“Swedish Style: The Musical”: Synopsis And Track Listing
1. Restringing The Guitar (Press, Anna, Fans)
Beloved and world-renowned pop quartet Opus 10 is making global headlines with rumors of a bitter breakup, following consecutive divorces by the act’s two couples, Reno and Rita, and Kurt and Katherine. Their manager Anna pleads with the group to remain intact, while assuring a fervent press corps that the group will be back.
2. Bird With A Broken Wing (Anna)
One by one, the four members of Opus 10 gather in the garden of their isolated island cottage located on an island along the Stockholm Archipelago. Musical effects punctuate their entrances and growing agitation, as Anna tries to silence the quartet’s infighting and questions them about the rumored split.
3. Chronological Survey (Rita)
In a private moment, group member Rita recalls her love affair with ex-husband Reno and acknowledges that she needs him more than she is willing to publicly admit.
4. Here We Go (Anna & The Group)
Anna warns the group members that if they surrender their ongoing success, Opus 10 will be little more than a pop culture memory within a year. To become “legends,” she persuades the members to record a final album together to prove their artistic merit.
5. Mr. And Mrs. Average Think (Full Company)
As preparation for a new album begins, designers, stylists, musicians and publicists are tripping over themselves to be involved one last time in the success of Opus 10, the world’s most popular super group.
6. Reincarnation (Reno, Anna, Kurt)
After a late recording session in the group’s control room, Reno, Kurt and Anna leave the studio and wander down a narrow Old Town street, dotted with cafes, bars and dimly lit street lamps. They are feeling content and sentimental; as they pass a poster promoting a past hit Opus 10 album, the three reflect on the good times with pride.
7. The Three Boys
In the midst of their sweet reflective moment, three young punks destroy the group’s poster by pasting an advert announcing a live show from a trendy new group directly over it. The boys poke fun at Opus 10’s past, wondering if they’re dead or alive, and belittling the titles of their pop songs.
8. Classics (Reno, Kurt)
Wounded, Reno and Kurt try to ignore the punks’ mockery. But Anna uses it as a tool to stress that if the group doesn’t release music that will stand the test of time—a classic—then the boys speak a painful truth. Reno and Kurt heed the warning and return to the studio to compose a new song “that will never die.” The two agree, “I want to sing for once a song that will live ever after/I want to leave the world a song that tastes like love and laughter.”
9. Hands Cold To My Touch (Reno)
As the sun rises, the new song is wrapped. Because of its vocal range, Rita is chosen to sing lead—and Katherine is not pleased. Out of revenge, she secretly leaks to a publicist that Rita has been drinking to excess following her divorce, which is impacting the recording of the new album. Cruel headlines hit the press, insinuating Rita’s downfall. Label honchos insist that Katherine take the lead, given the negative reports… Reno goes to Rita’s home to break the news to her. Standing in her lush, green garden, he reflects, “If she were crying her heart out I’d want to die/Knowing I could not comfort her.”
10. Rita’s Song (Rita)
As Reno is about to speak with Rita at her home, the couple’s past overpowers the moment and they fall into each other’s arms, ultimately spending the night together. In a solitary moment, she laments, “Tell my fable, silk and sable, silver roof and golden gable/A mighty lady, one man able, to bring her crashing down.”
11. Paparazzi Song (Press)
The next morning, Katherine leaves a message for Rita expressing faux sorrow over the label’s decision that Rita has lost the lead vocal. But Rita has the last laugh: At a meeting with the honchos, she offers to pay for Opus 10’s publicity, promotion and marketing in light of the group’s image woes—as long as they return the lead vocal to her… The album comes out two months later and while fans embrace it, critics massacre the effort.
12. No Space For U-Turns (Rita)
All the money spent for publicity and marketing doesn’t save the album from ultimately failing to equal the Opus 10’s previous efforts. The label attempts to convince the group to contribute capital for a world tour. With Rita’s fortune spent, she declines… and to top the disillusionment, she discovers that it was Katherine who made up rumors of her drinking. She retreats to a Latin tavern to dance away her tears and fears and sings, “Life is a road, it is broad, but there is no space for U-turns.”
13. Immortal Tunes (Rita)
A wounded Rita decides to leave the group, believing the only way to truly find immortality is to leave Opus 10’s place in the pop pantheon to fate: She reasons, “It is through death a legend is born.”
14. Let The Music Speak To New Horizons (Anna And The Group)
Rita visits Anna at the group’s island hideaway and is surprised to find that Reno, Kurt and Katherine have all gathered to meet her. A fond farewell ensues, with hard feelings dissipating into the heavens… as the group’s ultimate legacy is left to the fates of the future.