Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, has failed to see the funny side of a musical about its global dominance, which began an off-Broadway theatrical run in New York this week.
Walmartopia is an all-singing, all-dancing account of the United States in 2037.
The capital has moved from Washington to Wal-Mart’s home town of Bentonville, Arkansas, and the famously liberal state of Vermont is the only bastion of democracy. The play depicts the struggle of a Wal-Mart worker and her teenage daughter to get by on low wages and minimal healthcare cover.
Catherine Capellaro, a co-writer, said: ‘It’s satirical, it’s fun and it has campy sci-fi elements. But, we really wanted to ground it in what it’s like to be a Wal-Mart worker and what it’s like to make a living in retail in this day and age.” The musical follows one in Houston about the collapse of Enron, while the Edinburgh Festival featured two rival productions about Tony Blair.
The firm is unimpressed, possibly because of a scene that features the disembodied head of its revered founder, Sam Walton. A spokesperson called it ‘a futuristic musical that isn’t based in fact”.
Wal-Mart, which owns Britain’s Asda, has 1,8-million employees and annual sales of $351-billion, ranking it as the biggest firm in the US by sales. It has been accused of bias against unions, women and older staff.
Theatre critics have sided with the multinational. The New York Times sniffed that it was ‘tired on arrival”. —