Amanda Palmer Goes Back to School

Photo: Amanda Palmer's road diary on Out

To say it's an extremely rare occasion that I'm jealous of individuals who currently attend high school is an understatement, but I really REALLY want to be in the Lexington (Mass.) High School drama club right now. Over the weekend they premiered "With the Needle that Sings in Her Heart" -- a surreal play they wrote about Anne Frank which was directed by the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer (Lexington High School Class of '94). Palmer "leads a six-piece band, and occasionally roams the stage in the silent role of, as she called it, 'the Mary Poppins death ringmaster,'" in the two-hour play, which even more amazingly, was inspired by (and features eight songs from) the seminal alt-rock band Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. (Palmer sings on "Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2.")

As the kids today say, OH. MY. GOD.

Also, there's a video.

--JESSANNE COLLINS

Previously > Franz Ferdinand brings down the house