#I love both versions the way i like the broadway and non broadway versions of hadestown

[burquillos]

Been sick the past few days and have been watching trigun (both versions of the anime) and hoooooo boy!! It's so fun!!

[saphic-with-t]

For senior year I think the bad kids would be insanely over powered (high level dnd is nutty) so here are some fun ideas to spice up encounters in a zany sit-com sort of way. This is a long post btw.

1. Physical regression fight

The bad kids are reverted to their freshman bodies and have to fight as their original level one forms.

I’d imagine it as a Last Standard Exam style onslaught. They start as their level one characters and after each semi-quick wave they regrow a little bit, regaining a few levels, until they finally re-reach their present body. Also funny if they have to go through their bodies most awkward puberty stages again.

2. Freaky Friday

The bad kids all swap bodies. All of the players swap character sheets and have to play their character but using the stats/classes entirely of another character. Extra fun if they can’t meta-game by reminding each other of certain abilities or actions they can do irl, as to hammer in how inproficient they are at being one another.

3. Dance Fight

Similar to the Broadway fight from unsleeping city. All the bad kids have to fight in the middle of some major performance/dance act. Maybe it happens during some sort of audition or performance Fabian is doing.

They all have to navigate doing very high level performance and acrobatic checks which means balance actions and recourses have to be spent on both making sure everyone is good at performing and also on fighting well.

4. Doppelgängers

The bad kids fight themselves. Exact same levels, exact same stats.

Extra points if they don’t know which ones are the real ones, so half of the players are fighting with npc versions of the other half and vice versa. This means they have to also figure out which ones are the fakes mid-fight and some of them were actually playing as their own doppelgänger, semi-similar to the Baron fight in junior year. This also means Brennan would be playing as some doppelgängers but also as some of the actual real characters since those players are unknowingly the doppelgängers.

5. Shipping wars

Some ultra-powerful weirdo god-monster is running a spicy dating game and has kidnapped the bad kids. It is super over the top and annoying and is trying to convince/make the bad kids date eachother and fight eachother as couples. The fight is about tricking the freaky god-monster into thinking they actually have fallen for their assigned partner while pretending to fight the other pairs, with the eventual goal of killing it.

Can’t think of any pairing combo that this wouldn’t be funny with. Adaine and Riz would be bad at acting no matter what, Fig and Fabian would be way to convincing, and Gorgug and Kristen would be super awkward with their partner and also not fully know if Fig and Fabian were actually being serious about their respective partner.

6. Babysitter

Fabian has to spend the entire fight protecting/dealing with new baby sibling. Can hand them off to friends if need be. This includes dealing with a child who has 1 hit point in a high level battle, but also doing stuff like making sure they stay asleep (somehow) or changing a dirty diaper.

7. Freaky Friday 2: Parental Controls

All swapped to their parent’s bodies. Adaine becomes Jawbone, Fig becomes Sandra Lynn, Gorgug becomes one of the thistlesprings, Riz becomes Sklonda, Kristen becomes Lydia Barkrock (her secret mother figure), and Fabian becomes Hallaarial (or funnier option, Gilear).

This is funny to me because whatever spell or curse did this considers adoptive/non-genetic parental figures over biological/legal Gaurdians. Also this is extra funny if they have to team up with their parent who has swapped with them. So Adaine has to deal with Jawbone being in her body, Fig with Sandra Lyn being in hers, Gorgug with one of the thistlesprings, etc.

Also funny if other npcs show up (Ayda became Arthur Aguefort, Bucky Applebees as either Mac or Donna, etc).

Would love to see all of these honestly, would love to hear other dumb silly fighting bits y’all would want to see.

[dinahdoeeyes]

My ideal production of Starlight Express.

I suppose I'll just get right into it. First the list of characters, then the songs (excluding little bits/non-songs like Taunting Rusty and the races), then the rest.

Cast:

Rusty

Pearl

Greaseball

Dinah

Electra

CB

Ashley

Buffy

Poppa

Belle, the Sleeping Car (called Memphis Belle)

Dustin

Flat-Top

The Rockies

Volta, Joule, Wrench, Purse, and Krupp

The original National Engines

Duvay and the Sleepers

Control

Setlist (* = will be addressed below):

Entry Of National Trains

Rolling Stock

Call Me Rusty

A Lotta Locomotion ('83 Workship version, but with Buffy added)

He Whistled At Me (Minus the Rusty/Pearl conversation)

*Dinah/Greaseball duet

Freight (With the girls bullying the boys)

AC/DC

Pumping Iron ("Trying to build my body, trying to lose my mind" and "Stretching my bullworker, heaving on my weights" switch spots because I just feel that it'd sound better that way.)

Sleepers moment

*Dinah solo

Hitching and Switching (probably original)

Crazy

*That was Unfair (extended)

That's Me/There's Me (duet)

Poppa's Blues

Belle's Song (Combo of OG & Broadway — especially "sniffing the coke")

Starlight Express

The Rap: Hey You

*Make Up My Heart

Pearl Twirl

U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.

