Star Maker – Years 8-9 (Intermediate/Middle School)

A Musical in two acts, 12 scenes: Music and Lyrics by Dr David McMillan.

Synopsis

The principal character, Digga McDigger, a self-centred, washed up talent agent, has one last chance to break a new global on-line star or he loses his job. Despite his bumbling ways, and against the odds, he succeeds in transforming teenage Carrie (as unlikely a candidate as you could find) into ‘the face of Natural Beauty’ – a global natural ingredients cosmetic company. However, Digga’s methods and ‘flexible’ ethics are eventually exposed as Carrie becomes deeply unhappy. Carrie’s best friend, Anna and her parents rescue her from the TaleNT contract. In a final twist her father turns the tables on the talent agency by ‘encouraging’ them to pay a great deal of money to the soup kitchens in the city. 

Star Maker explores the themes of:

• The culture of celebrity
• Social media marketing (and its potential for manipulation)
• Commercial exploitation
• The strength of friendship and whānau bonds

The Story

TaleNT is a talent agency on the brink of bankruptcy. Vera Martelli has been bought in as CEO to rescue the company. Her first task is to make the underperforming talent agent, Digga McDigger and his assistant (Cole Cash) redundant. They plead for their jobs. Enjoying the power, Vera gives them one last chance to break a new talent. But she ‘stacks the deck’ against them by selecting the candidate herself. Looking across the street to the Soup Kitchen, she selects one of the volunteers –an unlikely looking Carrie Michael’s. 

Down but not yet out, Digga summons his core traits of insincere flattery, exaggeration, and deceit to ‘entice’ Carrie into signing with the agency. She falls for the ruse, believing that all of her earnings will be used to fund the soup kitchen. TaleNT (and Digga in particular) cruelly separate Carrie from her family and best friend Anna. 

Digga’s plan to transform Carrie, falls at the first hurdle when Vera cancels the budget for the massive cosmetic surgery he had planned for Carrie. Undeterred, he ‘appropriates’ his assistant’s idea to make Carrie into a virtual star instead. His self-delusion is so great that he declines Cole’s offer to run the social media campaign (of which Cole is a renowned expert) and undertakes the campaign himself with disastrous results. 

Just when a defeat looks inevitable, Cole receives a call from Aurora Ryver, CEO of Natural Beauty. She is looking for a model to become the new global face for her company. As an ex-university ‘sweetheart’ of Cole’s she has approached him first. The one non-negotiable is that the model must not have had any cosmetic surgery. Cole brings the promising news to Vera. In her arrogance, Vera assumes she can trick Aurora into accepting one of her ‘cosmetically altered’ model as being natural.

At the hastily arranged catwalk, Vera’s deception is exposed when it is revealed that all of the glamorous models on show have had cosmetic surgery. She is fired and Cole replaces her. His first job is to save the Natural Beauty contract which he does by ‘selling’ the cosmetically unaltered Carrie (who was never considered for the catwalk) to Aurora as the new face of Natural Beauty. Aurora agrees and the contract is signed. 

As much as Digga and Cole revel in the newfound success of TaleNT, fame rings hollow for Carrie. She is dejected and all she wants is to be with her parents and Anna, but they don’t return any of her texts.  Eventually Cole discovers that Digga has been blocking her calls. Cole is furious and demands Digga reconnects Carrie with her family and get Anna to visit Carrie. Unfortunately for TaleNT, the reconnection is too successful. Anna brings Carrie’s parents to TaleNT and Carrie’s father finds a technical loophole to release Carrie from her contract. He then delivers a huge blow to TaleNT’s future profits by negotiating a severance deal that guarantees the organisation provides financial support for all of the soup kitchens in the city. 

Scenes and Musical Numbers

ACT ONE

Home Base: Two Odds Make an Even (Carrie, Anna, The Campers)

Second Chance: Second Chance (Cole, Digga, The Cowgirls/boys)

The Deal is Done: Scratch My Back (Digga, The Vagabonds)

The Transformation Begins: What’s in a Name (Digga, Carrie, The Names)

Operation Time: Ticket to Fly (Dr Danny, The Medical Team)

A Glimmer of Hope: Twitter Twitter (Digga, The Twitter Birds)

ACT TWO

Natural Beauty: Sacred Light (Aurora, The Butterflies)

Fame Takes Off: Algorithm (I.T. Team)

Paparazzi Trouble: Paparazzi (Lenny, Paparazzi)

Rock Bottom: Empty Inside (Carrie, Black Cape Dancers)

The Showdown – Southern Lights (Everyone)

Singing Principals (6)

Carrie, Anna, Digga, Cole, Dr Danny, Aurora.

Other Principals (3)

Sandy, Peter, Vera.

Supporting Principals (3)

Nurse, Barry, Lenny (rapping), Shamus.

Recorded speech – Receptionist, Police Sergeant.

Others (4)

Models for catwalk

Chorus/ensemble (9 groups [preferably 10+ in each group - minimum of 3])

Campers, Cowgirls/boys, Vagabonds, The Names,Medical Team, Butterflies, I.T. Team, Paparazzi, Black Cape Dancers. (up to 66 single line parts available amongst the nine goups)

Orchestration

Backing tracks – with BVs. 

SONGS ON SPOTIFY

Click on Star Maker  to listen to full versions of most of the songs on Spotify.