Apocalypse "New": Free Experimental Musical featuring Ariana Delawari and Many Others, Tonight

Here's an Earth Day thought: imagine that two narcissistic party girls–Nicole & Paris but with better vocabularies–survive the apocalypse and rebuild civilization according to their depraved self-serving desires. They destroy the world maybe twice in the process through song and dance. This sums up the basic premise of New., the experimental rock opera taking place tonight and tomorrow at the grand Million Dollar Theater.

Post Fact Productions, aka Rachel Kolar & Lauren Brown of He's My Brother She's My Sister, and Nicole Disson, convinced The Standard to sponsor their post-cultural meditation on debauchery and transcendence, so tickets costs zero dollars. PFP's “Free Art For The People” campaign hopes to resuscitate Downtown's theater life following the legacy of Joseph Papp.

The girls enlisted their New Weird musician peers to pen and perform original music for the play. The cast includes Ariana Delawari, Anna Oxygen, Aska Matsumiya (Moonrats), Amanda Jo Williams, the LA Ladies Choir, Featherbeard, KP Thomas (Spindrift), Max Guirand, Oliwa (Pleasure Circus Band), Nicole Disson, Lauren Brown, and Rachel Kolar, who wrote the script. The wild style choreographer Mecca showed them how to move and Satya Bhabha directed the musical. You can catch Satya fist-fighting Michael Cera in upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Can theater prepare us for the apocalypse or stave off post-cultural destruction? Might the forces of excess and indulgence be the very things that save the world? Let's find out at the VIP afterparty Friday night.

Check out portraits of the artists by photographer Shelby Duncan, with makeup by Sarai Fiszel (Natalie Portman & Ke$ha's personal make-up artist, no less!), plus some rehearsal footage:

Rachel, Lauren, and Nicole explain “Free Art For the People”

Choreographer Mecca talks about dance

Rehearsing the scene “Air” with Ariana Delawari