Girls' Rolling Stock

Wide Smile (Mostly the Broadway version, except he says the OG "...C.B." in the chorus instead of Broadway's "...the Red Caboose," until the ending after Electra & co leave.)

I Was Robbed

Right Place, Right Time

I Am The Starlight

Rusty and Dustin

*Dinah's Disco (extended)

No Comeback

One Rock & Roll Too Many

I Do and/or Only You (I really want "I Do," and it feels redundant to do both in a row, but I feel like "Only You" is important?)

*GreaseDinah reunion (extended)

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Starlight Express Megamix (of course)

Notes:

We are leaning hard into the 80's here! None of that trying to modernize StEx they've been doing since the 90's. It doesn't work, and the hyper-80's...ness is one of the best things about StEx!

This is about 60% the 1984 original, so keep that in mind.

Dinah & Greaseball look most like the original Dinah and Greaseball. (Though Dinah's hair looks like this. I'll get to her costumes below.) Greaseball looks completely like Jeff Shankley's GB.

Most of the costumes look like the Broadway versions.

However, Pearl gets 3 costumes; her pants outfit from the '84 previews (but with white pants), followed by her sleek Broadway dress outfit (w/ Electra), and then the fluffy dress outfit (w/ GB).

Dinah has 2 costumes; the first one being more Broadway (but I dislike the leggings, so different ones), and then, when she pairs with Electra, she changes to and outfit that is similar to her OG outfit.

C.B.'s look is very similar to the original, except his pants are black, and he has his later hat.

I want some of the choreography from the '83 workshop. ( x x x x )

Dinah & Greaseball banter a bit because "Incapable of feeding yourself, Greaseball?" Ohhh *chef's kiss* 2017 London Workshop did something right!

*Dinah & Greaseball get a couple's duet. It's a fun, cute, rock/80's pop mix song that touches on their love for each other and how they don't care about others' bullshit. ("Our Lips Are Sealed" kind of vibes, I suppose.)

Ashley and Duvay are sisters.

Greaseball pulls the girls during "Freight," like he originally did.

*Dinah gets a solo after "Pumping Iron" after the Sleepers talk their bullshit. It'd be about 3½ minutes long. If you've read my Dinah rants, you can get an idea of what it's about.

Greaseball, Bobo, and Espresso are part of the choreography during "Crazy" toward the end, racing around with Dinah, Ashley, and Buffy. (I promise this is FIRE in my head. Have faith. 🥺)

*Grease & Dinah have a longer argument before their breakup.

Dinah and C.B. have a duet. It's the Broadway version of There's Me combined with That's Me. (Dinah singing her solo part first.)

*Pearl sings "Make Up My Heart" about Rusty, Electra, and Greaseball. (Explanation here.)

*"U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D." is slower, sadder, and has more lyrics, like it was in the '83 workshop.

Buffy & Ashley are finally canon. It's Complicated™️, but they get it together by the end.

*"Dinah's Disco" is a bit longer, as is *Dinah & Greaseball's reunion/makeup.

Pearl is absolutely like original Pearl in this: A selfish bitch (who learns and gets better by the end); she is not "naive." ("Further from my vision" over "Sadder but no wiser.")

We actually acknowledge that Pearl is an asshole. But, like Greaseball, she learns and is working on herself by the end! 🙌🏽

Pearl apologizes to Dinah at the end. FINALLY. (During a break in LATEOTT.)

Control loves the trains/coaches/freight, and they love him. He's just a bossy little kid, but they're also actin' up. (I'm open to Control being a girl.)

Electra and the Components do come back.

I... think that's it. I hope didn't forget anything.

CHOO CHOO! 💋

[spaceasianmillennial]

SUFFS Notes: So I've seen both the off-Broadway and Broadway version

2 years earlier, I experienced the Public version of Suffs (before Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai got producer credits). I even own two press scripts.

The Broadway Suffs opening is "Let Mother Vote" and oh I did fell in love with this opening because of how well it established the Carrie's conservative formation and showed us just how seductive it can be. I also kinda miss the older version that opened with woman and non-binary performers dressed as anti-suffrage men making all these awful anti-suffs slogans. By dressing up as the patriachy, these women and non-binary actors really own the story. The Broadway version has less emphasis on ensemble anti-suffs.

Anyone who has seen the Broadway version know that President Woodrow Wilson (Grace McLean) can't stop singing about "Ladies" and their proper domestic place. Now the off-Broadway run has an comedic ironic payoff to this. President Wilson suddenly gets a chest pain, a stroke, and it is a silly moment (I remember the entire theatre laughing hard). We see a few blackouts of him suffering, and SUDDENLY COSTUME CHANGE, Grace McLean is standing there in a black dress, now playing First Lady Edith Wilson, who took up "Stewardship" when her husband was disabled by his stroke. So Edith starts signing some of his paperwork, ("tariff reform, YOUR FAVORITE") and she runs into a paper that says, "Support for Ratification of the Suffrage Amendment." The stage direction indicates she might be on the "verge of epiphany," and she wonders if she should support it, but then she's like "Absolutely NO!" and rips it. It's a funny way of indicating that just because a First Lady has a Presidential role, that doesn't mean she has empathy for women's rights.

