Student Blog: What Musical Each Starship Food Delivery Robot Would Be

If you're a college student, you might know what a Starship food delivery robot is. If you don’t know what it is, picture this: you’re walking to a class or back to your dorm and suddenly you see this little white cube thing on wheels rolling around campus. That's what a Starship is, it's a tiny machine meant to serve you your meals basically anywhere at school. Check the company's website for more information, if you're so inclined: https://www.starship.xyz. Starship makes things pretty easy, if you’re hungry you can just download the Starship app on your phone to order a meal or snack from an on-campus dining location and have it delivered directly to you. More than several college campuses have the Starship bots and, at my school, they are a big hit. To put things into perspective, I’ve only been a college student for two months but I'm positive I've already used Starship more than ten times at least. Maybe I have an unhealthy obsession with the bots because they’re so convenient but, either way, I’m definitely not the only person who uses them.

One of the best qualities about these robots is that they can actually speak to you when they deliver your order, if you so choose. To explain, when you order the robot on the app you can choose from a selection of characters and each impacts the way in which the robot speaks to you when it delivers your order. Each selection is packed with different sayings according to their individual personalities that, in one way or another, basically say that they are here to deliver your order. My personal favorite character to order is Harry, the British bot, who remarks, in his British accent of course, that he is “delighted to bring you your order today!” On a side note, you can also order your robot to play music when it delivers your order. Right now, the app is offering Halloween songs like “Ghostbusters” in the spirit of the season. The four characters you can choose from on the app include:

• Classic Bot (“The original Starship robot we all love!”)
• Sunshine (“Radiating positivity wherever she goes.”)
• Asher (“The most laid-back bot on campus.”)
• Harry (“This posh British bot is at your service”)

So how does this relate to theater? Well, it honestly doesn’t. However, wouldn’t it be fun to find out which musical these bots would be if they were a Broadway musical in some parallel universe? I think so. I’ll start with Harry, since he’s my favorite. 

Harry

In my mind, Harry would absolutely be My Fair Lady. This comparison might be stereotypical because he is British but, specifically, I think the character arc of Eliza Doolittle resembles Harry quite well. Harry is “posh” like Eliza becomes during “The Rain in Spain'' but also has inner quirks to him, more like the Cockney version of Eliza. If he wasn’t quirky, how else could he be a food delivery robot? He is a hard worker, like Eliza when she is a flower seller, because he is there to deliver your food, rain or shine (most of the time), wheeling up and down huge hills with lots of determination. Lastly, when Harry delivers your meal, he addresses you with his extremely well-rehearsed manners and charms you which reminds me of the subject matter of My Fair Lady.

Classic Bot

Next, I’ll go with the Classic Bot. There are a couple of Broadway classics that could apply to this bot. Personally, I feel like this bot represents something that’s a fan-favorite, a show that is timeless and not too quirky. At first I considered Cats and Phantom of the Opera, classic representations of Broadway, but I thought these shows were a little too daring in their subject matters for the Classic Bot. Then, I realized that the Classic Bot is definitely Les Miserables. A timeless classic that most theatre kids have performed in at least once in their lives, the Classic Bot would be Les Mis because its storyline deals with “real” working class people. This bot works too hard delivering food everywhere to be compared to something fantastical like Cats or Phantom... Classic Bot understands the human struggle.

Asher

If you’ve ever “met” Asher the bot, you would know he is 1000% 21 Chump Street. For people who don’t know, 21 Chump Street is a one-act musical written by Lin Manuel Miranda. The spirit of the lead character Justin, an 18-year-old high school student who ultimately sells drugs to a girl (who is an undercover police officer but we’ll get into that another time) in an attempt to impress her, matches Asher’s energy well. Asher wheels around with a chill attitude and uses words like “lit” and “fam.” I think the rest is self-explanatory. He's simply a cool dude. 

Sunshine

Lastly, I have to give my girl Sunshine some love. Sunshine radiates positive hippie vibes so I think the musical Hair suits her. Simply from her look alone, with her sunglasses and cute blush, she would fit right in with the cast of Hair. No pun intended but from this outfit I know she would definitely “Let the Sunshine In.” Her energy would match the intense dancing and singing involved in Hair and I would love to see her maybe do costume design for this show.

Well, that’s all I got for you today! I hope this made you laugh and stay tuned for a new post next month!

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