Jeremiah James says The Last Match is going to tell a universal story that will appeal to fans of all walks.
Lifelong wrestling fan and Broadway actor Jeremiah James recently spoke with WrestleZone about The Last Match: A Pro Wrestling Rock Musical. James serves as lead producer and co-book writer on the project and spoke about how the project came to fruition and where the show will take place.
“The Last Match: A Pro Wrestling Rock Musical is my brainchild from the very beginning. I always wanted to, as a producer and a writer, marry two of my greatest loves in life, [Broadway musicals and theatre] and then my other love of pro wrestling. I’m also a Buffalo Bills fan, but I haven’t quite figured out how to make that into a show yet. But make no mistake, it may happen one day,” James joked.
James explained how this show won’t be a typical stage show, but the plan is to take it into arenas as a full-scale rock and roll production.
“The show is a fully immersive pro wrestling rock musical. What that means is that if you’re a wrestling fan like yourself, you’re not going to ever walk into a theater like you would go see Phantom of the Opera. This show is going to be in arenas. It’s going to be a wrestling ring, a wrestling show like any other wrestling promotion you’ve ever been to live. It just happens to tell a 90-minute story from beginning to end, just as any other musical would tell a story. So you’ll walk through the door, you’ll be transported to the 1980s. Everybody in there, from the person who takes your ticket to the people who are selling popcorn, are all going to be in costume. That’s what it means by fully immersive.
“So you will be taken into the past to what I believe is the golden era of wrestling. And we will tell you the story of a character named Ben Vengeance, who is like a classic leader of the locker room, highly respected wrestler, coming to the end of his 30-year career and what that means. Really the story is a universal story that we all have to face at one point in our lives. If you no longer could be the person you’ve always identified yourself to be, whether that be a police officer, a school teacher, a firefighter, and all of a sudden you couldn’t be that person anymore. Well then, who are you? Then is that person going to be enough as you go into the last phase of your life?
“And so really, it’s just a very universal story told through the world that I love of pro wrestling. It is a rock show. It is not musical theatre rock. It is a rock show. Our composers are literal rock-and-rollers. The music is like classic Bon Jovi 1980s hard rock and it really is for the whole family. So when you come into the show in the immersive experience, you then go into the arena and everything from the banners to the setup around the ring, it’s all a 1980s nostalgic trip. Then there is a wrestling ring, a couple of platforms. Everything that you know as a wrestling fan is built into this show. So it literally is a show written by wrestling fans for wrestling fans.”
I have joined the cast of The Last Match: A Pro Wrestling Rock Musical!
I’ll be playing the lead bad guy, Alexander Swagger!
I can’t wait to kick @raminkarimloo’s ass! ? pic.twitter.com/l5RuE2UiCP
— Matt Cardona (@TheMattCardona) August 19, 2022
James also spoke about The Last Match possibly going on tour and expanding to more than one venue, noting that one place fans will never see the show in a traditional Broadway setting.
“So our hope is to take the show on the road and take it around the United States and then take it internationally. Again, the easiest way to think about this show is if you’ve ever been to Smackdown, if you’ve ever been to RAW, if you’ve ever been to AEW Dark or any of their regular TV shows, a TV taping, it is literally a wrestling event. It just so happens that this wrestling event tells the story of this one evening completely encompassed in our version of like a Bash at the Beach or a WrestleMania, like the biggest night of the year type of a thing. Leading up to this one character’s last match and everything, he goes through to that moment.
“So it is literally–when we say Broadway, it’s easy to describe that for theater people who are like ‘so it is a theater show.’ Yes, it’s a theater show. It is being told a story is being told. It has a script, but it’s actually never going to be done in a Broadway setting. It will only ever be done in medium to large arenas, and it will be a wrestling event with closed circuit cameras. Everything that you know as a wrestling fan is built in, including all the actors, have to learn pro wrestling to a certain degree. And we have real pro wrestlers come in to do actual matches throughout the show. So it is a real pro wrestling event that happens to tell the story.”
Asked if there is any news on a premiere date, James said that a full concept album is coming on August 29 and a concert version of the show will follow in September.
“We’ll start rehearsals in September and do a full pro wrestling stand-up concert version of the show in Jersey City at a place called White Eagle Hall. We’re really excited about that. That’s going to be really to give a handful of the general public that are lucky enough to come and then investors and whatnot, the opportunity to see the show. Then from there, the goal is to put that show out on the road in the beginning of next year. We will have a limited amount of tickets available for September the 26th at White Eagle Hall. There will be a limited number of tickets given away to the public and wrestling fans at large because really this show is for wrestling fans. We want people who love wrestling to come in and see the show. The cool thing is wrestling fans run the gamut, race, creed, color, age. It is a universal love of that world. There is not even any bad language in the show. It literally is for the whole family because we want people to come see an amazing night of wrestling and tell a really, really great story for wrestling fans in general.”
Stay up to date on The Last Match, learn more about the upcoming preview event and hear music from the production here and check out our full video interview with Jeremiah James at the top of this page.
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