I can see why they cut from the Public, but I do miss the silly transformation sequence of President Wilson‘s stroke and Edith Wilson’s stewardship. (Just cause a First Lady got handed power, doesn’t mean she’s gonna save you.)

One striking change is more conspicuous racial stratification in the cast whereas Aisha de Haas, a Black actor, played the white socialite/Tennessee mother at the Public. Light-skinned BIPOC play white characters, and the Broadway script/direction nods a little more when a dark-skinned BIPOC is in a white role.

For example, in the Broadway version, a Black Tsilala Brock plays the white Irish Dudley and President Wilson utters the lines, "honest for an Irishman!" to bring deliberate attention to the race-bent casting.

Also, the Filipino actress Jaygee Macapugay plays the white Mollie Hay. When Wilson says, "The south will never let ladies vote, let alone colored ladies, thank God," he condescendingly takes Mollie Hay by the waist and Jaygee scrunches this deliberately astonished expression at "colored ladies."

The Broadway version cuts out verses of an anonymous Chinese American suffrage who brought her baby to a march. So I went to the Broadway SUFFS with a Black woman seatmate (who never caught the older version) and she felt the musical didn't directly address other suffrage ethnicities outside of white women and Black women. Yes, there is a diversity of BIPOC people playing white suffrages in both versions (and other backgrounders of color are somewhat suggestive of unnamed suffrages of color who did exist), but now there's no longer a direct acknowledgment of Asian suffrages.

The Broadway did some good work to add a sequence of Inez Milholland (Hannah Cruz) working herself to the bone and exhausting herself across states, with a succession of banners signaling another location, leading to her tragic death. It hits way harder than the off-Broadway version (where Phillipa Soo played Inez).

The Broadway version of Suffs tightened some of the numbers. For example, "When We Are Married/If We Are Married" were separate private moments. The Broadway version combined them and juxtaposition the kisses between the heterosexual Dudley and Doris Stevens ("When We Are Married") with the clandestine lesbian Mollie Hay and Carrie Chapman Catt ("IF We Were Married").

Mollie and Carrie did not kiss in the older iteration. So the script goes from Mollie and Carrie "They want to kiss, but there are people around" to "both couples kiss." A moment where Mollie tells Carrie, "Carrie, it's getting late. Come upstairs" (a major hint of their relationship) was also not in the off-Broadway version.

[tvb0y]

It's No secret i'm a theater kid, I'm a annoying, weird, queer theater kid. And as a theater kid, I love to sing every musical song in my tiny little bean brain. And in honor of my end-of-the-year theater showcase tonight, I give you; The Rise Boys Musical Headcannons! ( Because in my world they are all theater nerds )

Gay Kid ( Leo )

Ride The Cyclone: There is no way My guy has NOT Listened or watched this Musical ( If you haven't; Go watch it on youtube. ) He Is A Noel kinnie ( Probably? Idk. ) And His Favorite Songs are Noel's Lament and What The World Needs ( To Which He has choreographed both.)

Mean Girls: Not only does he LOVE The Og Mean Girls; He Loves The Musical As Well. He Jams to the whole playlist at 2:AM. His Favorite songs are Sexy, Revenge Party, And Stupid With Love. And He always blasts Stupid With Love Whenever he gets a little gay crush on a guy he saw for 5 seconds.

Dear Evan Hansen: The Musical My guy listens to whenever he gets depressed :( . His Favorite Songs Are obviously Sincerely, Me. And Waving Through A Window.

A.U.T.I.S.M. ( Donnie. )

Hamilton: The Ultimate Nerd Musical, For The Ultimate Nerd. This Guy Has Been singing this soundtrack 'Non-Stop' ( Get It? ) Ever Since it went on Broadway. Favorite song's are pretty basic though. ( Non-Stop And Satisfied.) But Still Good.

Beetlejuice: HFIJBNHJJNJKFJN BEST MUSICAL EVER!!- Anyways, This Is the Ultimate Musical For Me And Donnie. He Is a Beetlejuice Kinnie. Favorite songs are Say My Name And That Beautiful Sound.

Heathers: I'm Saying it right here; Donnie Is a JD Stan. Favorite Songs are Freeze Your Brain and Lifeboat.

Teddy Bear. ( Raph. )

Anastasia: He Loves The Book, The Movie, And the Musical. Favorite song is Paris Holds the Key ( To Your Heart.) He Be Working Out To this Shit.

The Greatest Showman ( Yes It's A Musical ): I Used to LOVE This Movie, Raph Secretly watches this movie every night before he goes to bed. Favorite Songs are Obviously A Million Dreams and The Other Side.

