Far Away

### *It'll be better after, I promise.*

*Far Away* is a short stage musical written by Nick Barnett and with music provided by *The Dropouts.* After plans about a possible musical adaptation of the band's previous album *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* fell through, Nick Barnett made *Far Away* to fill the passion and want he had to make another stage production. Originally, Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson started out writing the cult favorite musical *Cheer Up!* before the start of the band, so this wasn't too hard to get back into.

The show follows a man named Solomon launching out into space with a team to stop the planet Nomis B-94 from being swallowed by it's sun, but after getting stranded with his girlfriend, Arcadia, their relationship starts to become strained until eventually their mission is failed and Nomis B-94 begins to get destroyed. In a last ditch effort, Solomon decides that even though he no longer loves Arcadia, he owes it to both her and the rest of the team to make up for how he had been acting and stays on Nomis B-48 to lessen the load on their broken space ship, allowing the rest of the team to escape.

As a side project, *Far Away* is no where near as successful as Nick Barnett's original foray into theater and musicals, but many fans still have a sweet spot for the short and tragic story. The music found on the soundtrack is far out of the band's usual sound, using the different nature and approach to how the music would be made for the show to experiment much more than they would a normal album.

## Planning Stages

During the tour of *Beggars Can't Be Choosers,* Nick Barnett was approached by a theater company to create a musical adaptation of the album. The idea was very exciting to both Nick and Scott, who hadn't worked on something like that since before the band was created. Unfortunately, due to the state of rising tension and creative differences within the band at the time, the plans fell through. However, the start did spark a passion within Nick and Scott.

And so, during the downtime for the rest of the tour and meeting up after, Nick and Scott laid down the foundation for what would become *Far Away*. Nick had had the idea to do a sort of space rock opera for a while, but never had the time to really pursue it, so he presented the idea to Scott and they began to iron out the plot. While plans fell through with the original company that had approached them, Nick and Scott decided to partner back up with *Boredway*, the theater group run by their close friend Allison Romania, who had also produced *Cheer Up!* The plan was to make a short and concise show, since they didn't have as much free time as they did during the days of *Cheer Up!.*

Nick provided the story beats and song notes, and together *Boredway* produced the script and then it was onto Nick and Scott to provide the demos for the songs. Meeting up with the band, Nick and Scott explained *Far Away*, to see who would like to be apart of it. With tensions rising between the band members, it was unclear if everyone would be on board or not. Nathan Taylor and Jimmy Rodriguez both denied and Nikki Brown agreed to help out, if not to help alleviate some of the tension that was even rising between Nick and Scott at the time. Chris O'Brian was also brought on from *California Kids*, as he had always been a huge fan of *Cheer Up!* and wanted to be apart of the next project like it. With that the first demo for *Far Away* was recorded in Nick's garage, that being the most popular song from the show, *Waiting On You.*

## Production

### Soundtrack

Production officially started on the music side of *Far Away* on December 18th, 20XX, almost an entire year after the release of *Beggars Can't Be Choosers.* After the final tracklist was finalized along with the script, Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, Nikki Brown, and Chris O'Brian met up at the *Boredway* studio to record the album versions of the 7 song tracklist. Every song had been carefully written together by Nick and Scott, with help from Allison Romania to have them fit the final version of the script for the show.

Two versions of the album were recorded, one using the line up of *The Dropouts* present since the songs were technically under their name and owned by them, and another by the original cast of the show. Due to the smaller line up and variety of instruments present in the songs on *Far Away*, every member bounced around instruments, while the vocals were sung mainly by Nick Barnett, playing the role of Solomon, and Nikki Brown playing the role of Arcadia, while Scott Wilson and Chris O'Brian would fill in for any background characters, most notably Chris O'Brian playing the robot A.I. aboard the ship.

The tracks were recorded in order that they would appear in the show so that the band could have more of an emotional connection when singing the climactic songs. Recording went smoothly despite tensions between Nick and Scott over certain creative differences, but they kept their professionalism when recording in the *Boredway* space. Recordings took about one week and then Nick mixed and produced them together with Allison Romania, who had much more experience when producing for stage.

