ABOUT THIS PROJECT

THE GOLDEN RECORD

Co-Book by Hunter Bird & Angela Sclafani
Music and Lyrics by Angela Sclafani

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is the farthest man-made object from Earth, and its final mission is to carry The Golden Record: a double-sided metallic record that contains all of human and Earth's history compressed into 118 pictures, 87 minutes of music, a sonic essay of sounds from our planet, and greetings in 55 human languages and 1 whale language. In 1977, Carl Sagan and his team of scientists, engineers, and artists had six weeks to create this extraordinary playlist of our collective humanity. Narrated by the Voyager 1 spacecraft, this musical is a record of the record and celebrates the process to complete this seemingly impossible assignment, with a 70s rock and folk score.

The show’s stylistic vocabulary is an homage to the 1975 original Broadway production of A Chorus Line but with rolling office furniture and, at times, aesthetic references to The Carpenter’s 1978 TV Special Space Encounters. 

We're grateful to have shared the show with a number of the original team members who created the record in 1977.

Press

‘The Golden Record’ launches new space-age musical” (Arkansas Gazette)

Pilot Arts Brings New Musical to NWA (Good Day NWA)

‘The Golden Record’ at the New Musicals Lab, Ferugson Center for the Arts

Development History

The Golden Record received a development residency at the 2022 New Musicals Lab at the Ferguson Center for the Arts, workshop production at Pilot Arts in October 2022, and a semester-long workshop at UCLA’s School of Theater in Fall 2023. The show was first presented as a 10 minute musical at Prospect Theatre Company’s 2021 Musical Theatre Lab.

Hunter Bird & Angela Sclafani were interviewed on NBC’s Goodday NWA about THE GOLDEN RECORD’s developmental production in October 2022.

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