DR FEELINGS!! ( Mikey )

Six: Katherine Howard Stan!!! This Is How Donnie got him to learn history Lol. Favorite Song Is All You Wanna Do

Percy Jackson Musical: He Loves The Books, And The Series, So Of course He loves the Musical! D.O.A And The Campfire Song are his top picks <3

Matilda: I actually watched a off-broadway Version Of This- Again, He Read the book so He likes The Musical. He says all the songs are his favorite.

That's all I got Lol, Sorry That It looks Rushed, It Is. I didn't have enough time to go into depth for all of them, enjoy!

[lucygold95]

POTO Busan review (centered on actors).

(*I wrote longer reviews in Korean on another SNS before. **It's a long review with bad English grammar, so if you're busy, I recommend you to read only keywords.)

0. I saw POTO Busan performances for the first time on April 30(Both matinée and evening performances). I had saw POTO World tour and London (+ JOJ concert in Korea😄) before and (as you all know) the POTO Korea set was the original version, not the world tour version or the London reopening version. The costumes were similar to the recent London costumes, but have more beads except Star Princess costume. The directing and choreography(except Masquerade) were Broadway versions before COVID.

I finished brief introduction, so I'll talk about actors now. (I know that POTO Korea video bootlegs exist, but most of them were recorded in very early days including previews. And some actors(particularly 조승우 and 송은혜) were sick at the beginning of the Busan run. So later performances were much better than those videos.)

1. Raoul actors

송원근's Raoul is gentle, romantic and mentally mature(He looks younger than his age, but he is actually 40). His Raoul resembles Steve Barton's Raoul in many ways. I think he's one of the standard ALW Raouls. (If you like the original London cast, I recommend 손지수 Christine and 송원근 Raoul pair.) His gentle voice, good romance acting and nice dance skills are his strengths.(He is now a famous musical actor, but long ago he was an unfamous idol/dance singer. He has also been a drama actor since 2013.) + Personally, his stifling acting at The Final Lair was very impressive.

황건하 has a very unique voice for Raoul. He has a very heavy tone. His deep voice color reminds me of Bengt Nordfors's Raoul. However, his Raoul is not as mature as Nordfors's. His Raoul is young(황건하 is 25 years old, so I think that's the reason.) and and full of enthusiasm like the Leroux Raoul. But his Raoul isn't fragile like the Leroux Raoul. His Raoul is weaker than Ramin and Hadley's, but it has a similar sense of mettle.

Doesn't 황건하's impression resemble that of Hadley and Ramin? +I think 황건하's strength is his nice singing skills.

2. Christine actresses

To be honest, Korean audiences gave 송은혜 a better rating than 손지수 on the reservation site during Busan run. On the contrary, I've seen many non-Korean old phans tend to prefer 손지수. If you want to know why, go to 2-4). (* I love both of them similarly.)

2-1) Voice color: Both Christines have quite different voice colors. 💙송은혜 Christine has a clear and very light voice color. Her voice is transparent and light like a shiny glass bead. Her voice color resembles previous Korean ALW Christines (Especially 김소현 Christine) voice colors.(+ Emmy Rossum's voice color a little bit too.) 🤍손지수 Christine has a light(but less lighter than 송은혜's voice), warm and very soft(<-->clear) voice. I think her voice color is very unique! Her voice reminds me of soft and warm angel wings.

2-2) Singing style: 💙송은혜 sang POTO numbers more like musical singing style than opera " .(She majored in opera, but worked as a popera singer/an ensemble in the musical Elisabeth.) I think her singing style resembles previous Korean Christines (Especially, 최현주 Christine's POTO Korea 1st revival run. *최현주's stage name in Japan was 'Sai Tamami'.) and Sierra Boggess (Particularly WYSHA) a lot. 송은혜 has a girlish voice and face(I think both Christines look younger than their age. 송은혜 is 30 years old and 손지수 is 33 years old.), but she is an independent and modern Christine 'compared to the other Christine'. But her voice is light and less powerful than Sierra's, so sometimes I think her singing resembles Amy Manford too(But less operatic way).

🤍손지수 sang POTO numbers in an operatic way. (She is an opera singer.) And her calm and classical singing style is very reminiscent of Sarah Brightman's singing style. (+ Rebecca Caine's West End run.) But warmer and softer than them(I think Caine and Brightman has cooler voice and more vivid voice).

I prefer 🤍손지수's WYSHA🤍 more than 송은혜's and I prefer 💙송은혜's TOM and POTO(I like her cadenza & high notes)💙 more than 손지수's. Personally, 손지수's WYSHA is one of the top five WYSHWs I've heard.

