Full Synopsis

Full Synopsis

Act One

We begin online. The first character we see is Luna, an influencer, who begins reading from her script for a sponsored post. On another part of the stage, we see Jupe, a stunt artist, who greets his followers with a dance tutorial. Light on other parts of the stage reveal more characters: Chance One and Chance Two, prankster cousins, pitch their latest gag; Cat, a wildly successful child gamer, complains about her life as she virtually kills; Eve, a beauty vlogger, details a day in her worldly life; Rose, a singer-songwriter, explains the process of writing an original song; the 1660 Wine Girls, podcasters, take a break from their episode for an ad break; and Nelli, dancer, joins Jupe’s dance tutorial. A cacophony of voices which turns into a song, during which the influencers welcome their followers back to their pages, seductively offering the achievability of the dream of social media stardom, and expressing that they will always be a click away (“Welcome Back”).

Still online, but separate from the content-creators of the opening number, we meet Danny Teller, a 19-year-old with a negligable follower count. Danny vlogs himself as he surprises Emily, his girlfriend away at college, with a home-baked birthday cake, only to discover that she’s been cheating on him with another guy. This results in an argument, wherein Emily smashes the cake into Danny’s face.

Within a moment, we are in the offline, real world, where Boston-based Danny uploads his breakup video, called “The Break-Up Cake”. The effort appears to be on a wing and a prayer, as Danny is on a self-proclaimed gap year, living in his childhood bedroom, and spending his days obsessing over successful young people like the social media stars of his generation. He dreams of a viral life in Los Angeles, a life that he believes, if it could only happen to him, would take him both toward success and away from his current misery. (“Stuck”).

The video uploads and Danny falls asleep. Overnight, a miracle occurs. “The Break Up Cake” video racks up seven million views, capturing the attention of the 1660 Wine Girls, who put Danny on their radar. Danny, with the reluctant blessing of Danny's Dad, decides to give “fame” a try as an influencer. Danny moves across the country to 1660 Vine, the famed apartment building where viral stars can grow their success, and stay relevant.

Danny arrives at 1660 Vine, where Renee, the apartment manager, leads Danny on a tour of the glitzy apartment building and all of its amenities. With the help of Jupe and Luna, Renee demonstrates to Danny why moving to 1660 Vine is a risky but potentially lucrative investment in one’s social media career. After Jupe offers his apartment unit’s second bedroom in order to lower Danny’s monthly rent, Danny ultimately signs his lease (“15 Minutes”).

We watch the making-of a vlog by pranksters Chance One and Chance Two (“Cousins By Chance”). Mid-vlog, Chance One picks on Chance Two for his nerdy desire to film Shakespeare content, as well as his insistence to improvise during the duo’s scripted vlog. After filming, Chance One proposes some future plans for the cousins, which include the two of them touring an even more upscale content house that they might move into. But Chance Two is not “all in,” as he’s in a budding romance with songwriter Rose, who lives in their current building.

Serendipitously—as if Chance Two texted her to come over—Rose stops by. Chance One gives the lovebirds some private time. Rose tells Chance Two that she's got a new song, only it's missing a hook, that she hopes will lift her profile and get her a record deal. Rose sings as Chance Two plays, and Chance Two helps her craft the hook to her song. Chance Two offers to pay for the song’s recording, a conversation overheard by Chance One (“Rodanthe”).

The 1660 Wine Girls interview Danny on their podcast, and it’s clear he hasn’t a clue what to do with his newfound fame. The podcasters want the dirt on Emily, but Danny evades their questions. After the interview, Emily calls Danny, but he lets the phone ring out (“Calling Preprise”).

Danny asks for advice from Jupe and Luna about how to brand himself as more than just the “Break Up Cake Kid.” Luna notes that it’s all about the sponsors, the companies that pay influencers to post. Luna would rather not be limited to selling beauty products, and Jupe is secretly a poet. Jupe shares a poem with Danny: it’s quite good. But he and Luna—and all of the others—have got to do what the sponsors ask of them: it’s their identity.

Alone and brainstorming ideas for a brand, Danny is reminded of his precarious position by a group of five omnipresent and omniscient Vloggers. Danny laments that the other influencers in 1660 Vine are passing him by (“Still Stuck”).

