John Newspaper and Friends is a historical(ly inaccurate), stupid clown play about ego, invention, and legacy. John is less an inventor than a Byronic romantic—moody, dramatic, full of longing—and entirely unqualified to be the father of the newspaper. When he marries his beloved Edith at the top of the show, she immediately dies giving birth to the newspaper itself. Her ghost lingers as a constant presence in a world where invention is more curse than triumph.

As John meets his gentle adopted son Roderick—who sings a new improvised song each night—a cast of rivals begins to close in. Thomas “Tommy” Tabloid snakes throughout the play, dangling secrets and gossip like bait. Eric Encarta and Wally Wikipedia arrive with sleek, cutting-edge, intimidating inventions from a far more advanced future. The whole thing builds toward the World’s Fair, where the audience must decide which invention—and which man—deserves to win. Gothic melodrama collides with joyful stupidity in this haunted world of clowns, legacy, and lies.