The Silent City is a record-based musical produced by the Stagehands and released in 2009. It follows a music man named Stan from his home in an average town to Laconia, the land of entertainment. It turns out that Laconia is a dictatorship run by a mayor who makes everyone in the town wear a mask in exchange for making them famous.
Stan chooses not to wear a mask, and the mayor does not provide him with fame, but he continues to try. This inspires Ashley, a townsperson who had been previously masked, to join him in his resistance, under threat of exile.Eventually, Stan and Ashley are able to convince the town that they don’t need the mayor, and become leaders of the town. Stan declines because he thinks that the townspeople following him blindly is not an improvement.
Tracklist
ACT 1
- "It’s the Start"/"Overture"
- "The Commercial (Do It Anyway)"
- "Sailor Man, Sailor Man"
- "Welcome to our Town"
- "The Mayor (Part 1 and 2)"
- "Petty Games"/"Worries Grow With Time"/"Nothin’s Wrong"
- "Ashley"/ "Searching" /"La Bibliothèque"
ACT 2
- "Island Fever"
- "The Threat"
- "Not Alone (Ashley Reprise)" / "I Was Alone"
- "Set a Fire"
- "The Riot"
- "Now or Never"
- "Curtains (It's the Start Reprise)"
Cast
- Geoff Stevens as Stan (vocals)
- Mackenzie Zufelt as Narrator (vocals)
- Justine Moritz as Ashley (vocals) note
- Marko Pandza as Sailor (guitar & vocals) note
- David Yenovkian as Mayor (bass & vocals)
- Nemanja Protic as Townsperson (drums)
Island Troper
- Affably Evil: The mayor is quite nice to everyone… provided they obey his commands to wear the masks.
- Angry Mob Song: "The Threat" and "The Riot." Fittingly, "The Threat" is where they're warned of exile, while "The Riot" is where they're almost stopped.
- Assimilation Plot: The mayor is able to hold so much power because he is able to convince everyone to be indistinguishable. The moment they start showing any autonomy he's rendered powerless.
- Big "NO!": The Mayor has one during his villainous breakdown.
- BSoD Song: "Island Fever", where Stan is being deliberately ignored and starts considering wearing the mask in order to be accepted; "I Was Alone" is Ashley's attempt to stop Stan's BSOD.
- Cassandra Truth: The sailor man in the third song tells Stan that "the land of entertainment is a lie." He doesn’t believe him until he sees the masks.
- Crowd Song: "Welcome to Our Town", "La Bibliotheque", "Now or Never", and the Angry Mob Songs have lots of singing from the Laconian ensemble.
- The Eleven O'Clock Number: "Now or Never", where Stan and Ashley convince the citizens of Laconia to take off their masks and the mayor is defeated.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Both the sailor man and the mayor are known only as their job descriptions.
- Evil Sounds Deep: The only baritone in the musical is the tyrannical mayor.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Inverted. The Mayor is able to locate the token resistance because Stan went out of his way to find them.
- "I Want" Song: "The Commercial (Do It Anyway)" talks about Stan wanting fame.
- La Résistance: Stan and Ashley work against the mayor to convince the townspeople that they don't need to wear the masks.
- Lemony Narrator: The narrator occasionally finishes actual characters' sentences, and sometimes puts in things that seem like incorrect value judgments.
- No Name Given: Of the five important roles, exactly two of them have actual names.
- Nominal Importance: It's no coincidence that the one Laconian the mayor name-drops to Stan specifically (Ashley) turns out to be the one who's important.
- Offered the Crown: Stan and Ashley both, although only Ashley wants it; Stan refuses because he doesn't want the people worshipping him instead of the mayor.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "It's the Start/Overture" leads into "Commercial (Do It Anyway)", and "Set a Fire" leads into "The Riot."
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Stan is far more idealistic than the average from his hometown, but is more discerning and less trusting than most of the people in Laconia.
- "Somewhere" Song: "It’s the Start"; Stan does go to the place he wanted to but it turns out to be terrible.
- Tenor Boy: The hero Stan’s voice is approximately the same pitch as the female narrator’s.
- Ultimate Authority Mayor: Exaggerated. Not only does the mayor not have to answer to a higher power, he actually became a totalitarian dictator.
- Villain Song: "The Mayor", about all the great things the mayor can do for Stan and the rest of Laconia's stars.
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Now or Never" which is where the townspeople turn against the mayor.
- Villainous Breakdown: The Mayor has one at the end of "Now or Never" when everyone takes off their masks.
