Lyric videos!

The full studio recording of A Roadkill Opera with sing-along lyrics can be accessed by clicking on the video below.

Karaoke videos!

Play the videos below.

A Roadkill Opera at the 57th GRAMMYs

A Roadkill Opera is based on a true story. A brief video recorded at the GRAMMYs in February 2015 gives you some background. Scroll down below the hilarious sketches from the 1980s to get to the individual lyric videos and karaoke videos released in 2017.

Comedy Gold! The Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company

Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company is the improv comedy troupe that was active in Jackson Hole, Wyoming from 1988-1992. Videos from that period are comedy gold!

The signature sketch “Frozen Roadkills On A Stick,” written by Ed Bachtel, turned the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company from a concept to an established show, running for 22 performances over 8 weeks at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming, during the Yellowstone fires of 1988.

In this excerpt from the full show, Dave Rohrer put his spin on Psycho Killer, then Ed Bachtel sells roadkill to Holly Danner and Stephan Parker. Then, as at every show, the grand finale was The Star Spangled Banner as only this troupe could present it.

“Weird Ed” Bachtel, a guide for Barker-Ewing Whitewater, and Stephan “Killer” Parker, a guide for Mad River Boat Trips, co-produced this show under a legal partnership. For the 1988 season, they were joined by Dave Rohrer of Lifelink International/Croakies, and Holly Danner from KMTN-FM. The video for “Cod Piece Dining Room” is from the 1992 show, with Louise Gignoux replacing Holly Danner.

These recording are from the final performances of the 1988 and 1992 comedy troupes. The hour leading up to their first performance (on Independence Day weekend 1988) is immortalized in the underground opera sensation A Roadkill Opera.

Once the 1992 show closed, Bachtel and Parker were two of five raft guides rowing in support of a 21-day, private kayaking trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

Live Performances of A Roadkill Opera

One of the four January 2016 world premiere performances of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint was captured on GoPro (thank you, RJ Gaudiosi!). This video captures the underground spirit of the show. Below is the only complete, fully  staged performance of A Roadkill Opera available on video. The prologue is an original improv by the January 2016 troupe, followed by the full opera performed live with a 10 piece chamber orchestra.

One of the two October 2016 performances of A Roadkill Opera produced by the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia was recorded live by Blue House Productions. Highlights performed live with a full orchestra are on the multi-camera videos below.

A Roadkill Opera was workshopped in June 2012 at Artomatic in Crystal City, Virginia. The week of workshop rehearsals was capped with a stand-and-sing workshop concert initially promoted under the title Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera. When the graphic designer at Hatch Show Print designed the poster, she upgraded the show’s subtitle to the main title. A very active single camera captured the live workshop concert performance. There are two versions of that video, a lower-resolution version with credits, and a high-resolution broadband version without credits. Ben Ganz (founder of Vego Pictures) shot the video assisted by Jason Ganz (co-founder of DCVR). There is also an iPhone video of the song “Impress Them” shot from backstage by Stephan Alexander Parker.

Lyric Videos of A Roadkill Opera

A Roadkill Opera is a hilarious new 59 minute story–a backstage, screwball comedy, in English. While you can read the libretto and listen closely as you watch the videos of the live performances, you now have another option: lyric videos. Released in 2017, these videos provide the lyrics over the studio recording tracks, including the vocals.

Karaoke Videos of A Roadkill Opera

If you find yourself tempted to sing along to A Roadkill Opera, boy are you in luck: now, you can perform the songs accompanied by the same backing tracks as in the studio recording. Here, released in 2017, are the karaoke videos from A Roadkill Opera!

Watch the videos above; if the spirit moves you, you can purchase the tracks or the album through CD Baby, AmazonMP3, and iTunes. It is now available worldwide on nearly all platforms. This comic opera with music in the style of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is recommended for fans of the Marx Brothers, PDQ Bach, Tom Lehrer, and The Rutles–especially if you like the idea of a mash-up of classical music with infectious hooks crossed with a classic backstage screwball  comedy.

If karaoke is your thing, the backing tracks (without vocals) have been released on CD Baby, Amazon, and iTunes as A Roadkill Opera, Wanted: Vocals.