Pitchfork

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway, but maybe those aren't lights at all...maybe they're laser beams from GIANT PINK ROBOTS! They say the women treat you fine on Broadway-- but do they do battle with those diabolical pink machines?

That's right: Broadway will soon get just a bit battier, as Wayne Coyne revealed in a recent interview with EW.com that the Flaming Lips' 2002 LP Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots will be transformed into a Broadway musical.

Described Coyne, "There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that." On Broad-waaaay!

"The West Wing"/"Sports Night" scribe Aaron Sorkin has signed on to script the Yoshimi musical, while director/producer Des McAnuff will guide the production, according to EW.com. "When Des heard the record," said Coyne, "he heard a lot about death and loss and the triumph of your own optimism...he had an emotional attachment to it."

The musical, which may well include other songs from across the Lips' catalogue, is still far from opening night, but the pink robot cogs have been set in motion.

The Lips, meanwhile, play a previously reported brief tour of the Southeast in April. Mr. Coyne has occupied his time of late regaling the NPR masses, and playing man-on-the-street during this year's SXSW festival. And keep peeping Forkcast for a trailer from another Lips multimedia foray, the forthcoming live DVD UFOs at the Zoo.

Lips on fire:

04-11 Athens, GA - Classic Center
04-12 Orlando, FL - House of Blues
04-13 Pompano Beach, FL - PB Amphitheater
04-14 St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Landing
04-17 Myrtle Beach, FL - House of Blues
04-18 Raleigh, NC - Disco Rodeo
04-19 Norfolk, VA - The Norva
04-21 Providence, RI - Brown University
06-14-17 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival