Script / Stage musical
Analog
A stage musical about young artists and service workers whose jobs are being handed to AI, and who band together to prove the human part still matters.
- Status
- Concept, running order and five finished songs. The book and most of the score aren't written yet.
- Length
- 1,604 words so far · about 7 min
- This draft
- Concept draft, October 2025
Maya's a graphic designer who just lost a client to software that works for free. Rosa talks angry callers down at a call center to support her little girl, and the loudspeaker has just announced the automated chat system coming next quarter. Jamal used to cover city council corruption; now he writes listicles with AI-optimized headlines. Around them are a coder who helped build the systems doing the replacing, a busking musician, a paralegal and a young entrepreneur who knows how to make things go viral.
By the end of Act I they've found each other in the same coffee shop, and the question for Act II is what people can do that the machines can't. On the other side of the table is Tyler Steinberg's corporate board, singing about efficiency, and Maya's old friend Sarah, who took the job at Optimize.AI.
- Two acts, 21 songs, from the opening number "Side Hustle Symphony" to a finale where the corporate theme and the human one fight it out.
- Seven main characters, most with a solo about the work they're losing.
- Human scenes on acoustic instruments and live piano; corporate scenes cold, electronic and a little too perfect.
- Five songs are finished and up in the songbook, with chords.
- Next up: the rest of the songs and the book scenes between them.
Revision notes7 open
- structureOnly 5 of the 21 songs are written
"Side Hustle Symphony," "Hold Please," "Optimize Everything," "Digital Revolution" and "Analog Heart" are finished. The other 16 are a title and four lines of lyric preview, and most of the book scenes between them don't exist yet.
- continuity"XYZ" placeholders still in the call-center material
Rosa answers the phone "XYZ Customer Care" in Scene 2, and the finished lyrics of "Hold Please" ("XYZ Company, this is Rosa") and "Side Hustle Symphony" ("XYZ support") still use the placeholder. Rosa's employer needs a real fictional name.
- structureScenes 5 and 6 are in the opposite order from their songs
The Maya and Sarah scene (Scene 5) leads into "Version 2.0," song 11, and the Alex and Marcus scene (Scene 6) leads into "Human Code," song 10. Either swap the scenes or swap the songs in the running order.
- structureNo scene shows the group finding each other
Scenes 1 to 3 introduce Maya, Rosa and Jamal alone; the next scene opens after "Digital Revolution" with all seven already together, and Alex, Marcus, Diana and Zoe have no introduction scene. Sarah refers to "your little gathering yesterday," which is never shown.
- bible"Assembly Line" has no singer in the cast
Song 13 is sung by someone who worked the line for thirty years. None of the seven leads fits; the planning docs give it to Mr. Patel, an older factory worker who doesn't appear in any posted scene.
- bibleDiana's romance has no partner yet
"Brief Encounter" is planned as Diana's unexpected romance, but the character profiles leave the other person as "[Mysterious character]."
- bibleWhere the Maya and Sarah scene happens
The posted scene puts Sarah's visit in the coffee shop; the plot outline sets "Version 2.0" in Maya's apartment. The coffee shop works fine, but the outline should match.
Version history1 draft
Current · October 2025
Concept draft
The running order with lyric previews for the unwritten songs, plus seven short dialogue scenes that bridge the songs.