After the final versions were completed, the instrumentals were extracted to use for the version by the original cast of the show, and when the show would be put on stage, and the second version of the soundtrack was recorded the week after. The version of the soundtrack with the original cast would be released alongside the opening week of *Far Away,* while the version of the soundtrack by *The Dropouts* would take a little bit longer due to disputes between Nick Barnett and Nathan Taylor, as *The Dropouts* were still technically signed under *Make Believe Records*, but eventually and agreement would be reached.

### Stage Production

Allison Romania would handle most of the production responsibilities when it came to actually putting the show on stage. Using Nick and Scott's story beats, the writing team at *Boredway* finished the script and casting begun after the first demo for *Waiting On You* was finished. Those auditioning would read a scene between Solomon and Acradia, and would be encouraged to either sing *Waiting On You,* or another song preferably from *The Dropouts* discography, to match the type of music that would be present in the show.

Casting took about one month, and after the cast was finalized, rehearsals were headed by Allison and Nick, providing context and reason to the actors and actresses. The show would be put on at *Boredway's* own theater, as well as recorded and made into a digital version for those who wouldn't be able to make it to the show. Opening week was booked to be the week of May 7th, 20XX and with the songs finished soon after rehearsals started, all that was left was making sure the show was perfect.

## Plot Synopsis

The show opens up and introduces Solomon, our main character, along with his girlfriend Arcadia as they are briefed on their newest mission, to save the planet Nomis B-94 from being swallowed by it's sun. If it happens, the sun could grow strong enough to destroy multiple other planets in the area when it eventually explodes. Solomon and Arcadia agree, and they leave to meet up with their crew. Joining them are Juan and Dondo, childhood friends of Solomon's. This leads into the song *Blast Off!*

After launching into space aboard the spaceship Stardust 12-22, which Solomon nicknames the "S.S. Far Away", etching the words into the hull of the massive ship, Solomon and Arcadia begin to have issues. In such a giant ship, everyone has their own tasks and jobs, but Arcadia doesn't seem to be making any time for Solomon. He knows it's possible when he's able to finish his jobs every day and then sit and wait for Aracadia to eventually come to bed. This leads into the show's main song *Waiting On You.*

During Solomon's dismay, the ship reaches Nomis B-94 with the song *On Melancholy Hill* as Solomon expresses his joy in finally landing, hoping that this could help with his and Arcadia's relationship. However, as Solomon goes to tell everyone that they will be landing soon, he soon discovers that Arcadia had been cheating on him with Dondo the entire time, explaining her absences. Solomon lashes out and heads out onto Nomis alone. After the rest of the crew regroups and works through everything that happened, Solomon is eventually recovered and brought back onto the ship as the crew began to research how they could save Nomis. This leads into the song *To Binge,* sung from both Solomon's and Arcadia's perspectives, Solomon feels guilty for what he did and worrying everyone, even though he wasn't even the one who did something wrong.

After researching and communicating with The Star Corps back home, the crew discovers that the only way to save Nomis would be to destroy it as it's swallowed by the sun, blowing the sun up before it can get strong enough to wipe out any other planets. During this meeting the crew plans out a way to safely follow the directions given to them and they start to say their goodbyes. During this Solomon tries to reconcile with Arcadia, but she solidifies that she doesn't love Solomon anymore and has been with Dondo for a while. This enrages Solomon and he heads to his room.

That night, a storm hits The Stardust 12-22, and it hits it hard. During this storm, the song *I Don't Love You Anymore* is performed, as Solomon wakes up in the middle of the night to find the ship getting destroyed as the rest of the crew sleeps. It's the last day before the sun will destroy Nomis and the only way to carry out the plan now would be to manually activate the bomb that was aboard the ship. While everyone is still sleeping, Solomon ponders using the escape pod to leave everyone behind, after they had all hurt him the way they did. However, seconds away from launching off, he hesitates. He runs and wakes up his crewmates, explaining the situation. Juan and Dondo insist they should all leave on the escape pod, forgetting about the mission and going home to The Star Corps and figuring it out from there. Arcadia agrees, but Solomon looks around at everyone, thinking about all that's happened during the trip.

The crew begin to pile on to the escape pod, but as they start to shut the door, Solomon leaves himself out and grabs the bomb. Banging on the door, Arcadia and the rest of the crew ask Solomon what the hell he's doing. But Solomon simply stares towards the sun through the broken windshield of the Stardust 12-22. He tells them he's going to complete their mission and with that, manually launches the escape pod and sends them on their way off the planet. It's here that the song *Long Time Sunshine* begins as Solomon accepts his fate and at the end of the song, sets off the bomb and destroys Nomis B-94 along with it's sun.

