Norman Cooper's Last Stand

A Groovy New Pop Musical                          Book, Music & Lyrics by Vance Holmes

Long ago, in a strip mall far, far away

Ripped away from his dreams of being the nation's next superstar astrophysicist, Norman Cooper slowly wakes to the realization that he, once again, forgot to set his alarm clock and, once again, will be late for work.


In the real world, Norman works in a run-down strip mall -- filling eyeglass prescriptions for a retailer called SuperVision. While he sees himself as a brilliant scientist, Norman's bosses see a slacker who has been placed on probation due to a string of company policy infractions.

Norman hates his minimum-wage job, but he's desperate to keep it because employment at SuperVision gives him access to the company's lab and specialized equiptment. Secretly, Norman has been doing his own optometric research and testing.

Despite the fuzzy-headed haze of fantasy and failure, Norman springs from bed, dashes out the door, jumps on his bike and races to work.


Throughout the day, Norman is hounded by bosses, tormented by co-workers, haunted by his past, and consumed with an obsession for the receptionist: Destiny.

Tripped off by a confrontation with his superiors, Norman loses it and holds everyone hostage at gun-point. The crowds, the news media and the trigger-happy state troopers arrive. In the last desperate moments, Destiny has a burst of inspiration about Norman's experimental eyeglasses -- and suddenly, they are propelled out of the office into a groovy new dimension of love!