Here’s a curious film featuring Olivia Newton-John in an unexpected role. “Toomorrow” is a science fiction musical film from 1970, hailing from Britain and directed by Val Guest. It revolves around a college band called Toomorrow, with Olivia, an aspiring pop vocalist, leading the way. The movie features Olivia Newton-John in a leading role. Val Guest attributed the conception of the film to Harry Saltzman (James Bond film producer), highlighting it as a pioneering endeavor in the realm of space-themed musicals, marking a unique milestone as the very first of its kind.
The film, which had a production span of approximately two years, had a very brief initial run, being exhibited at the London Pavilion, which was functioning as a cinema at the time, for only a single week before being relegated to storage. Except for sporadic presentations in British military cinemas for the armed forces during 1971 and early 1972 on military bases in the United Kingdom, along with a showing in a mobile cinema in Scotland, there was virtually no public screening of “Toomorrow” for a period spanning over four decades.
What Toomorrow is about: The band members of Toomorrow have modest aspirations, primarily yearning to be recognized for their musical talents. Little did they know that their dreams were about to take a cosmic twist. They found themselves in the spotlight, not by any terrestrial talent scouts, but by otherworldly visitors.
These extraterrestrial beings whisked Toomorrow away on a journey to the far reaches of the universe, where they were destined to spend an entire semester. It was during this interstellar sojourn that the band made a startling discovery. Their harmonious melodies contained a profound secret – one that held the key to saving the lives of their abductors’ dying race.
As the story unfolds, Olivia Newton-John and her bandmates must navigate an unfamiliar cosmos, all while grappling with the profound responsibility thrust upon them. Their music, once an avenue for self-expression and creativity, now becomes a powerful force that can either rejuvenate a distant civilization or condemn it to extinction. The fate of an entire species rests on their ability to harmonize and find a solution that transcends the boundaries of our world, connecting two disparate worlds through the universal language of music.
Fun Fact: The composer Richard Wess is responsible for the incidental music in “Toomorrow” also composed the opening theme song for “I Dream of Jeannie.”