[ Group vocalizing ] Man: [ Singing ] Real life stories.

Most, they don't have the... Sarnak: [ Talking ] The experience of being with music in person, being with human beings in a room, whether it's a concert or listening to music with other people in real time and you're with them, can never be replaced and will never go away because sound is -- is physical.

It's reverberation.

So it exists in space.

And I actually think it has something in common with theater.

Narrator: McCarter Theatre Center opens its new theater season with the world premiere of "Empire Records," a musical based on the 1995 cult classic film.

Sarnak: "Empire Records" is about a group of employees and a day in their lives at this record store.

But this particular day has some high stakes because it's Rex Manning Day, which -- come to the show, you'll find out what that is.

And, also, the store is in jeopardy of being taken over by a corporate chain, Music Town.

Narrator: "Empire Records" is also a homecoming for composer and lyricist Zoe Sarnak, who grew up in Princeton.

Sarnak: There's a bit of a homecoming happening here, but that was not on our minds when we first started working on it.

The origin of the musical adaptation predates me.

Bill, one of our commercial producers, and Carol, the book writer, started talking about the idea of making it a musical.

Unbeknownst to them, I had often said to friends of mine in the theater industry that I think "Empire Records" would make a fantastic musical, but I'd never tried to pitch it to anyone or anything.

Narrator: Carol Heikkinen, who wrote the original film, has welcomed the opportunity to return to these characters after 30 years.

Heikkinen: When I graduated from college, I moved to LA because I secretly wanted to be a screenwriter.

So I had had one movie made, which was also about music.

It's "The Thing Called Love," and it was directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and it's about country music.

And so I was trying to think of an idea for another script that I could write on spec.

I think the first thing I thought about was, was setting it all in one day and having a love story in it, and then I was like, "Oh, record store.

Yeah, that's a good place to have something take place in one day."

Mark: Empire Records.

Open till midnight.

This is Mark.

Yeah.

Hey, it's the bank.

Heikkinen: An important thing to me was that it was about two best friends who are nearing the end of high school and realizing that they're going in different directions, Corey and Gina.

Corey: Happy Rex Manning Day!

Gina: When did you have time to make these?

Corey: Dad says there's 24 usable hours in every day.

Thank you.

Gina: You absolutely amaze me.

You are a nerd.

Corey: [ Chuckles ] That's me.

Gina: [ Chuckles ] All: [ Singing ] How's life?

Woman: [ Singing ] Every single morning, makes her sweet little bed.

Angel in the class, she know she better get ahead.

All: [ Singing ] Mama said that... Heikkinen: [ Talking ] Bill Weiner, who is our producer of the musical -- he approached me.

I said, "Okay, well, the only way we're doing this is if I'm writing this."

The weirdest thing about going from having written the entire movie and now having written the book for a musical is it is a different skill, but it's one you can learn.

Sarnak: Carol and I have become close 'cause we've worked together on this now for a set of years, and she's so special because these characters, they still live with her.

So when we do a rewrite and there's, like, a new material, new moment, it's like, "Oh, of course Lucas would say that," right?

There's just a way in which she knows them so deeply.

All: [ Singing ] The future generation.

The future generation, the future generation.

Man: [ Singing ] Hey, hey, hey, hey!

All: [ Singing ] The future generation.

[ Music ends ] Narrator: Princeton itself is home to its own piece of music history, Princeton Record Exchange.

For Zoe, music and memory provided a strong connection to her work on "Empire Records."

Sarnak: PREX, Princeton Record Exchange, is my hometown record store, and it's located, you know, center of downtown, which is also walking distance from Princeton High School.

And so there were a few places -- Small World Coffee, Princeton Record Exchange -- where we would be able to go hang out after school, and you were always looking for places that felt exciting or interesting in some way, and then, also, where you could just go hang out where you weren't gonna get kicked out.

Narrator: John Lambert, the owner of Princeton Record Exchange, sees the connective power of music firsthand every day.

Lambert: People like coming here now for an event.

I look at Google, and they say average time here spent is an hour.

I can't think of another store out there -- or maybe a Macy's or something, I don't know -- where people spend that much time because it's an event now.

It's like going bowling or playing miniature golf.

You go to the record store, You go in, and you never know what you're going to find.

You're talking to real people.

You're in a real space.

You know, it's -- it's something that's really meaningful to people now.

The thrill of discovery and the thrill of the hunt, I think, is part of the excitement of the event.

And I think there's a real drive now, especially with the younger folk, that they want something tangible -- they want something physical.

It's not just a vinyl revival -- resurgence.

You know, I think it's a reality resurgence, where people are just tired of this ephemeral, non-existent world out there when there's so much right in front of you -- or could be.

Narrator: Growing up in suburban Phoenix, Arizona, an after-school record-store job provided Carol inspiration for the original film.

Heikkinen: My best friend Caroline was working at Tower Records in Phoenix.

We were seniors in high school.

And I went to visit her at work 'cause, you know, I would go to Tower, anyway.

And she was like, "Oh, hey, do you want a job?"

Every time that I worked at any record store, when it was time to go to work, I was anxious to go.

I wanted to see my friends.

I wanted to have fun.

We chose the music that we played.

A.J.

: Exercising my veto, man.

Mark: Yeah, well, it's only 9:00.

I mean, are you sure you want to do that?

A.J.

: Mark, listening to this crap is guaranteed to make you sterile.

All: [ Singing ] The future generations... That's wild, wild...

I'm exactly who I am.

So I... [ Music continues ] Hey!

[ Music continues ] Sarnak: [ Talking ] We work on these things for years, and they travel with us through moments of our lives.

And so much of your sort of DNA ends up in the show.

I feel so personally connected with the show by the time we get to this moment.

And then you're presenting it for a group of strangers saying, "What do you think?"

[ Chuckles ] Even though it's super vulnerable, it's also, like, there -- it's -- it's an indescribably gratifying experience, too.

Woman: [ Singing ] Can you shout at the top of your lungs?

Oh!

All: [ Singing ] Let the bass let you grow.

Let the drums lift your soul.

Fill your lungs, and you know you're... Sarnak: [ Talking ] Whether you create it or you listen to it or you share it with a friend, almost every person on this planet has, like, a deep connection to music, and it makes -- it brings people together, and, like, that -- for the fact that that's the subject of this show, not just my role on the show, makes "Empire Records" super special.

All: [ Singing ] Wake up, wake up.

Welcome to the Empire.

Wake up, wake up.

Welcome to the Empire.

[ Finale plays, music ends ]