Musicology 101: Songs of the Theme

"Musicology 101: Songs of the Theme" was a Radio Play produced for CONvergence 2018 in Bloomington, Minnesota. It was performed on July 7th, 2018.

This story takes place after "Phoenix," "Final Curtain," and "Endgame." It is a non-canonical crossover between Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Young Justice, as well as the unproduced spin-off Black Manta's Celebrity Hot Tub (which received equal billing along the other three shows on all scripts). It is also a direct sequel to "Religious Studies 101: A Handful of Thorns," "Recruits," and "The Cosmos," as well as the first musical Radio Play, with all accompaniment performed by Kristopher Carter, one of the composers for The Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice.

Summary

As the Gargoyles theme music plays, Goliath goes through his introductory monologue as usual (though Black Manta makes certain his show is added to the crossover list this time).

Aqualad, Beast Boy, Angela, and Lexington are on the Watchtower to welcome the newest member of The Team, Spider-Man, who is now eighteen and no longer requires permission from his Aunt May to join. This leads into a discussion about the nature of passing and current time, both in-universe and out (it's very meta), followed by a rendition of the Tender Box's theme song for The Spectacular Spider-Man with Black Cat, Cheshire, and Maggie the Cat as backup. Eventually, Aqualad assigns everyone to Alpha Squad to return to the same hotel in Bloomington from The Cosmos to investigate accounts of strange beings "converging" on the property. Instead of a time travel seminar, this time it's a fan convention taking place, allowing Alpha Squad (and especially Angela) to walk around in public without detection.

As Alpha Squad takes a Zeta-Tube to the hotel, we find that Conner and M'gann are already on-site as attendees rather than part of The Team. They decide to attend an appearance by Sandra Stanyon, the woman who played Sandra Wheeler on Hello, Megan! while unaware that Queen Bee is observing them. This leads to the Young Justice theme music being played as the title for the Radio Play is announced.

The panel moderator introduces Miss Stanyon to the crowd, briefly discussing her early work and her relationship with Jonathan Lord. As M'gann and Conner listen in, Alpha Squad arrives and meet up with Batgirl (though she's the third one they ask). They then notice Psimon who is obviously not just a cosplayer due to the see-through skull. They lose sight of him in the crowd and split up to search.

Back at the panel, the moderator opens the floor to questions...but unfortunately, a young Spitfire fan starts grilling the Narrator instead of Ms. Stanyon, annoying everyone. The questions eventually return towards Sandra and Conner encourages M'gann to ask about Hello, Megan! As Sandra talks about the show, most of Alpha Squad enters the room and Beast Boy notes what's going on. When Sandra talks about Marie Logan and realizes that Megan could be her daughter, Garfield pipes up declaring himself as Marie Logan's son and Megan as his sister. Sandra Stanyon is delighted and insists they all sit down and chat after the panel.

Elsewhere, Batgirl and Lexington finally come across Psimon eating toast. Batgirl approaches him to determine what's going on and Psimon admits to being here at the request of Queen Bee, but under a Bialyan diplomatic passport, making him untouchable. Sandra, Megan, and Garfield get a table in the lobby restaurant while Conner, Angela, and Spider-Man give them space sitting at the bar. Angela and Spider-Man enquire to what might be going on between Conner and M'gann, but this is interrupted by the Spitfire fan disparaging SuperMartian. Sandra mentions that she, Jonathan Lord, Marie Logan, Rita Farr, and Paul Sloane were like a real little family on the set and M'gann wishes she could have been there. Psimon takes this as his cue and sends a psychic wave that affects Megan, Gar, and Sandra. However, the Radio Play is interrupted by Marina Sirtis taking offense to having to grunt once again...but the Narrator is prepared and introduces the Stunt-Grunter. After this is cleared up, the Radio Play continues with M'gann reaching to Conner as her psychic anchor, unfortunately dragging him into her fugue state along with Angela and Spider-Man.

