NASA stage show explores “outer” outer space with Henson’s Fraggles

Move over Snoopy, because NASA has a new character helping to promote its deep space exploration plans. His name is Uncle Traveling Matt. No really, move over. Fraggle Rock: A Space-y Adventure has taken over the same theater the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida previously used for “All Systems Are Go,” featuring the comic strip beagle. The new stage show stars the Jim Henson Company’s subterranean Muppets as they discover outer (outer) space for the first time. “I went back through the canon of the original [1983 HBO] series and then our reboot [Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock for Apple TV] and I was like, ‘Wait, Uncle Matt never really questioned what’s beyond, because he thinks he’s done it all.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve explored outer space’—that’s what the Fraggles call our world, right? So he’s like, ‘I’ve done it,’” said John Tartaglia, the show’s director, writer and choreographer, as well as creative supervisor for Fraggle Rock at the Henson Company, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “So for him to have his mind blown that there’s something even beyond that, I thought that was such a fun way to push that character’s journey forward,” said Tartaglia. John Tartaglia, at right, wrote, directed, and choreographed Fraggle Rock: A Space-y Adventure for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Tartaglia is also the creative supervisor for Fraggle Rock at the Henson Company. Credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex To differentiate between the Fraggles’ use of “outer space”—the land where the “silly creatures,” aka, us humans live—and our “outer space,” the show refers to the latter as “outer outer space.” (It is not yet clear if that concept will live on beyond the NASA show. “I think it could be,” Tartaglia said. “We haven’t explored that yet.” No pun intended.) A funny thing happened… As Fraggle Rock: A Space-y Adventure opens, Gobo, Red, and their friends are still at home, and us “silly creatures” are at Kennedy Space Center. The trick, said Tartaglia, was finding ways to bridge that gap while staying true to both realities.