Chance Two evades plans with Chance One in favor of meeting Rose at the recording studio, and opens the door (literally) to Danny as he exits the unit. Danny introduces himself to Chance One and asks for guidance. Chance One, seeing Danny as a piece in his ongoing chess game of power and influence, gives Danny advice on how to find his niche and create buzz (“15 Minutes More”).

After a six-month delay from her scheduled arrival, Luna’s new roommate Eve shows up to their apartment unit, while vlogging. Fresh from travelling the world making content, Eve knows how the game is played. Luna attempts to kick Danny, Jupe, and Eve out of the apartment so that she can film a sponsored post, but Eve and Jupe stop to criticize Luna for the beauty product she is promoting. It’s not healthy nor something she would actually use, they claim. Once alone, we see that Luna is trapped in a warped version of success, working for sponsors that strip her of her agency and stereotype her (“Lucky”).

Chance Two stars in a Shakespearean vlog, with a crew consisting of Danny (who films), Eve (who co-stars), Nelli (who dances), and Rose (who accompanies on guitar). Chance Two—who accidentally blew off a scheduled vlog with Chance One and a Famous Influencer—hopes that someday he can stop being a part of Cousins by Chance. Rose gets bad news from a label she has been hoping to sign with: they hate her song, instructing the dismayed songwriter to write tunes that are more pop-friendly.

Danny, while picking up his mail from Renee, watches Cat as she livestreams a video game. Renee tells Danny that Cat’s dad owns a penthouse in the building, though Cat prefers to take over the Common Area. In their first meeting, Cat shows no interest in Danny, due to his lack of followers.

Their conversation is interrupted by Jupe who, on Danny’s suggestion, had posted online an original poem which resulted in the loss of thousands of followers. In order to keep up his numbers and against his will, Jupe’s representatives have scheduled him for a tour of live shows in which he will perform the stunts and dances that have made him famous. He releases his frustrations in a poetic gym session led by a Fitness Influencer (“Bodies in Motion”).

Still searching for his online identity, Danny reflects upon what he’s learned from his new friends thus far, and realizes many of them share the same dissatisfaction with the inauthentic identities they must maintain in order to continue to reap the rewards of fame. With this, Danny gets an idea. Chance One gathers the residents of 1660 Vine and promises to help Danny, so long as Danny returns the favor. Chance One livestreams Danny’s pitch to his followers, which details a plan to create a show that will reveal to the world exactly who the influencers of 1660 Vine really are. By aggregating their 50 million combined followers (half of which come from Cat, who has not yet agreed to participate), the influencers can gain a significant audience who will follow them for their real selves, not for the false identities demanded by sponsors. During the excitement, Danny’s phone rings again. He picks up. It’s Emily, asking Danny to take the “Break-Up Cake” video down. He hangs up on her (“Be Real”).

Act Two

We open on a 1660 Wine Girls podcast episode: they announce that Danny’s #1660VineLive will be livestreaming in six days. Danny, who had been booked to appear on the podcast, hasn’t shown up to the interview.

The various characters of 1660 Vine leave voicemails for Danny after not being able to contact him. When we finally find Danny, he is in an Uber on his way to a Hollywood party that Chance One has invited him to attend. During their phone call, Chance One asks Danny permission to use #1660VineLive to do some business in Nashville. Excited to be a part of the Hollywood scene and trusting Chance One, Danny agrees. At the party, Danny meets the two Producers of #1660VineLive. The Producers tell Danny that the event is fully-funded, but only if Cat (and thus, her huge number of followers) signs on to be part of the event… and only so long as the influencers stick to their already existing identities and branded selves. But this is not what Danny had promised his friends. The cynical Producers warn Danny of the risks of taking on the sponsors: they advise him not to blow this opportunity. As the other influencers’ anticipation and excitement build, Danny feels an enormous weight of the secret that he is not ready to share with them: they will not “be real” (“Welcome Back Reprise”).

Luna arrives at her apartment after an exhausting day of creating sponsored content, to find the unit is a mess. Eve admits that she is incapable of cleaning, but makes light of it. Sensing her roommate’s stress and discontent, Eve performs a tarot reading on Luna. She uses the cards to reveal to Luna that she is saying “yes” to sponsorship opportunities that will hurt her in the long run. Eve then expresses why her personal mantra is so important, as she tells Luna stories from her life to encourage her to advocate for herself (“Self-Love”).

