up to this award,’” he said. “But because of the EGOT, we brought them up and put them on the mantle over our fireplace, to see if they’d glow or levitate, but they didn’t.”

Of course, just because the magic is subtle, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real.