CMU School of Drama


Friday, July 20, 2018

The new musical Emojiland is deeply concerned with the existential questions behind emoji

The Verge: If you were going to see an emoji musical, would you expect to see anthropomorphized emoji dying onstage? Would you expect to be asked angsty questions like “What if none of this matters?” by a woman in a Mountain Dew-colored wig? It doesn’t matter what you expect, since you can’t control what happens to you, and neither can I. Emojiland, a new stage musical written by Keith and Laura Nicole Harrison, is written to make this perfectly clear.

1 comment:

DeKlyen said...

At first, I was very disappointed that such a thing would exist. I thought it was another random musical to push emojis. But after reading this article, I was honestly intrigued. I would be interested in watching it with the ideas of social implications in mind. I have used emojis without more thought than “is a one tear or two tear laughing face better for this situation?” However, the actual effects and revealing aspects of our emoji use is very interesting to think about. And this satirical and social musical unveils some very interesting ideas. The whole idea that everything thinks and has emotions may be a little out there. But using the symbols that we use to show our emotions as characters, it makes you think a little harder how you use those seemingly innocent pictures. Yet, within all of it, the relation to Inside Out was most compelling. The movie - which asks some difficult and apparent questions about how our emotional landscape is shaped - really opened up the conversation of EQ and society. I wonder how these two ideas may work together for a more stronger argument and how we may approach the conversation in the future. Is a Nerd Face or a Smize better for this situation?