The Spirit of Allah

a musical about Ruhollah Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution

Posted by Jew from Jersey
15 July 2003

Cast of characters

Mullahs:

• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — a cranky old clergyman
• Ayatollah Mohammed-Kazem Shariatmadari — his mellow colleague
• Hojjat ol-Islam Sadeq “Judge Blood” Khalkhali — a hothead
• Hojjat ol-Islam Ali-Akbar “The Cat” Hashemi-Rafsanjani — cool mullah
• Hojjat ol-Islam Ali Khamene’i — the straight guy
• Lower-ranking mullahs

Royal court:

• Mohammed-Reza Pahlavi — the Shah, a neurotic monarch
• Farah-Diba Pahlavi — the Shahbanou, his wife
• Sycophantic courtiers and pompous officers
• Gendarmes

Celebrities:

• Googoosh — popular chanteuse
• Dariush Foruhar — a pretentious intellectual
• Mehdi Bazargan — a grandfatherly prime minister
• Abolhassan Bani-Sadr — an ambitious president

Just plain folks:

• Peasants and townspeople
• Students
• Marxist guerrillas and miscellaneous armed thugs
• Child soldiers
• Foreign journalists

Americans:

• Cyrus Vance — a WASPish secretary of state
• Zbigniew Brzezinski — an anti-communist security adviser

Iraqis:

• Saddam Hussein — a brutal dictator
• Iraqi ministers and generals

Table of contents

ACT I

• Scene 1: Overture — setpiece
• Scene 2: “In old Iran” — the way things have been for a long time
• Scene 3: “I have a dream” — in which the Shah reveals his plan to modernize the country
• Scene 4: “Sit down, Ruhollah” — in which Khomeini voices his dissent to the Shah’s plans but is opposed by Shariatmadari
• Scene 5: “The Rowzeh-Khan” — in which Khomeini uses the telling of a holiday story to incite the people to rebel and is subsequently sent into exile
• Scene 6: “Freedom” — in which secular intellectuals use the new environment of permissiveness to pursue their own political ambitions

ACT II

• Scene 7: Night of the revolution — setpiece
• Scene 8: “Jimmy” — in which the Shah receives conflicting messages from the Carter administration
• Scene 9: “Nuephle-le-château, mon amour” — in which Khomeini makes his media debut
• Scene 10: “The Shah departs” — in which the Shah departs
• Scene 11: “There’s something special in the air” — an expression of popular joy
• Scene 12: “Khomeini’s return” — amid great fanfare
• Scene 13: “I'm a nice guy / A knife without a blade” — in which Mehdi Bazargan attempts democratic government
• Scene 14: “The den of spies” — in which the American embassy is seized
• Scene 15: in which Mehdi Bazargan unsuccessfully try to negotiate the release of the hostages, which in turn leads to the end of his career
• Scene 16: “Mesopotamia rules!” — in which Saddam Hussein invades Iran

ACT III

• Scene 17: The war — setpiece
• Scene 18: “The faithful son” — in which Bani-Sadr is forced into exile
• Scene 19: “Regency of the jurisprudent” — in which Khomeini ascends to supreme leadership and Shariatmadari is defrocked
• Scene 20: “Seventy voluptuous virgins” — in which Khomeini dispatches child soldiers to the Iraqi front
• Scene 21: “The spirit of Allah” — Khomeini’s last will and testament
• Scene 22: “Alone in a cold world” — epilogue