“TESLA” is set during Nikola Tesla’s life between the 1850s and the 1940s, mostly in New York, the city he called home. Its style blends the Gilded Age with the march of the Industrial Revolution; a multimedia grandeur brings to life the dynamic epoch that shaped the modern world as we know it.
To quote New York’s 1943 Mayor LaGuardia, “If we were to eliminate the result of Tesla’s work, our cities and towns would be dark… our factories would be dead and idle…he is behind nearly everything that moves in this country!”. Simply put, he powered the entire world. Think of him every time you plug something in or turn something on. Nikola Tesla has been called the most important man of the 20th century.
Tesla invented the Polyphase Induction Motor, the revolutionary motor still used universally today. It’s the very same device that harnessed the energy of Niagara Falls and today powers all of Tesla Motors’ cutting-edge electric cars. He can be credited with remote control, robotics, the first x-rays, fluorescent light, neon, and radar. He saw ahead a hundred years and not only envisioned radio, television, and wireless communication, but also the World Wide Web, solar power, the smart phone, Google, and Skype. Could it be he saw ahead a hundred more as he envisioned and insisted to his dying day, the yet-to-be reality of wireless power? If Tesla’s had been given life, who knows – our grandparents might have had cell phones in their day!
“TESLA” is the story of a man whose time to be discovered has come. This chronicle is an intimate view inside of a soul, a journey through hopes and dreams, as well as defeat. A character-driven drama and the quintessential story of the visionary wizard that is Nikola Tesla, it is a saga of optimism, drive, greed, power, and, of love. It is told as a musical because the unique form allows the imagination to soar and the soul to feel – a form that is, by nature, experiential so that the story of Nikola Tesla can be felt, so he can be remembered and acknowledged for all he gave to us.
