The Moon Landing Musical

The Museum is hosting its own performance of the Moon Landing musical to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Apollo 11, and our very own Natalie Copeland explains why you need to see it.

This summer we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Apollo 11 with a performance of Moon Landing, a musical written by Stephen Edwards. One of our very own Museum educators, Natalie Copeland, has taken on the task of cutting down the musical to fit a shorter timespan (75 minutes) so it can be seen by wider audiences at the Museum in July. Copeland discusses her own experiences blending art and science, starting with her experience as a Museum educator. As an educator, she enjoys putting on planetarium shows that take young kids on journeys throughout the solar system. Outside the Museum, Natalie writes and directs musicals that bring together art and science, like her 2018 Rovers musical, which tells the story of anthropomorphized rovers on Mars who host a camp that teaches future rovers how to navigate life on the Red Planet. Natalie’s passion for all things space and theater led her to cast her own version of the Moon Landing, which depicts the stories of the people involved in Apollo 11—the astronauts, the families of the astronauts, the people in mission control—and reveals how emotionally psychologically demanding the mission really was. “The music is haunting, and the score is gorgeous,” says Natalie, and she adds that the musical truly captures the spirit of the people involved in the Moon landing.

Come see Moon Landing this July, and be sure to catch Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, an exhibition that features the spacecraft that took the first humans to the Moon’s surface. 

See how Natalie Copeland brings art and science together here, and listen to the Rovers soundtrack here.

Host: Sean Mobley

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