2-3) Character interpretation: 💙As I said above, 송은혜 Christine was an independent and modern Christine 'compared to the other Christine'. Also, her interpretation influenced a lot by 최현주(최현주's Korea run. But I think 송은혜's voice color and face resemble 김소현's.) and Sierra's. But I think her Christine is less stronger than Sierra's. + 송은혜 Christine's love for Phantom is more Erosive 'compared to the other Christine'. ++ I like 송은혜's Serafimo.

🤍In every way, 손지수's Christine evoked the nostalgia of Christines in the 80s and 90s. (Her special voice color that distinguishes it from others, operatic singing style and Leroux-like Christine interpretation.) She was a very soft and warm Christine. She respected and relied on Phantom, her teacher and guardian. And her love for the Phantom was close to the Virgin Mary's agape love for humanity. I really love her classical Christine interpretation!

2-4) Points to be improved: I really love 손지수's classical Christine, but she need to develop her dialogue acting and body acting. She is a native Korean and speaks Korean naturally in her daily life, but on stage, she spoke lines as if she were reading a textbook. She spoke strictly and exaggerated at the same time. I know POTO is a sung-through musical but her Little Lotte dialogue acting was not good. But if you are not a native Korean speaker, it will be hard to notice. (+ Interestingly, her songs contained a variety of emotions and her pronunciation was not strange when she sings.) I think this is why she is preferred by non-Korean phans over Korean audiences. If you want to know her strengths, read the keywords from 1-1) to 1-3).

송은혜's lines and body acting were okay, but often 손지수's facial expressions were better than her. (The interesting thing is that 송은혜 said she has been a phan for more than a decade, but the other Christine – who wasn't a phan – is preferred to her by a global phandom👀(I think it's because 송은혜 is a fan of Sierra and old phans tend to prefer classic POTO over 25th anniversary.)) And neither of them can do ballet professionally.

3. Phantom actors (* I didn't see 조승우

Phantom's performance in a good seat, and his condition was not good at that day, so I'll exclude him from this Busan review.)

전동석's Phantom was a romantic and soft phantom like Kopit's Phantom(* He played Kopit Phantom. But still, his ALW Phantom was stronger than his kopit Phantom). His Phantom seemed to have loved Christine for a long time. Not every performance, but he would often greet Christine (as if he were worshiping her) during the POTO number like the picture below.

And he carefully stroked her face when she fell asleep during The Music of the Night. His phantom reminds me of Earl Carpenter's phantom, who was also a soft phantom and liked to stroke Christine's hair.

* 전동석 sang POTO numbers by mixing musical and opera singing styles.(Although he majored in opera, he has worked as a musical actor for a long time, not an opera singer.) And he sang high notes well.

On the contrary, 김주택's Phantom was a very strict teacher and musician who wants to strongly control his student – Christine who will show his music to the world – 'at first'. He looked domineering and sometimes very dangerous villain. During STYDI, 전동석's Phantom seemed so sad and he couldn't hurt Christine, but 김주택's Phantom was very angry and seemed to strangle(but not kill) Christine if she was caught. But he got shocked and recognized his love to Christine when Christine handed over his mask during STYDI. After that 김주택 Phantom changed a lot. Even his voice changed a lot.

* At first, 김주택 Phantom's voice sounded very heavy and Phantom is in his mid-40s to early 50s, but after STYDI, his voice changed softly and Phantom is in his mid or late-30s except some scenes. (* 전동석 Phantom's voice sounded like he is in his mid-30s. And his voice color was lighter than 김주택's.) Also, 김주택 sang the numbers very operaically(It's natural that he is an opera singer(Baritone). *POTO is his musical debut).

I expected he still had a very scary side during AIAOY reprise 1, but I was surprised that he cried really a lot during AIAOY reprise 1. He broke my predictions several times and gave me fresh shocks as if I had never seen the Phantom of the Opera.

From here, I'm going to compare the two phantom actors. During PONR, 전동석's phantom was very sexy and I am sure his 'Don Juan Triumphant' must be loved by the audience. I saw the performance from the perspective of the Paris Opera audience who enjoyed the show. On the contrary, 김주택 Phantom's 'Don Juan Triumphant' seemed very dangerous. I felt a dangerous criminal go crazy and snuck in. I saw the performance from the perspective of the Paris Opera staff who were nervously watching the performance. And I love 김주택's AIAOY reprise 2.

At the final lair, 전동석 Phantom tended to recite that Christine was the only light to him after she left. I think his experience of Kopit Phantom was melted here. I like the way he emphasized Phantom's love to Christine. From beginning to end, the most important thing to him was Christine. Even during the 'Why So Silent', he thought that 'you' were Christine, not André and Firmin. Anyway, he let Christine go and cried, but he also smiled (like Ethan Freeman's Phantom) because his soul was saved by her kiss. 김주택 Phantom's final lair was scary and nervous. But Christine, especially soft and angelic 손지수 Christine, melted that dramatically with a warm heart and kisses. I think 김주택 Phantom and 손지수 Christine are a really good match for each other. They have similar singing styles(They are both opera singers and studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano.) and the height difference between 김주택(178cm) and 손지수(early 160s) is also appropriate. (*송은혜 is taller than 170cm and she wears Christine's heels on stage, so she has better chemistry with tall phantoms. **The phantom in the image below is 전동석, who is 186cm tall.)

