Three years ago, KHAN!!!: The Musical: A Parody Trek-tacular debuted off-Broadway at the Players Theater in New York to great reviews, here at TrekMovie.com and elsewhere. Since then, producer Brent Black has released a cast album and has now begun licensing the show for use by community theaters, high schools and colleges, and anyone wanting to Trek up their local musical theater scene. He is also bringing KHAN!!! to a number of Trek conventions this summer. TrekMovie checked in with Black to get an update on the latest for this musical celebration inspired by the classic 1980s movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
KHAN!!! at cons
KHAN!!!: The Musical is heading to some conventions this summer. “I’m absolutely pumped to have been asked! It really feels like the show leveled up,” Black tells TrekMovie about the convention events. First up will be Trek Long Island on June 12th in Hauppauge, New York. There will be a short performance along with a Q & A session with a handful of the former Off-Broadway cast members. And later in June (starting the 25th), KHAN!!! will have a quick appearance and be at a booth at TrekFest in Riverside, Iowa, which prides itself on being the “future birthplace of James T. Kirk.”
In August, the musical is headed to Las Vegas for STLV 2026. The team has been given a panel slot on the Inglorious Treksperts stage for a performance from the musical. Brent Black and a few veteran cast members will be doing what he describes as a “short mini-concert” of songs from the show along with a Q&A. The STLV performers will include Laura Whittenberger, who has played Saavik in multiple productions, and Shyaporn Theerakulstit, who played Admiral Kirk off-Broadway. The STLV KHAN!!! performance and panel will be on Thursday, August 6. The musical team will also be running a booth all weekend in the STLV vendor room.
Laura Whittenberger as Saavik in KHAN!!!! (Photo by Carol Rosegg)
And at a theater near you
“It’s a show you can put on,” Black told TrekMovie: Local theaters can now do their own version of KHAN!!! The Musical. “It’s like a little kit, ‘just add water,’ or rather it’s more complicated than that, because it’s ‘just add your board of directors voting to put this show on.’ Now let’s work together to get some theater company in your town to give us a shot.” Indeed, since its debut in 2023, the musical has been produced eight times in theaters across the United States and internationally.
“Basically, April through December, we don’t go very long without a production of the show going on,” said Black. “It’s in the northern tip of California in April, the Greater Sydney, Australia area in May. You got the greater Flint/Detroit area in June, the greater Nashville area in July. Then there’s a little break. The next one after that is Philly in November, and after that is one we haven’t announced yet, but it’s in the Great Lakes, Midwest area in December. These are all licensed productions.”
There is a production currently running at the Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake, California (through May 10) and there are theater companies preparing to stage the show throughout the rest of 2026. Reviews of the show have been strikingly positive. The current production in Northern California was lauded as “new, outrageously entertaining, [and] original” by the local Times-Standard, comparing it positively to Little Shop of Horrors and Rocky Horror. The reviewer called the show “delightful” and a “blast from the past.”
From L to R_ Clayton Matthews, Maxwell Nusbaum, Shyaporn Theerakulstit, Lindsey M.E. Newton, Crystal Marie Stewart in KHAN!!!! (Photo by Carol Rosegg)
A surge of parody musicals
“We’re in a place in history where a couple of parody musicals have set really good precedents like Grease, the Three’s Company musical, and Seussical the Musical. Like them, this is a parody, but it’s also a love letter,” Black explains.
Creating the show was no easy matter for Black. He’s known on social media for his comedy sketches and parodies and has a solid grounding in game design and theater, but the show took him more than three years to write. “As I was zoning out at this boring underground dance show, there was this one scene with two guys in these spacesuits, dancing. And I thought those suits look a little like Chekov and Terrell when they go into Khan’s cargo container, and I just sat there thinking, ‘What would that be like? A Wrath of Khan musical?’ And it lodged in my brain. And it seemed operatic, like probably the only Trek movie that would work as a musical. Big characters and big feelings. And I had a desire to make it into a good musical, but also a parody. I had written parodies on YouTube for years, but I wanted people to be surprised that, hey, this is a legit show.”
“My friend Alina said a thing that just changed the whole trajectory. She was like, you should make it Data on the holodeck, and it’s his show of The Wrath of Khan. And that’s why she gets a percentage of everything the show makes and a co-conceiver credit, because that was the most important crystalizing moment, and we were off to the races.”
From L to R_ Laura Whittenberger, Crystal Marie Stewart, Julian Manjerico, Lindsey M.E. Newton in KHAN!!!! (Photo by Carol Rosegg)
The future of KHAN!!! The Musical
“This is one of those shows where if you don’t see it live, you simply don’t believe what you read about it,” Black enthused, “Like you think, ‘Of course a Trekkie would say that.’ But there’s some magic to the show, that if you don’t see it, it’s hard to believe that it’s more than just a cute little Star Trek parody.”
Black is optimistic about the future. “The dream is that this show will eventually take on a life of its own and be something that Trekkies know, the way that Evil Dead: The Musical gets performed all over the country and indeed, all over the world. Stranger Sings is the Stranger Things parody. Titanic: The Movie Parody Musical.”
For a taste, here is a highlight video from the off-Broadway production.
How fans can help get it produced
Trek fans who want to see the show produced in their area should talk to the board of directors of their local community theater. “We started a little company specifically to self-license it called B13 productions,” Black says. “We’re trying to raise awareness that the show is available for licensing, and you’re not going to pay what you would pay to do, you know, Rent.”
In the meantime, there are the many productions already on the schedule for 2026, and the cast album is available from iTunes or any of the popular music purchasing and sharing sites. “It’s a way for people to hear the score,” Black explained. “We got the Bones from the Orlando theater scene, and the Uhura from the Philly production. The Spock is an opera singer who lives in Texas. And I really wanted to play Kirk because I figured out how to make it feel Shatner-y over the course of developing the show.”
KHAN!!! musical creator Brent Black
KHANN!!! The Musical – the soundtrack
A 22-track soundtrack album of the musical has also been released. You can stream it on Spotify, Apple and other music services. It is also available for purchase as a CD.
Here is a music video for the song “Have I Still Got The Magic” from the show.
For more about KHAN!!! visit the official website or on social media: Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Tiktok. And you can visit Black’s official site at brentalfloss.com.
Keep up with everything to do with the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
source: trekmovie.com