Rose breaks some amazing, sudden news to Chance Two: a label in Nashville has reached out to sign her. They will fly her to there to record her debut album. Chance Two is thrilled: he thinks he will leave Hollywood and go with her. But Rose tells Chance Two that she’s going to Nashville by herself, and that she’s breaking up with him. This has been her dream all along, not theirs, and she needs to live it herself (“Already Gone”).

Chance One seems concerned about his cousin’s broken heart. But as he tries to heal Chance Two, Chance One slips, and it becomes clear that Chance One was behind Rose’s Nashville move. In a conversation with the label in Nashville, Chance One pretended he was Danny, and got them to sign Rose in exchange for her appearance on #1660VineLive, guaranteed to have millions of viewers. Chance Two is irate, and breaks off the cousins’ partnership. Chance One threatens to move to the upscale content house without Chance Two.

Danny desperately tries to convince Cat to participate in #1660VineLive, but she shuts him down. Danny asks if her dad is preventing her from doing the event. Cat reveals that she manages her own career, and uses some of her earnings to bail her dad out from debt. Cat is woefully overworked but has accepted it, even though her gaming career results in sacrificing relationships with her mother and with her junior high school peers (“The Gameplan”).

Without options and now without Cat’s guaranteed viewership, Danny has to be honest with his friends. He breaks the news to Jupe, Luna, and Eve, that the Producers want them to stick to their inauthentic, already successful online identities for #1660VineLive. Danny’s friends feel betrayed: Jupe seeming to take it in sad stride, but Luna and Eve are outraged.

Danny seeks solitude on the rooftop of 1660 Vine. When Renee approaches him, Danny confesses that he feels that all of his friends now hate him. Renee suggests an apology can go a long way, both to his friends in 1660 Vine and, perhaps, to Emily. She shares with Danny her own story of fame, one that begins with her and her college friends moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting, but over time leads to the isolation of Renee as she becomes the sought-after flavor of the month (“One In A Million”).

The omnipotent/omniscient group of five commenting Vloggers return as #1660VineLive begins. Danny introduces the event to an in-person live audience and to the online viewers. Backstage, one of the two Producers watches intently alongside a Stage Manager who calls cues. Danny joins the Producer to monitor the show, admitting that Cat has still not agreed to make an appearance, and that he hasn’t heard from Luna since their fight. He seems on the verge of doing exactly what the Producer had warned him not to do: blowing this opportunity.

However, Eve and Luna do show up, surprising Danny as they livestream a makeup tutorial in which Eve helps Luna take off her makeup. And as Eve does so, Luna presents a message that is true to her real self: she encourages viewers to unfollow social media accounts who are guilty of making young people feel self-conscious, or using models with certain identities to signal virtue.

Danny is shocked. The Producer is not happy. The sponsors, the Producer predicts, are going to be pissed. But the live show continues. Chance Two arrives, dressed in a reptilian costume. The Producer would have preferred Chance One, and their fear is confirmed when Chance Two performs a Shakespeare soliloquy from “The Tempest.” The Producer pushes Danny to move on to the next act, which is a visit from Rose, livestreamed from Nashville. Chance Two breaks down when he sees Rose on the big screen: his loud longing for his lost love drowns out her new hit song “Rodanthe” as she plays it for the audience.

Just as the Producer expresses the worry that the audience numbers aren’t large enough for the sponsors, Cat shows up. Danny is grateful, the Producer is thrilled. But when Cat goes “on,” she tells the audience that she’s ready to finally be real, admitting that she’s just an exhausted kid, and she’s ready to quit gaming and go back to middle school.

Although Danny thinks that the event has devolved into a disaster, the other Producer arrives to deliver some incredible news: #1660VineLive has reached its sponsors’ desired viewership count. Danny is confused. But the Producers explain to Danny that followers will show up to watch just about anything, and therefore most influencers are mere pawns in the game played by producers and sponsors. Danny is astonished, but relieved. If, indeed, they’ve hit their numbers, Jupe doesn’t have to perform a stunt! Danny knows how much his friend had wanted to avoid this, but the Producers suggest that the stunt is too highly anticipated to cancel now. The numbers will only continue to grow. And so Danny remains silent, and therefore, compliant.