In the moments before his death, Solomon has one last vision, of what his life would've been like with Arcadia. The final song *Only in Dreams* begins as Solomon accepts that Arcadia never truly loved him and everything he was seeing was just fantasy. Everything fades to white and the story ends with Solomon.

## The Road to *Far Away*

Unlike the usual album release road map, *Far Away* is much different in the fact that it was promoted exactly as it was meant to be, a stage production. Sharing glimpses and sneak peeks through message boards and the band's official social medias, *Far Away* was officially announced on February 21st, 20XX. A trailer was made and released the same day it was announced and through magazines and interviews, it was heavily advertised with the fact that the music was by the band that made *Spirit Weak,* still being the biggest album by *The Dropouts.*

Eventually to show fans of the band what to expect, and after many talks with Allison Romania and *Boredway,* eventually on March 12th, 20XX *Waiting On You* was released as an official single by *The Dropouts* under Make Believe Records, getting many fans excited for the show if that was what the music was going to sound like.

Finally, to fully promote opening week, the first ever production of *Far Away* was held on May 6th, 20XX, however instead of using the original cast, the members of *The Dropouts* who were involved took the place of the main characters as a way to draw fans in. Nick Barnett played Solomon, Nikki Brown played Arcadia, Scott Wilson played Dondo, and Chris O'Brian played Juan, while the remaining roles were kept by those who were casted in the show.

## Reception

*Far Away* officially opened on *Boredway* on May 7th, 20XX and much to the surprise of the crew, had quite a large opening week. Many fans that had started with *Spirit Weak* came to see what *The Dropouts* had been contributing to since the release of *Beggars Can't Be Choosers,* fans of all the *Boredway* shows came out to see the production company's new show, one of their biggest in a while, and the cult following from *Cheer Up!* came to see what the next show from Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson would be like.

While the show was successful, not everyone was sold on the music for the show. Some called the soundtrack a bit all over the place and too experimental, especially when comparing it to *Cheer Up!*, which had a distinct sound and voice throughout the entire show. Specifically the problems arose with the songs *On Melancholy Hill* and *To Binge*, which felt very out of place to those who had just listened to the soundtrack. However, critics and fans who watched the show on stage felt it fit the space theming of the show and felt out of this world.

*Far Away* ran for only a month on *Boredway,* and soon after the last show the official soundtrack by *The Dropouts* was released on June 21st, 20XX on Make Believe Records, letting the show's relevance continue for just a little bit longer. Overall, the show was regarded as above average, but it wasn't the groundbreaking hit like *Cheer Up!* was, putting the band in a similar position that they were already dealing with after *Spirit Weak*. While the show is still sometimes picked up by smaller theater companies, the mediocre response lead to even more tension between the members of *The Dropouts* who felt like the entire project was a waste of time and resources.

## Tracklist

1. *Blast Off!* - Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
2. *Waiting On You -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, Nikki Brown, and Chris O'Brian
3. *On Melancholy Hill -* Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
4. *To Binge -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, Allison Romania, and Nikki Brown
5. *I Don't Love You Anymore -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, and Chris O'Brian
6. *Long Time Sunshine -* Written by Nick Barnett
7. *Only In Dreams -* Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson

## Fun Facts

* Nick Barnett had done a lot of the costume design and set design while on tour for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers*
* Solomon was named after one of Nick Barnett's uncles
* Some refer to the plot of *Far Away* as a reverse *Cheer Up!*
* The cover art for the soundtrack release featuring the original cast was very quickly thrown together by marketing at *Boredway* to coincide with the opening week, while Nick Barnett designed the art for the soundtrack release featuring the band entirely by himself
* Both Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson would like to revisit *Far Away* sometime, but have been too busy to do anything with it
* Nathan Taylor and Jimmy Rodriguez have both expressed regret for not being apart of *Far Away* when they had the chance. Both would've like to work in a stage setting like that once again with everyone.
* In the original planning stages for the soundtrack, there was in fact another unused cover that was made.

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*It's Not Dead*