NBA General Manager Daryl Morey to Bring World of Sports to New Musical SMALL BALL

According to The New York Times, Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, will combine his passion for sports and theater into a new musical production. Titled SMALL BALL, the show is now heading to a rehearsal period, followed by a six-week run at Houston's Catastrophic Theater next April.

Chicago-based playwright Mickle Maher, who penned the show, says Morey has
"as much of a passion for musicals as anybody I've ever met." Merel van Dijk and Anthony Barilla serve as the show's composers.

In a phone interview with the Times, Morey explains, "We're just a bunch of friends doing this at this point. I guess we do have official titles: book writer, composer, director. So I'm a producer of some ilk, whether that's executive producer or just producer." He adds, "I provide the money."

The story centers on "a newly discovered island nation that decides to join the modern world by fielding a team for an international basketball league. The country - Lilliput, from "Gulliver's Travels," proceeds to sink its entire treasury into building a court and signing Michael Jordan, a journeyman point guard who just happens to have the same name as the iconic star."

One obstacle in Jordan's way is the fact that all of his teammates are 6 inches tall. In addition, "the country has no concept of the number five, so the coach is limited to sending just four players onto the court at a time." According to the creator, the show addresses important themes such as, how does a small community find its way inside the larger world that it inhabits?

Maher admits to being apprehensive about the project at first, knowing that many sports-themed musicals have failed at the box office. However he concludes, "I'm really proud of the work that we've done."

Read the article in full here

Image: Twitter/@dmorey