It's the brainchild of Daryl Morey, the president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers.
[Ads /]
6abc's Alicia Vitarelli had a chance to chat with Morey, who loves musicals as much as he loves basketball.
He even named one of the main characters "Pippin." But, of course, that's a basketball reference too.
Wednesday night's performance is the culmination of a 10-day workshop for a select audience.
It's a full-circle moment for Morey, who has been working on this script, and its music, for years.
"I love musical theater," Morey says. "It came about because I was in Europe a few years ago, scouting. I got one of those Twitter 'Ask Me Anything' questions and someone asked me what I'd be doing if I wasn't working on an NBA team. I said I would be working on a musical somewhere."
Morey ended up teaming up with a theater company, a writer, and a lyricist to make it happen.
[Ads /]
'Small Ball' is the story of a basketball player named Michael Jordan, but not that Michael Jordan, who becomes the star player for a team on a newly discovered island.
The problem is that all of his teammates are six inches tall, which makes it hard to pass the ball. And yes, there's a basketball dig in there.
"As you can tell, it's a bit of an absurdist comedy and a love story," Morey says. "You don't really need to know basketball to love it. It's got some fun inside jokes if you do know basketball. You don't need to love musical theater to love it, but it has a lot of inside jokes there too."
The lead character is also a real-life basketball player.
Morey hopes to get 'Small Ball' back to the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, with the help of a Philadelphia Theatre Company, for a full run soon.