Sorkin will write the script of the musical with McAnuff, who will direct. McAnuff is the director of Jersey Boys, The Who's Tommy and Sorkin's play The Farnsworth Invention, which is currently running at the La Jolla Playhouse. Sorkin also created NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and wrote the play A Few Good Men and its film adaptation.

The Flaming Lips, formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, had its biggest U.S. hit with 1993's "She Don’t Use Jelly," which prompted the band's memorable appearance on TV's "Beverly Hills 90210."

The band's lead singer, Wayne Coyne, described the musical's story to the website EW.com as such: "This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive."