First it was the Pavement art exhibit — “This has to be a joke,” we said. Nope, it’s real, said a rep for the band, and it was staged in New York in September.
Today, it’s a musical — “Okay, this one is a joke, right?,” we said. Nope, it’s real too, said the rep.
And apparently it is: Just two months after the group played a triumphant four-night stand in Brooklyn as part of their months-long anniversary tour, “Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical” (the title is based on their 1991 “breakthrough” album) is workshopping for two shows only at the Sheen Center in New York on December 1 and 2.
“The majesty and mystery of Pavement, one of rock music’s most unique treasures, brought to life on the stage for an abbreviated, unforgettable stand.”
The show is written and directed by Alex Ross Perry (“Her Smell,” Golden Exits”), with songs by Pavement, arrangements by Keegan Dewitt & Dabney Morris and choreography — yes, Pavement songs with choreography! — by Angela Trimbur and Tenaya Kelleher. It stars Michael Esper (“The Outsider,” “Trust,” the Broadway version of Green Day’s “American Idiot”), Zoe Lister-Jones (“Life in Pieces,” “New Girl”) and Kathryn Gallagher.
Further information was not immediately available, but Pavement are setting a new standard for imaginative takes on an indie-rock icondom. Along with a constantly shifting setlist on their ongoing tour, “Pavements 1933-2022: A Pavement Museum” was a semi-jokingly titled international museum exhibition from the band featuring “previously unseen imagery, artwork and ephemera, commendations and commemorations, alongside rumored relics of the band’s real and imagined history (as well as exclusive merchandise and classic museum souvenirs),” according to the announcement.
At the rate they’re going, a hologram show will follow the conclusion of the tour.
