SYNOPSIS
We Need Positivity!
Bound! The Musical is an inspiring and uplifting show that offers positivity and hope amidst the chaos and uncertainty of our modern world. With a compelling story arc, memorable music, and heartwarming characters, it reveals that there is no problem too big to solve through perseverance and courage. Bound! shines a light on the resilience and determination of people everywhere, and reminds us that we always have the power to change things for the better.
A Spirited and Fun-Filled Musical
Bound! is a full-length contemporary comedy musical built off the storyline of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. It’s brought to life by an ensemble cast of ten relatable, well-developed, and diverse characters in their early 20s, each with their own inner demons to overcome.
With 16 fresh and catchy pop-rock style songs, character-based humor, innuendo, and silliness, it is a fun and lively show that has something for everyone. The show features comical mix-ups, spirited rivalries, disguises, wordplay, and running gags. It culminates with a feel-good ending that has us walking out of the theatre with a bounce in our step, ready to take on the world!
The Story of a Town Turned Country
The story takes place in small-town Middleburg. Chaos begins when the town is tricked into transforming into a new country, with an eccentric, albeit unseen new President. Feeling bound and hemmed in are four naive male athletes – who are forced to become the country's new Olympic team -- and four brilliant female PhD researchers who are desperate to study these athletes to complete their groundbreaking work.
As the story unfolds, both groups are up against the clock to satisfy the decrees of the new President, when a Pledge, forbidding romance, is cooked up to keep the two groups apart. As romantic desire becomes inescapable, and each character’s inner turmoil comes to the surface, the characters’ journeys become a rollercoaster of emotions, taking us on a wild ride through the twists and turns of this zany story.
A Finale of Courage and Connection
The show climaxes with each character experiencing their own unique personal transformation. Whether it be self-confidence, isolation, or sexual identity, each finds the courage to triumph over their internal conflicts through honesty, compassion, willingness to sacrifice, community, and LOVE.
In the end, they show us how we can all rise above chaos and uncertainty, and that our personal journeys are in fact bound together.
STORY: Act One
The setting is Middleburg, a quirky town where the townspeople just voted to transform Middleburg into the world’s newest country. They are suddenly under the rule of a crazy, authoritarian President. (Prologue - “Where Are We Bound?").
Desperate to gain prestige for the new country, President Schmeckel enlists four male athletes (Jeremy, Cameron, Lewis, Dustin) to become Middleburg’s Olympic team, that is, if they can qualify at the Olympic Trials in two months. Otherwise, under the new authoritarian President… it’s curtains. Antonio, the team’s public relations manager, raises the pressure by forcing the athletes to swear to a Pledge renouncing all vices, including romance and any contact with women (“Promised Land Olympic Pledge”).
At the same time, three female PHD graduate students in physical education (Patricia, Lexa, Emily) learn that President Schmeckel has drastically cut their funding, leaving them just two months to study the Olympic athletes. Their assistant Alex storms in with news of the Pledge, which they fear will hamper their research. Patricia implores the others to brainstorm a solution (“Give Me Something”). The answer? Alex will disguise as a man, allowing her to get close to the athletes to negotiate.
Dustin, now under the Pledge, secretly meets up with Jasmine, his close confidante (wink! wink!). They make up an excuse to spend one more night together (“Dustin’s Last Night”). Antonio, secretly but wildly infatuated with Jasmine, stops them, upholding the Pledge.
Meanwhile, the athletes moan about their low energy when the newly disguised Alex shows up to negotiate. When they realize the researchers are also there, the athletes’ energy perks up. With some improvised flirting, the researchers convince the athletes to work with them at closer proximity despite the Pledge (“Measure Up!”). Antonio then arrives with Dustin and Jasmine, reporting how Dustin was about to break the Pledge. Antonio privately schemes how to get Dustin out of the way in his rabid pursuit of Jasmine, who herself is pained at how she is powerless to express herself (“A Fresh Start All Over Again.”)
After three weeks, the athletes’ performance boomerangs with fantastic success. The athletes and researchers express how they are now driven to exceed their goals (“Bound and Determined”). The researchers have completed their face-to-face work with the athletes, and will now analyze the results on their own.
Antonio schemes that Dustin’s punishment for breaking the Pledge is to deliver a gift to Jasmine, hinting that she has a secret admirer. Cameron then implores Dustin to deliver a gift discreetly for Lexa, who Cameron is slowly falling in love with. By no small coincidence, the two gifts are wrapped identically, and of course Dustin mixes them up. Cameron and Lexa separately lament their emerging feelings for each other, denied because of the Pledge (“Like Juliet and Romeo”).
STORY: Act Two
Alex ponders her future career (“Is Research How I'll Get Ahead?”). Dustin delivers the wrong gift for Lexa, and then goes to deliver the other wrong gift for Jasmine. Antonio, who was spying on Dustin and Jasmine, explodes with frustration at the wrong gift. But this awakens the first genuine connection between Jasmine and Antonio.
Lewis and Emily have a chance encounter in the park, each coming to realize they are falling in love, but between their awkwardness and the Pledge, they can’t get themselves to share these feelings with each other (“If I Could”).
The athletes’ fears are now multiplying -- their up-and-down athletic performance has most recently been falling like a rock; they are paranoid at what President Schmeckel will do to them if they don’t qualify for the Olympics; and they are each desperately, but secretly, falling in love with one of the researchers despite the Pledge (“Why Must I Hide How I Feel?”). As the dominoes fall and they learn of the others’ forbidden feelings, they squabble amongst themselves. At their lowest point… Eureka! They figure out that their seesawing performance is tied to whether they were in close proximity with the researchers. Jeremy decides that their best hope is to end the Pledge and seek out their new love! But their excitement is cut short. After all, do the researchers feel the same way? How can they find out without looking like complete dorks? A scheme is hatched. They will disguise themselves as wonky salesmen who will throw themselves at the researchers in the hopes of being rejected. The researchers catch wind of the scheme and gleefully plan their own double‑cross (“Just What You Need”).
When the salesman scheme backfires, the athletes run off in panic. Alex follows, and Dustin sees an opportunity to confide in someone his awakening bisexuality. They both agonize, as Dustin is attracted to the male version of Alex, and the female Alex is falling in love with Dustin (“Who I Really Am”). Meanwhile, Antonio and Jasmine have a long‑overdue tête-à-tête, in which they discover their reciprocal love (“Move Mountains For You”).
Jeremy, Cameron and Lewis come clean with Patricia, Lexa and Emily, who have come to the same verdict that it was love and connection that propelled the athletes to their success, and that the Pledge must end. Jeremy and Patricia reach their own moment of truth, and in the intensity of the moment, Patricia discovers that she too is in love with Jeremy. With the Pledge now over, Cameron and Lexa profess their love, as do Lewis and Emily (“Move Mountains For You (Reprise))”. At a closing banquet celebrating the athletes’ Olympic qualification and the researchers’ successful paper, Alex surprises everyone as the new savior of Middleburg! (Finale - "Bound to Figure Out")