A High School Musical of the Odyssey  ·  Part Two of Two

NOBODYWINS!

Everything is lost and the porch light is dark — and somebody is coming to bring Nobody home.

The story so far

Part One ended in the dark. Ozzy — “Nobody,” the boy who couldn’t be caught — took the long way home and lost it all: his crew (pigs at Circe’s, then caged), his memory of Penny (drowned in Calypso’s haze), and his own name (in the fog of the leaf, he is no one). The porch light is out. At home, Penny holds the crashers off one unpicked stitch at a time.

And somewhere out in the night, a little brother is still looking. Part Two is the match striking.

Part One: Nobody Loses.  →  Part Two: Nobody Wins.  ·  and the win still carries the cost.

Act Three

Somebody’s Coming

the turn, the waking, the release

  1. 14

    To Save Nobody the book ▸

    Telly · the turn — he gets the address and sets out alone to save his brother

  2. 15

    There’s Somebody Who Needs Nobody (Has Anybody Got Nobody Here) the book ▸

    Ozzy & Telly · the awakening — Telly’s voice reaches through the haze; the two odysseys converge

  3. 16

    I Need Nobody / I Need Nobody / I Have Nobody the book ▸

    Penny · Calypso · the Chief & the cops (tri-scene) · a three-part braid — the road home, and the manhunt that can never find a man named Nobody

  4. 17a

    A Pretty Penny (Reprise) the book ▸

    Ozzy · the Act-One love song comes back guilt-weighted — chastened, he pleads Calypso’s help home

  5. 17b

    I’ll Never Love Anybody Like I Loved Nobody Again the book ▸

    Calypso · the torch — the villain who transforms: she releases him, hands him the raft, and lights her own porch

Act-Three curtain. She could keep him forever. She lets him go. Calypso points Nobody at the water, presses the key into his hand — then strikes a match to her own porch light, learns her own name, and turns to face a morning without him. Two people choosing the harder homecoming. He sails. The reckoning waits on the far shore.

Intermission
Act Four

The Bow and the Axes

the homecoming — the contest, the reveal, the reckoning

  1. 18

    Dance Like Nobody Is Watching You the book ▸

    Penny, Telly, Tony/suitors & the hooded Ozzy · the contest — the bow-and-axes as DDR on Expert; the suitors flail; a hooded stranger arrives

  2. 19

    Can Anybody Play? / Who Is This Nobody? the book ▸

    the hooded Ozzy, the suitors & Penny · the beggar begs the bow; “Anybody” lands; the freeze before the hood comes off

  3. 20

    I Dance Like Nobody (…and Nobody Is Like Me) the book ▸

    Ozzy & full company · the climax — the flawless clear; WINNER: NOBODY; the porch light blazes; the uncatchable man, caught by love

  4. 21

    Nobody (Reprise) — The Bow and the Axes the book ▸

    Ozzy & Penny · the recognition duet — “twenty years of doubt,” the name only he would know

  5. 22

    I Hate a Nobody Like You (Finale Reprise) the book ▸

    Ozzy & the whole company · the finale — Poly’s coffee-shop anthem reclaimed: the master evicts the freeloaders, the suitors run (nobody dies), Poly washes in over his stolen song; “Nobody sends his love”

Finale. The stranger clears the impossible dance; the machine prints WINNER: NOBODY; the porch light slams back to full gold and holds. Master of his own house at last, Ozzy turns Poly’s old coffee-shop anthem on the freeloaders — the suitors run, nobody dies — and Poly himself washes in to gripe that Ozzy stole his song, and gets waved into the bow. Penny’s name-test, the recognition, the whole town raising a cup to the shifty, homesick, uncatchable one. And that’s a wrap. Thanks for comin’. Nobody sends his love.

End of Part Two

Nobody Wins.

Porch light full and steady. Curtain.

Who Comes Home

Ozzy “Nobody” — Odysseus · the name that meant no-one, crowned the only one
Penny — Penelope · rigs the contest for her love without naming him — con for con
Telly — Telemachus · the rescue the gods owed, delivered by family
Calypso — Calypso · the lonely trap that sets itself free
Tony & the suitors — the crashers · routed, not slain
Poly · Circe · Calypso — the lonely three · washed back in for the curtain

The Engine, Resolved

The Nobody pun: the lost name → WINNER: NOBODY The eye: loss → closure The porch light: out → blazing, steady Two odysseys, converged — a bow against a house of Everybody All four pronouns sung: Nobody · Everybody · Somebody · Anybody The villains get grace, not death