Dan Is Dead
After a few years of playing rock and roll in broken down bars filled with drunks and sadness, the members of Orange and the Dead Ends are seconds away from fame and that's mostly due to their lead singer, Dan Orange. A late addition to the band, Orange is like a Keith Richards fever dream; an open wound of charisma, an uncontrollable party animal, a singer whose songs leave his fans drenched with sweat and love and sex. When the original members of the band found Dan Orange, they knew they found success...and then, with a smile and a wink, he drives his sport's car off a cliff and explodes like a douchebag. Damn. So, what's a band on the precipice of fame supposed to do? The idea comes from their new-ish manager, Samantha Epsten: find a Dan Orange lookalike, train him to act like their lead singer and go on as if nothing ever happened. After all, isn't that what the Beatles did with Paul? The three remaining band members -- Charlotte Sauvage, the slightly insane, Woodstock-loving bassist, Billy Calendar, all-in, make-it-or-break-it drummer and Dashiell Lowman, the overly-artistic guitarist and co-songwriter - aren't convinced. First of all, it seems impossible. Second of all, wouldn't it be much easier to give up and maybe go overdose somewhere? But then, as if by fate, Sam meets Peter Gary Sandlittle over her father's grave. The awkward gravedigger has never sang a note in his life, has crippling stage fright and absolutely no charisma. But he does have one positive characteristic: from his face, to his (sadly American-accented) voice, Peter is a dead ringer for Dan Orange. Almost as quickly as they lost him, Orange and the Dead Ends have their lead singer back. Sort of. First of all, an impending performance (the biggest of the band's life) is looming and Peter is not nearly ready. Secondly, Peter needs to not only learn to sing, but also to act like the charming, womanizing Orange - no easy task for a man who is terrified of both women and speaking. Finally, Pepper Leeds -- a reporter for Rock Attik magazine and Dan's periodic lover -- suspects something is amiss and won't stop until she figures out what that something is. But with the plans underway, there's very little that Orange and the Dead Ends can do but survive and do what they do best: rock and roll with the punches.
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