THE STORY OF THE MUTANT KINGS

Way back in 1986 while attending acting school, Gerry Ferretti wondered what would have happened if The Beatles broke up and never came to be, but in fact went on to become teachers, accountants, plumbers etc. and still wrote all the songs they actually wrote. And then, what if they went into a record company at 60 or 70 years of age and tried to get their songs heard, would anyone pay attention to them. Many years passed and in 2010 Gerry wrote the screenplay for what became Bridge The Gap which told the story of four friends in the 1970s who had a band – The Kings – as teenagers and like many garage bands, broke up when one or more members went off to school, became engaged etc. In this story, the men reconnect at 60 and after reminiscing on the past and playing a few tunes for nostalgia’s sake the lead singer, thinking back on his childhood sweetheart, pens the lyrics to a melody he wrote in 1979 just before the band broke up, but never had the lyrics to. He excitedly meets with the guys at two in the morning and introduces the song The ONE to them. While playing the song the lead guitarist and bass player’s sons listen in and as they have a “modern band” made up largely of computer sounds and equipment, they secretly record the older musicians. The bandmates realize the song is fantastic and after celebrating that this is the hit they should have had, and moaning how they missed the boat, begin asking why they ever stopped! The eventual finger-pointing leads to another blowup, reminiscent of 1979 and the four men storm out of the garage and are once again, not speaking to each other. The sons however, have a plan. They take the recording and realizing no one will listen to these “old guys”, they mutate their faces into psychedelic, Picasso-like images, rebrand the band The Mutant Kings and plaster them all over the internet. The song becomes a smash hit, by four “20-year olds” called The Mutant Kings and no one knows who they are!! Oh, and the bandmates, who aren’t on speaking terms, don’t even know they have a hit! Enter a crusty, fast-talking manager, a radio-station, TV show and concert hall as well as all the past relationships and romances and the men face many life-altering decisions and take a real hard look at what matters in life.

In 2017 Gerry turned the screenplay into a play and was fortunate enough that in 2018 and 2019 was able to create the stage version of Bridge The Gap in a theatre in Lindenhurst and then again in Babylon. He wrote 9 songs for the play and after opening night everyone knew they had a hit. But in the back of his mind, the playwright had another idea brewing. After seeing the play, people repeatedly asked “Where can we see this band?”. Unbeknownst to anyone, behind the scenes some of Long Island’s best musicians were in rehearsal to bring the real Mutant Kings to stages across Long Island and in September of 2019, in Lindenhurst at an outdoor concert, The Mutant Kings were born! By 2022 the band was playing over 40 gigs and in 2023 has that many in the Summer alone!

And of course, the plan is still to turn Bridge The Gap into a movie!