Alan Turing & the Queen of the Night

book and lyrics by Michael Vegas Mussman, music and lyrics by Payton Millet

Check out @TuringAndQueen on Instagram!

ALAN TURING & THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT is a queer fantasy. It’s about love, friendship, and inspiration. Our story follows the genius who invented the computer and the woman he idolized. Think CHESS meets EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH meets HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH.

Right now the arts and culture are under attack. We need heroes to rebel against the powers that be. Alan Turing was a fighter who refused to be quiet and who was willing to pay the ultimate price for living out loud. Our musical is a celebration of him. Instead of a nerdy introvert with a calculator, we present a truly shameless, defiant hero.

So here’s the story. Young Alan Turing falls madly in love with another boy at boarding school. When that boy suddenly dies, young Turing is devestated. But he forms a beautiful friendship with the mother of his lost love, an eccentric older woman named Mrs Morcom. And in Turing’s grief and fevered imagination, he believes that Mrs Morcom is really the Queen of the Night — yes that Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Her example of perseverance inspires Turing to create the world’s first computer, which he uses to crack the Nazis’ Enigma Code, helping the British to win the war.

The cast comprises eight performers, three men, four women, and one nonbinary person. Run time is just under two hours with intermission. Two acts with a grand total of 21 musical numbers (including the overture and dream ballet) all of which are original, packed with quotes from Mozart’s opera.

Michael Vegas Mussman is a playwright, librettist, and theatermaker. He wrote the libretto for BRUNCH WITH THE BOYS, which won Best Ensemble at the Capital Fringe 2023. That same year, San Diego Opera staged GHOSTS, a horror opera for which he wrote a libretto. He lives in Brooklyn.

Payton Millet is a composer/lyricist based in Brooklyn. Completing their first musical at 15, they have contributed scores to seven shows to date. They have enjoyed recent success off-broadway with a festival production of HEARTBREAK COUNTY (book by Ramsay Burgess). Ongoing projects include music and lyrics for Season 2 of DON’T SUCK (a queer web series by Tyler Martin), the original score to JESUS OF SUBURBIA (a short film by Ciara Hergott), as well as an ever-growing pile of unfinished scores. When not writing musicals, Payton can be found leading Dungeons & Dragons groups at The Brooklyn Strategist where they are also an active participant in the Tabletop Workers Union.