As the six stand in darkness, suddenly a school bell rings and the theme song for Hello, Megan! starts up, with Paul Sloane singing as Black Cat, Maggie the Cat, and Cheshire perform backup once again. M'gann takes on the role of Megan Wheeler as the Spitfire fan notes the names of the creators are strangely similar to others and demands Wally be brought back. Beast Boy is trapped in the form of a frog while Spider-Man has lost his costume, Sandra Stanyon is now Sandra Wheeler, and Angela now appears human. A laugh track is now heard by all as a standard episode of the sitcom plays out. As everyone introduces themselves, Conner discovers he is not playing Conner Manley, Megan Wheeler's boyfriend in the show, as he exists as well.

Back in the real world, Psimon says he's trapped M'gann in her own mind by guiding her into a pocket of emotional safety hidden within her psyche. This means she is doing all the work to keep herself there and Psimon doesn't have to lift a mental finger. In the mental world, Beast Boy figures out the episode they're in, one where Megan has to take care of the school's pet frog, hence his shape. However, he's unsure how the presence of Angela, Superboy, and Spider-Man will affect things as they have no counterparts in the episode itself. Peter asks if they can't just change the channel...so the Narrator does, leading to a new episode of Black Manta's Celebrity Hot Tub. The guest is Black Spider who attempts to make certain everyone is aware he is in no way the Spectacular Spider-Man (especially any Marvel lawyers who might be watching). As usual, Black Manta zaps his guest to atoms.

Tidbits

• When the Young Justice: Outsiders comic tie-in was released at the beginning of January 2019, this story was adapted into a canon form (or maybe the Radio Play was created by altering what was already planned at that point).
• Angela and Lexington have known designation equivalents in the series (B27 being Arrowette and B29 being Thirteen), but Spider-Man does not as of yet (B31). Despite this, their counterparts do not appear in the comic Torch Songs.
• "Spitfire" is the name given to the pairing of Wally West and Artemis Crock, named after Kent Nelson's advice to Wally to "find your own little spitfire, one who won't let you get away with nothin'." SuperMartian is the more obvious portmanteau for the pairing of Superboy and Miss Martian.
• The Stunt-Grunter is a pay-off of the well-established distaste Marina Sirtis has for impact grunts, previously covered heavily in Recruits.
• Garfield is quite impressed by Spider-Man's "totally corny sitcom name" of Peter Parker. An annoyed Spider-Man claims he just came up with it on the spot.
• "Megan's Torch Song" was specifically composed for this Radio Play by Kristopher Carter with lyrics by Greg Weisman.

Cast

• NARRATOR - Greg Weisman
• GOLIATH -
• BLACK MANTA -
• JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPUTER -
• AQUALAD -
• SPIDER-MAN/PETER PARKER/BLACK SPIDER -
• BEAST BOY -
• ANGELA -
• LEXINGTON -
• TENDER BOX LEAD SINGER -
• BLACK CAT -
• CHESHIRE -
• MAGGIE THE CAT -
• MEGAN MORSE/MEGAN WHEELER/MISS MARTIAN -
• CONNER KENT/SUPERBOY -
• QUEEN BEE/SANDRA STANYON/MARINA SIRTIS/SANDRA WHEELER/DOMINIQUE DESTINE/MARGOT YALE/HURRICANE JULIA/DEANNA TROI/DEMONA - Marina Sirtis
• MODERATOR -
• BATGIRL -
• PSIMON -
• SPITFIRE FAN -
• STUNT-GRUNTER -
• PAUL SLOANE/CONNER MANLEY -
• MANTA TROOPER - Christopher Jones
• REACH TEEN SINGER -
• VYKIN -
• BLACKIE GAXTON -
• PROFESSOR X/JEAN-LUC PICARD - Lee Harris
• BRENDAN QUARTERS - Lucas McClain

See also

<< Previous Radio Play: "The Cosmos"