Let's get back to the point. I think 손지수's interpretation of Christine goes well with all Korean Phantoms. But I think 손지수's soft and warm Christine goes best with 김주택's strict and scary phantom. It reminds me of a fairy tale that the goddess of spring softly melts the god of cold winter. + 김주택's Phantom also smiled (like Ethan Freeman's Phantom) at the end.

4. Carlottas, Piangi, Meg and André.

Both Carlotta actresses are young and are not much older than Christine actresses. For example, 한보라 – one of the Carlotta actresses, was born in 1988, and 손지수 – one of the Christine actresses, was born in 1989. So that reminded me of the relationship between Patti sisters(Adelina Patti/Carlotta Patti) and Christine Nilsson(*Both Adelina and Christine were born in 1843). 한보라, in particular, has a light tone like Adelina. (The other Carlotta – 이지영 has a calm voice.)

박회림 Piangi was really good at both singing and acting. The long extension of Hannibal high note at the end of the Busan run was very surprising.

조하린, who played Meg, has a sweet and girlish voice :) I like her Meg, though she sometimes struggled with the high notes. Her dance was great too.

Finally, I admired 윤영석's André. His André really loves music and art. It was really impressive that his eyes were shining when he saw arts. His André was as good as his Phantom in both singing and acting.

[rascalentertainments]

Which disney or non disney character is Asha based on?

2. How does the wishing system work in Rosas?

3. How did you come up with the name "Wish Granted"?

4. What is your tagline for the rewrite?

5. Will there be any animation references included?

6. For "Im a Star" (aka the monstrosity of a song) which changes will you make?

7. Will there be an ending where Magnifico turns into a monster and Asha defeats him?

All right, here we go!! 😁

WG!Asha is based on a mix of Tiana, Meg in terms of personality, and goals!

2. Magnifico can still take the wishes when someone is 18 or over, but that's only because he knows it would be suspicious to ask kids. 😅 However, he can actually take them with, or without permission. He only says that so they can trust him. Think of it as an equivalent exchange. They get a happy and cozy life in exchange for unknowingly giving up their dreams for doing more.

Also, the longer someone goes without a wish, they sicker they get. It starts with drowsiness and lack of energy. As years pass, they start to lose the drive to accomplish anything, and if they make to elderly age, the body starts to get weaker because the wish comes from a person's soul/life force. Losing their dream is like losing their life.

3. I actually saw it on a comment underneath a Wish animatic! They suggested if either the original storyboard released or a fan made film was made like it, it should be called "Wish Granted" to separate both versions. I loved the idea of that, so I wanted to use it like I'm giving the version of Wish we wanted!

4. The tagline is "What if...the star answered you?"

5. The story its like the traditional 2D way, but for extra so far I've used Watercolor. But I plan on having 3D, squash and stretch style for Star in certain places, flipbook, sand, and a little bit of anime.

6. I had to change 98% of the lyrics because it explains nothing. So the song is now Star explaining how he came down and convincing Asha he's truly a star, since she thinks she's dreaming. And its a mixture of Broadway dances with pop music! Old meets New music to me!

7. OH HELL YEAH!! I loved the Monster Magnifico idea, especially since that's a perfect throwback to classic villains! Plus she has to help Star because he's beginning to lose energy from both battling Magnifico and using his magic to free the wishes.

Thanks so much, @chillwildwave! That was fun! I'll answer your next ask soon! 😉👍

[chthonic-cassandra]

Recent books, non-fiction -

Samuel Delany, Of Solids and Surds - A compact little book of brief vignettes on the question "why do you write?" This wasn't particularly substantial, but I will read absolutely anything by Delany, and it was sweet and fun. Not a place to start with his non-fiction, but I would recommend it for fellow fans of his work.

Jessi Hempel, The Family Outing - Memoir of Hempel's journey to come out as lesbian alongside the rest of her immediate family also coming out with previously undisclosed pieces of their sexuality orientation, gender identity, or trauma histories. While the premise here might bring Fun Home to mind, this has nothing like that earlier book's wit, sharp gaze, and capacity to hold complexity. I found Hempel's book insipid, flat, and as blandly inoffensive as a self-promotional social media post. Nothing here felt vulnerable, or specific, or complex. Not recommended.

Ethan Mordden, Gays on Broadway - as a teenager I loved Modden's gossipy, encyclopedic series of musical theater history books by decade, so I was excited to see that he'd written this history of queer representation in NYC theater. This was filled with Mordden's typically delightful anecdotes, but it lacked a strong organizing thesis, and its focus frequently felt skewed in random ways (I know Mame is a gay icon, but how many pages do we need on both the play and musical versions of her story?). Only recommended for Mordden completionists, not a great way to learn about the topic.

