John Rawls A Theory of Justice The Musical!
A Theory of Justice: The Musical is a musical comedy by Eylon Levy, Ramin Sabi, Tommy Peto and Toby Huelin. Billed as a "time-travelling romp through 2,500 years of political philosophy", the musical tells a fictionalised account of the writing of A Theory of Justice (1971), the classic philosophical treatise by the American political philosopher John Rawls.
A Theory of Justice: The Musical
Ramin Sabi
Toby Huelin
Eylon Levy
Tommy Peto
Eylon Levy
Ramin Sabi
Tommy Peto
Eylon Levy
Ramin Sabi
Tommy Peto
The musical premiered in Oxford's Keble O'Reilly Theatre in January 2013 and was revived for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2013, where it was nominated for four awards in the categories of Best Musical, Best Book, Best Music, and Best Lyrics.[1] In 2018, a reworked version was presented for a rehearsed reading in London's West End. The official cast soundtrack was released in May 2019.
The musical follows John Rawls on a journey through time to gain inspiration for A Theory of Justice from a chorus of singing and dancing political philosophers, including Plato, Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Mill, Wollstonecraft, Marx and Kant.[2] As he pursues his love interest, a beautiful student named Fairness, Rawls is menaced by villainous libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick and his lover Ayn Rand, who plot to stop Rawls writing his redistributionist theory of justice.
The real-life John Rawls' daughter Liz praised the musical as "perfect" and "amazing and witty" after watching the Edinburgh Fringe Festival production, saying it "far surpassed any expectations."[3]
Synopsis[edit]
Act I[edit]
Behind the veil of ignorance, Immanuel Kant promises to tell the audience a 2,000-year-long musical story about justice ("Overture"). In Harvard University in 1971, students are excited to change the world but think philosophy is pointless ("Harvard Yard!"). John Rawls, starting his first day as a young Harvard philosophy professor, realises he needs his big idea to inspire them ("I Need a Theory"). He quickly falls in love with a beautiful student who gives him a clue, and he calls her Fairness ("Justice as Fairness"). Meanwhile, Rawls' boss, the sinister Robert Nozick, decides to write his own theory ("Nozick Needs a Theory")—a libertarian philosophy to shrink the role of the state, which Rawls fears will hurt the poor ("No, No, No, Nozick"). By a stroke of luck, the physicists accidentally open a time vortex in Harvard Yard ("It's a Vortex") and Fairness falls down it. Rawls jumps down the vortex to save his muse and meet the classical philosophers for inspiration ("I'll Have a Theory!").
Robert Nozick returns home to his lover, the villainous Ayn Rand. They realise Rawls is trying to write a liberal egalitarian theory that would promote wealth redistribution, and Nozick resolves to pursue Rawls to stop him.
Fairness arrives in Ancient Greece, where the eccentric philosopher Zeno offers to take her to a wise man who can help her get home, and they walk there in ever smaller steps. Rawls wakes up and is led to the Piraeus, an ancient Athenian gay bar, to watch the ventriloquist artist Plato and his dummy Socrates ("Philosophy on a Plato").
Rawls tries in vain to impress Fairness by criticising the Republic ("What Plato Is Ignoring" / "What I Love About His Theory"), and she leaves. Fairness sings about her frustrations being unable to find a man who loves her for her ideas ("My Philosopher-King").
In Civil War-era England, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke compete for control through a rap battle ("The State of Nature"), which Rawls attempts to mediate ("Rebuke of Hobbes and Locke"). Fairness is abducted by the gangs, but Rawls saves her by outsmarting them ("The Fairest Girl"). Fairness rebuffs his advances again and leaves. She realises that Rawls might be the man she is looking for ("My Philosopher-King (reprise)") and agrees to give him a chance.
In an 18th-century Swiss town square, Rawls and Fairness rescue louche lothario Jean-Jacques Rousseau from his chains, and Rousseau immediately seduces Fairness ("Man Was Born Free"). Nozick appears to foil Rawls' efforts, and Fairness elopes with Rousseau when Rawls fails to refute him.
Nozick is determined to write his own theory to upstage Rawls ("Nozick: When I Write My Theory"), but Ayn Rand is frustrated by his slow progress. She threatens that her love for him is conditional on his defeating Rawls, leading a sexy tango number that culminates in a rousing Act I Finale ("You Must Be Selfish") with the ensemble.
Act II[edit]
Nozick finally comes up with his own libertarian theory that argues against government wealth redistribution ("Nozick's Theory of Justice"), aided by two dancing showgirls, Transfer and Acquisition. Fairness laments that Rousseau cheated on her ("My Philosopher King (reprise 2)") and is comforted by the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft.
On a Victorian promenade, a miserable Rawls stumbles upon the Utilitarian Barbershop Quartet, a travelling troupe who sing to make people happy. Fairness offers to help Rawls write his theory but is incensed by his refusal to take her ideas seriously ("Woman Was Not Born Free"). She calls on her new feminist friends to tell him about the importance of female voices and women's rights in a jazzy number led by Mary Wollstonecraft, backed by suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and suffragist Millicent Fawcett ("Break Out Your Gilded Cage"). Fairness runs away again.
At an abandoned railway station in a dystopian America, Ayn Rand reveals she has been travelling through history seducing different philosophers (including Martin Luther, Alexander Hamilton, and Adam Smith) to advance or destroy their careers in a powerful showstopper ("The Leading Lady").
A downhearted Rawls ("I'd Be a Great Thinker") encounters Karl Marx, a crazy homeless man, who depresses him further. He considers giving up, but instead decides writing his theory means going back to square one in the show's 11 o'clock number ("Forget It All"). Rawls' fabulous "deontological fairy Gottmutter" Immanuel Kant arrives to urge him not to give up and give him clues to complete his theory ("You're a Rational Being").
Inspired by Kant, Rawls devises the Veil of Ignorance ("The Veil of Ignorance"). He finds Fairness trapped behind the Veil, but she refuses to leave until he explains what justice is. Nozick threatens to shoot Rawls but allows him to present his ideas ("The Principles of Justice"). Rand arrives to finish Rawls off with the other philosophers in tow, having persuaded them that Rawls opposes their ideas. Rawls convinces the philosophers that he synthesised the best of their works ("Historical Synthesis"). The philosophers are tricked into falling behind the Veil of Ignorance and converge on Rawls' principles of justice, vindicating his theory ("The Formal Principles of Justice").
Fairness pushes Rand behind the Veil, and she disappears, because having forgotten her own interests, "there was nothing left of her". Nozick storms off, promising to return in three years with his own theory. Fairness and Rawls finally kiss ("We Have a Theory").