New Line Theatre will stage the St. Louis premiere of Yeast Nation: The Triumph of Life, the latest musical from the Tony Award-winning writers of Urinetown. It will be presented as part of the company’s 27th season, with performances slated for June 2018.

Featuring music by Mark Hollmann and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, Yeast Nation had its world premiere in 2007 at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, and sold out its entire run at the 2011 New York International Fringe Festival.

Here’s how it’s billed: “It is the year 3,000,458,000 BC. The Earth's surface is a molten mass of volcanic islands and undulating waves. The atmosphere is a choking fog lit by a dim red sun. And the mighty waters of the world are inhabited only by rocks, sand, salt, more rocks, a little silt, and the great society of salt-eating yeasts —yes, yeasts!—the world’s very first life form!

“These single-cell salt-eaters are the only living creatures on earth, and they’re up against a food shortage, a strange new emotion called Love, and the oppression of a tyrannical yeast king. But when the king’s son ventures out of the known yeastiverse, the yeasts’ story—and ours—is changed forever.”

Watch highlights from the New York premiere, which starred Harriet Harris, Erik Altemus, Kimiko Glenn and others.

Visit newlinetheatre.com.

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