Vivian Conan, Losing the Atmosphere - DID recovery memoir. Conan talks about having written this book over a period of decades, and you can tell - it's meticulously detailed, sometimes to the point of laboriousness (and she says she cut it down by several hundred pages!), but I did appreciate the rigor in the way she documented her journey; she's a particularly strong narrator of her different therapeutic relationships, and the book is an excellent account of what those arcs can look like. This book gave me a lot to think about, particularly around the intense attachment-focused work she did in her final, and what she considers to be her most successful, therapeutic engagement. While there was violence in Conan's childhood, the main sites of trauma she identifies were less about those experiences and much more around very early neglect and relational misattunement; this means that, though her final therapist seems to use some similar modalities to the ones I've been trained in, their work together and the way she engages with her own dissociation looks different in a couple of significant ways from what I do either for myself or with my clients as a therapist; I need to sit with some of my reactions to parts of that.

W. Scott Poole, Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire - horror criticism. I found this extremely uninspired; a lot of critics have made many of these same points more cogently and interestingly.

[in-newjersey]

So here are my thoughts on my first time seeing a live BMC production!

Making this non-rebloggable, I am not a real theater critic and I do not want to draw any attention to this actual cast on an anonymous blog to strangers on the internet

For starters, casting!

I respect the variety going on here and the degree of diverging from famous character appearance-tropes. Tiny Latino Jeremy who's as fit as a gymnast and can (and does) do acrobatic spin kicks sometimes? Love it. Plus-size butch-esque Brooke? 10/10. Genderfuckery long-haired Michael who gesticulates with a huge fan through most conversations? Hell yeah. Pink-haired Nirvana-grunge-style trans guy Jake? Now we're talking. Christine a head taller than Jeremy? Awesome.

I will not get too into describing actual real people on here much more than that but in general it was wonderful to see a wide range of character-actor types inhabiting these roles. As someone involved in The Fandom, even though I have frequently expounded upon the mutability of character traits per the text, you do still absorb a general idea of what the characters "look" like; so it was a fun twist to have literally none of the performers fall into those tropes.

I will also say - and this is not a read - that I am no longer going to assume I'm too old to play any of these characters, because I guess that's the magic of community theater lol

On to Thoughts, which I will loosely group by characters:

Rich was fucking awesome. Like I was impressed by the singing skill across the board, but this guy fucking killed it at every turn. I looked at my friend I went with after The Squip Song and we both were like OH OK. Rich also wore mostly KISS T-shirts? Like the shitty glam rock band? But yknow, work. Excellent voice (if casting were a little more 'stereotypical,' he probably would be an excellent Michael). Emotionally, he was on the more explosive side while SQUIPped, melting toward just charmingly cute once in 'real Rich Goranski' mode.

The aforementioned Jake was an interesting take on the character. Definitely leaned more into the kind of douchey side of things, but did at least at one point seem genuinely into Christine (although the actor was very much leaning into the interpretation 'yeah he has multiple interests and he honestly likes them all in the moment but gets bored quickly, and that includes girlfriends'). Is that kind of shitty? Yes. Is that a realistic take on what a rich popular 17 year old might be like? Also yes. Nirvana-fan Jake was not a concept I thought of before but I was down for it (though I discovered later on the cast instagram page that the guy playing Jake said that his version of Jake thinks Nirvana is a clothing brand which, like, galaxy-brain take lol).

THE SQUIP!!!!! Actually cycled through Keanu Reeves costumes, which I loved. Started out in Bill & Ted, then Matrix, then POINT BREAK of all things, before landing on a pretty-impressive-for-the-budget version of the light-up circuitry priest robe thing from the Broadway style. He had the hair and beard pretty close to present-day Keanu too, which made him both line up with the resemblance and seem significantly older than the other characters; voice-wise, this guy was clearly a skilled baritone, which meant his delivery on some of the more rock-style songs was a bit unusual, but not bad. This SQUIP was suave at the right parts but did NOT shy away from being scary: the 'take me inside you' part with Brooke during Upgrade was staged very menacingly with regards to how he was physically moving around/behind Jeremy. The Play was delightfully sinister, leaning HARD into the SQUIP as literally puppeteering everyone: saying their lines and moving his hands like marionnettes throughout, keeping things very creepy and villainous.

On the topic of the play, the fight choreography kicked ass. Mr. Reyes's ALL THE WAY TO BROADWAY rant was delivered while he yanked Jeremy off the ground by his shirtfront and then threw him furiously across the stage, genuinely concerning and upsetting to watch (especially as the SQUIP was miming the same actions and lines behind him, obviously in control of Reyes's body) (I literally said 'oh fuck' out loud when it happened and got a Look from the presumably-grandma in the row ahead lol). The fight choreography during Two Player Game Reprise was also solid: the guy playing Jeremy was FIT and did a lot of impressive acrobatic kicks and such, and the person playing Michael being a lot taller and larger worked well with letting him like bounce off, lift him up for spin kicks, etc.