Jupe performs his stunt, a tightrope act above the rooftop swimming pool during which he explains how this stunt is the key to taking control of his life once again. As Jupe nears the end of the tightrope, he jumps the remaining distance, and he falls. #1660VineLive ends suddenly (“Leap of Faith”).

A week passes, as the omnipotent group of five commenting Vloggers make sense of the aftermath of #1660VineLive, analyzing each of the “performances.” Luckily, they tell us, Jupe survived the fall, but broke his leg quite badly.

Chance One returns to Chance Two and their apartment at 1660 Vine. They bicker about their failings as separate entities: they have failed individually. Chance One helps Chance Two realize that if they want to be successful, they will need to stick together, even if they can’t stand one another (“Second Chance”).

Released from the hospital, Jupe returns to his (and Danny’s) apartment. Danny is apologetic, as he feels that it was his fault that there was an accident while Jupe was performing his stunt… Until it’s clear that this was no accident. Jupe planned the fall, and, excellent stuntman that he was, he knew how to fall in such a way that he might perhaps break a bone, but it would not endanger his life. Jupe did it so that he would never have to perform stunts again. And it worked. He’s performing poetry and has more followers than ever. And while Danny protests that this isn’t the right way to go about gaining a new audience, ultimately, Jupe got the outcome he wanted. Jupe asks Danny what he would have done during his moment on #1660VineLive, had Jupe's stunt not ended the livestream prematurely. Danny is vague, and eventually admits that he never did find his online identity, his brand. Jupe encourages Danny to see the good in that, as Jupe leaves the apartment.

Eve and Luna are thrilled with the results of their tutorial. Luna tells Eve that not only is she planning to move out of 1660 Vine, but she plans to delete her own account and start over, in order to align with what she really wants to be doing with her life and her voice. After some initial reluctance, Eve eventually follows Luna, as the two of them vow to live in the moment and empower their own voices instead of seeking the next flashy opportunity. They eagerly enter the next chapter of their journey (“Rebranding”).

Alone on the rooftop, Danny begins to film an apology video to his followers, but realizes that the person he owes an apology to first is Emily, his ex-girlfriend. Danny calls her to leave a voicemail, explaining all of his decisions and regrets since moving to Hollywood. Danny hangs up the phone after leaving his message (“Calling”).

Still on the rooftop, Danny sends a text message to all of the people he’s crossed paths with in 1660 Vine. He includes the link to the video of what actually happened a few months ago in Emily’s dorm room.

The recipients of the message trickle onto the stage, and watch the viral “Break Up Cake” video play out from a few months ago. But instead of cutting off the video as Danny runs out of frame, humiliated with cake all over his face, we see the footage that never made it online. The aftermath of the scene.

We discover that the break-up was staged. Emily and Danny planned this video to complete an assignment Emily had been given in her college Media Studies class. Danny was to post the video to make it seem more believable. But it was never meant to be kept online for longer than a week, as Emily didn’t want anyone to think she cheated on Danny. During this continued unedited portion of the video, previously unseen by anyone, Danny shares his insecurity about his lack of opportunity, and about his worth in this current moment. Emily reassures him that she will always care about Danny, even if his life isn’t where he wants it to be (“It’s Enough”).

Scattered around various parts of the stage, the recipients of this video react, relieved to have a better understanding of who Danny is. They can accept the truth far easier and better than the lie he had been living and sharing with them.

Danny, now holding his backpack and suitcase, receives a text from Emily, acknowledging his apology and opening the possibility for reconciliation. He walks off stage.

In the finale, each of the characters step out from the story and stand at the edge of the fourth wall. Rose addresses her younger self, whom she envisions to be out in the crowd after a concert. As other characters join her on stage, they collectively wonder if their younger selves would be proud of who they have become. Danny, still in the story, returns to his childhood bedroom, watched by the other characters as he produces from out of his backpack various items from his Hollywood moment, placing them around the room. Danny acknowledges the characters as they leave the stage. Back where he began, alone in his childhood bedroom, Danny looks briefly at his phone and then, putting it aside, he looks out at whatever’s next (“Just Like Me”).