an off-beatnik musical by Peter Forrest

Welcome to the home page of the zany beatnik musical:

"How do I get to Beatville?"

1959 NYC, the year Sputnik went into space.  Enter the Firefly Café where all the fun begins.  Meet Mrs. Popov, a Russian immigrant woman whose aspirations have gone awry when she is faced with losing her café and has also been receiving threatening letters.  To top it all off, her daughter Natasha has just dropped out of college to become a full-fledged beatnik!   That is the last straw for Mrs. Popov!  Her NYC café has become a local hangout for this loveable gang of no-good beatniks: Nicky-9-doors (paranoid poet and comic relief) ; Jackie (beatnik-in-training) ; Rita (tough biker beatnik) ; and Natasha (daughter of Mrs. Popov). 

Things get worse until a wandering minstrel beatnik from Louisiana  J.P. Troubadour shows up, falls in love with Natasha, and even breaks through to Mrs. Popov.   However, danger still looms at the poetry reading when an FBI agent crashes the scene to arrest Mrs. Popov for subversive Communist activities.  Can Mrs. Popov be saved?

Last updated: January 08, 2008