Too Much Coffee Man, The Opera

When I hear that a musical is "based on a comic," I flash back to a weekend theme-park production of Batman: The Musical and my 8-year-old self leaning over a sticky railing, sunburnt, miserable and wishing my little brother was taller so we could just ride the roller coasters. Unlike the opuses of my childhood based on pop-culture vigilantes and performed by middle-aged men dressed in spandex, Too Much Coffee Man, The Opera is about a satirical superhero who wears red long johns and can be found in Shannon Wheeler's nationally-syndicated comic strip "How to Be Happy" (look for an example in the back of any printed Alibi). This beloved recurring character has a head shaped like a giant coffee mug and is generally seen musing about the intricacies of life. The opera, co-written in 2006 by Wheeler and composer Daniel Steven Crafts and dubbed "the world's first comic-book-to-opera adaption," makes its Albuquerque debut this weekend at Kaseman Hall in St. John's Cathedral and will reappear Oct. 5 and 6. (Emily Aragon)