Dan Mangan musical opens in Vancouver

A new play,based on the songs of Dan Mangan, is opening in Vancouver this week.

Are We Cool Now? is the brainchild of local award-winning playwright and director Amiel Gladstone. It's about a 20-something couple negotiating their lives while on an indie-rock, road trip.

"As I was working through [the songs] and trying to figure out the theatrical story, these themes started emerging of things I guess Dan was obsessed with while touring around the world," Gladstone said.

He says the aim is to make the show as much of a standard rock show as possible, and just let the story emerge from the music.

The set evokes an indie rock stage, with amps and road cases and a sparse lighting setup.

• Michael Burgess, Canadian Les Misrables star, dead at 70
• Toronto theatre sets up mass blind date at Once musical

Gladstone says the current trend in musical theatre is using already existing rock and pop songs to tell stories, and he wanted to do a local version of that.

"And Dan's music was perfect for that," he said.

For his part, Mangan isn't a big fan of musical theatre, but says he's optimistic for this show after seeing some rehearsals.

"It was funny.I kind of came in expecting to cringe at someone else playing my songs," he said. "But the funny thing is, hearing them in a different kind of musical context made me reexamine the lyrics from an outsider perspective, instead of my own perspective. I'm very excited."

Are We Cool Now? runs at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre until Oct. 10.

To hear the full story, click on the audio labelled:"Are We Cool Now?" play is based on the songs of Dan Mangan