My ambition has always been to create bizarre concerts that also involve a narrative element in some way," says NYC actress/singer Cynthia Hopkins, writer/star of Accidental Nostalgia. In fact, she found herself telling lengthy stories between songs the first time her band, Gloria Deluxe, played a show.

Accidental Nostalgia — wherein Hopkins plays an neurologist lecturing on How to Change Your Mind: A Self-Help Manual for Psychogenic Amnesiacs — is heavier on words and action than your average concert, but the music is a key element. Hopkins will suddenly burst into song like she's in a Broadway musical. These are no mere interludes; she's belting out whole rock/country songs with lyrics that shed light on the themes of memory and identity, and the character's dark past and internal conflict.

The Gloria Deluxe band members, who've logged some 200 shows up and down the East Coast, sit at the ready on a side stage and accompany Hopkins on cue. Her two co-stars (also the show's technicians) reside on another side stage. Well, only when they're not in the middle setting up movie screens (for the background films by DJ Mendel) or performing synchronized dance numbers (choreographed by Jordana Toback).

Part II, actually a prequel, of the Accidental trilogy is in the works now. It's closer to the other side of the musical theater spectrum, says Hopkins: "The concert is interrupted by the lecture." Before the show starts its run at the Arden, Hopkins will take the stage at the Cabaret on Sept. 4 to win over all skeptics.

Accidental Nostalgia, Sept. 7-10, 9 p.m.; Sept. 11, 3 p.m.; $20, Haas Stage, Arden Theatre Company, 40 S. Second St., 90 min.