What happens when the Cuban Missile Crisis becomes a Broadway-style musical written with AI?  

That’s the question ad agency luminary Rich Silverstein (co-founder of Goodby Silverstein & Partners) asks in his newest artistic experiment, 13 Days: The Musical (Or The Most Dangerous Moment in Human History)—which opened October 16 at the Institute Of Contemporary Art (ICA) San Francisco on the 63rd anniversary of the crisis.  

The exhibition reimagines October 1962—and the thirteen harrowing days when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war—through the surreal lens of a Broadway musical in development. Eighty-nine large-scale floor images, narration, and four original songs created with GS&P Creative Director AJ Warren form the foundation for a future 35-song theatrical concept. The installation functions as both an art exhibit and a creative rehearsal, blurring the line between documentation, development, and performance. 

The work is equal parts satire and AI-powered creative lab and reimagines Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro as characters in a darkly comic musical. The project merges Suno (for music composition), OpenAI (for scene visualization), and Google’s Veo3 (for video animation) with archival black-and-white footage, juxtaposing historical fact with imagined narrative.  

“As crazy and absurd as all this seems, nothing was made up—proving once again that fact is stranger than fiction,” said Rich Silverstein. “13 Days is equal parts spectacle and rehearsal—about leadership, brinkmanship, and the thin line between survival and show business.”  

The show runs through November 16. Next stop, Broadway? TBD.