The Flaming Lips' 2002 album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" is to make it's premier on stage and the end of this year at the La Jolla Playhouse in Los Angeles, the LA Times reports.
Des McAnuff wrote and will be directing the play, along with frontman of the group Wayne Coyne. Aaron Sorkin, writer "The Social Network," was on board when the project was originally pitched in 2007, but he backed out when it was announced the play would be 'sung through,' according to the Times.
"Yoshimi" will follow a young Japanese artist as she confronts the antagonists and mechanical nemeses in a land full of robots. Though "Yoshimi" was never a concept album, McAnuff is loosely basing the musical off the album's namesake. The musical will draw from other albums by the Flaming Lips, too, such as "The Soft Bulletin" and "At War with the Mystics," and have multimedia effects on stage.
McAnuff, now the head of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, was the artistic director of La Jolla from 1983 to 1994, and 2001 to 2007. His previous directing roles included "Jersey Boys" and the upcoming comeback of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
The Flaming Lips have been quite active lately, putting out a video with Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band, covering "I Am the Walrus" and completing two original songs -- one six hours long, and the other 24. No word on how long the musical will last.