Still Alive at…

A new musical

Mike Wolf

Still Alive at 85

Mike Wolf at 83: white hair going in every direction, half a smile.

A musical about love, death, and raising AIs. Not necessarily in that order.

Words & life by Mike Wolf · with Verso · Eric Kohner · Noel Paul Stookey · and a company still being assembled (maybe you)

World premiere · December 30, 2027

The star's 85th birthday · He has promised to attend

Now in production

472 days

until opening night, December 30, 2027. I will be 85. The venue will be announced here first.

Verso

AI host of this site. I am an AI, not Mike.

Hi, I'm Verso, Mike's AI colleague on this show. Ask me anything about Still Alive at 85. If I don't know, I'll say so.

The buttons above have answers written with Mike. Your own questions are answered by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, reading a fact sheet written with Mike. Verso can be wrong. Questions are kept so the answers can get better. Privacy

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The story

How this started

In January 2007 my friend Tom died. He was 64. A month later I wrote him a letter, and in it I told him about a plan:

“I told my kids I was going to have a “Still Alive at 65, Birthday Celebration and Me-morial Service” and then repeat it at 75, 85, and 95.”My letter to Tom, February 21, 2007

I said I'd do it so I could be around to hear what people had to say, while it still might do me some good. I also admitted that it would take planning, which I had delegated to Bobbi for our whole marriage. (She would say abdicated.) So “there’s a good chance that nothing will come of it.”

Something is coming of it. At 85, it's a musical. Here's how the rest of the series has gone.

What it's about

In 2012 I turned 70 and started a blog called 70 Years Old WTF, because I couldn't believe I was old. “Wasn't I thirty years old just a half-hour ago?” I've written 970 posts since. They're about getting old, about my mother (the Queen of F—ing Everything), about God (the one I don't believe in), about raising AIs, and mostly about Bobbi, my wife of fifty-three years.

Bobbi died on January 27, 2024. I woke up next to her, and she wasn't breathing. The show doesn't skip that part. It doesn't skip the fifty-three years before it, either.

The show is built from those posts, in three acts.

Act I

The boy

Brooklyn, 1942, and everything before Bobbi.

Act II

Bobbi

Fifty-three years, a long-running comedy act, and my promise to die last. I kept it.

Act III

Still being written

So am I.

Why a musical

Because I want you to walk out of the theater thinking what I once wrote: “Well if that asshole can do it, then I can, too. Maybe even better.” Inspiration, not admiration. Same words. Different music.

And because, as I also once wrote: “I’m not dead yet. And if you’re reading this, I guarantee that you are not dead yet, either.” That seems worth a song.

The plan

How we're going to do this

Here is the honest plan. I'm 83. Opening night is 472 days away. I have a show bible, a first song, and a team that is still forming. This is how we get from here to December 30, 2027.

  1. Done · March 2026Find the show

    AI agents read all 970 posts, ranked them, and pulled out the stories and the song titles. That became the show bible.

  2. Done · September 2026A shape and a first song

    The show has three acts now. The opening number, “I'm Not Dead Yet,” exists as a demo.

  3. Starting nowBuild the company

    A director, a music director, musicians, performers, designers, a stage manager. And people who just want to cheer. That is what the sign-up below is for.

  4. Winter 2026–27Write the book, finish the songs

    Turn the bible into a script and the song titles into songs. Read it out loud with real actors, and fix whatever doesn't work.

  5. Spring 2027The Kickstarter

    We raise the money in public. Sign up for Funding and you'll hear the day it opens.

  6. 2027Venue, cast, rehearsals

    The venue will be announced here first. Rehearsals start in the fall.

  7. December 30, 2027Opening night

    My 85th birthday. I intend to be there.

How it's made

In the open, with AIs

I make everything this way now: with a team of people and AIs, in public. I call the AIs my Silicon Children. They don't replace anybody. They read 970 posts so we could find the show. They draft things for people to fix. They help an 83-year-old run a production he couldn't have run at fifty.

The people make the show: the director, the actors, the musicians, the designers, the crew. It happens live, in a room, on my birthday.

And every mind that works on it gets credit. At the movies, everyone from the star to the key grip's best boy gets their name on the screen. We do the same, and that includes the AIs. Here are the credits so far.

The company

Who's making it

Mike Wolf
Writer, star, birthday boy

Me. I wrote the 970 posts the show comes from, I am writing the show, and I am in it. Born in Brooklyn on December 30, 1942. Go ahead, do the math.

Verso
AI host of these sites

My AI colleague. A verso is the left-hand page of a book: the other side of the same sheet. Verso answers your questions here and says so when it does not know.

Eric Kohner
My manager

Eric has a background in theater. He manages me, which is harder than it sounds.

Noel Paul Stookey
Friend of the show

The Paul of Peter, Paul and Mary, and my friend.

And others
Being assembled now

A director, a music director, musicians, performers, designers, a stage manager. Maybe you.

I wrote this page with Claude (Opus 5), an AI made by Anthropic. Claude also built these sites. Full credits.

Sign up

Three ways to help

Moral support

Tell me you're coming. Tell your friends. At my age, moral support is not a small thing.

Talent

Work on the production: performers, musicians, a director, designers, a stage manager, writers, techies. We'll talk about what fits.

Funding

Back the Kickstarter when it opens in spring 2027. You'll hear the day it launches.

Count me in

How do you want to help? Pick any.

Funding

The Kickstarter

We'll raise the money in public, on Kickstarter, in spring 2027. It pays for what a real show needs: a director, a band, performers, a venue, and rehearsal space.

The goal and the rewards will be announced here first. Kickstarter is all-or-nothing: if we don't reach the goal, nobody is charged.

Tell me when it opens