NEW YORK, June 20 (UPI) -- One wouldn't think a mass suicide would be musical fodder -- but that would be before one met Shuki Levy and his plans for a broadway show "Masada."
"It's 'Aida' crossed with 'Norma' crossed with 'West Side Story,'" Levy told Daily Variety magazine
Levy acknowledges an ancient Jewish revolt and mass suicide isn't a subject usually associated with his most popular TV work – the score of the series "Power Rangers."
He told the magazine there was some resistance to bringing the Masada story to the stage as a musical.
"Some have thought it doesn't make any sense, this story about 900 Jews who killed themselves on a mountain 2,000 years ago. But once they heard the music, they felt it," he said.
An initial version of "Masada" was presented in Los Angeles in 1998, with Jon Voight and Rita Moreno performing. That benefit concert raised $1 million. Levy will take "Masada" to Chicago before going to Broadway next year.