And in general, I respected how much this production was willing to let certain moments be dark. The Play in general was pretty horror-movie-climax; I also respected that the costuming did indeed look like so-so high school mockups of a modern zombie movie. But the whole number was eerie, SQUIPPED character movements and voices became unnervingly smooth and robotic, and positioning the SQUIP as the puppetmaster in the middle, literally moving the characters around, just sold the whole thing wonderfully. Very appropriately leaning into the horror part of horror-comedy.

Similarly, Do You Wanna Hang? was scary. AS IT SHOULD BE. My friend who came with me compared it favorably to the car scene in the movie 8th Grade, where you're just On Edge the whole time you're watching. The actress playing Chloe did a good job with it, that's an uncomfortable thing to portray but she went for it and it paid off in the moment.

Chloe and Brooke had a fun dynamic: the styles of the costuming/performers did add some interesting dimensions. Chloe was, as usual, pink and perfect and feminine, head-cheerleader vibes; Brooke was short haired and dressed a lot more masculine. Brooke had a very earnest sense of vulnerability to her, and excellent comedic timing during Do You Wanna Ride and The Smartphone Hour, as well as just the minor background-acting moments. They leaned pretty hard into the 'Chloe will take things just because Brooke wanted them, because she likes that Brooke is always a little jealous of her, and thinks that that's friendship' and, like the portrayal of Jake: is that a shitty thing to do? Yes. Is that a realistic thing teenagers might do, especially poisoned by toxic ideas about femininity and power? Also yes.

Which is a good spot to add, the ensemble was small (4) but they were serving it. The band appeared to be octogenarian church volunteers (oh, yeah, this was at a church??? Wesleyan Methodists, so the cool liberal branch of American Christianity) so I will say that with what they had, they were making it work. It would have been served well by a second keyboardist and/or guitarist to do the trumpet parts (it was drums, bass, guitar, and piano). One of the ensemble members, a tall goth-femme person with hot pink hair, played the role of the theremin by doing the melodies in remarkable and ethereal bel canto. And honestly, work.

Jenna Rolan was fun: could belt for the gods, had some pretty-intense Crazy Eyes thing going on that really sold the comedic moments and made her appropriately frightening as the Final Boss in the squipped battle at the end, styled like an early 2000s-lesbian-coded-soft-goth best friend archetype. No notes, 11/10.

The actor playing Mr. Heere/Reyes/Stockboy did a fantastic job of making those three seem separate, and as I mentioned above, really made Mr. Reyes come to life in a dynamic way. Sidenote, this production changed all references to Hobby Lobby to Michaels, which I found both funny and appropriate. Fuck Hobby Lobby, we all hate Hobby Lobby.

Back to characterizations, Christine was sweet and straightforward. Not as quirky or dynamic as Stephanie or a lot of other actresses make her, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Very gentle and smooth voice, she just really likes theater and wants someone to like the real her. They went with ballet-style choreography to introduce her during More Than Survive, which is always a wonderful touch for the way the music swells. There were points where I think a little more creative movement or a wider emotional range might have worked well, but the take on the character was consistent.

I am going to keep that positive thread through the next sections: while I might not have agreed with the interpretation through the text, I do respect going in a starkly different direction to how most productions and fans usually take such things.

I have enormous respect for the performer playing Michael for radically making it their own. The cast bios had pronouns, and Michael's performer was they/she/he, which as a fellow they/she/he who would love to play Michael someday was rad to see. They kept the CREEPS shirt and a hoodie with a lot of patches (albeit a black one with red accents), but that was about it. Michael had light-up cat ear headphones and a huge black fan which he used throughout, alternated between baggy sweatpants or just a floor-length hippy skirt, usually high-heel ankle boots, and some kind of green bathrobe thing for The Pants Song? Characterization, again, respect for making such an iconic character so heavily different. This Michael was not....very emotional. He was usually snippy and sarcastic in a very erudite and matter-of-fact way, at pretty much all points in the show. Not a lot of emotional range going on: this is a Michael who is in some combination of 'doesn't give a shit' and 'not going to let this bother me,' which came off....interesting. The chemistry this created with Jeremy was a starkly different one than we usually see. The original productions - and most since, and the majority of fandom depictions - imagines a Michael and Jeremy who, at their core, love each other a lot. However that manifests of course varies, but you Usually get the impression that (even with a little bit of codependence), these two genuinely love each other and spending time together, which makes moments in the show either heartwarming or devastating to see happen between them.

Not these versions of the characters.

Which didn't make it bad, but it did shake things up. This Michael and Jeremy didn't give deep-love-friendship so much as they gave 'we sat next to each other in 1st grade and don't have other friends. so. I guess we're best friends, huh.'

Which is an INTERESTING and somewhat bleaker, but not unrealistic, take on them. That, sadly, summarizes a lot of friendships, especially at that age and with the sort of vacuum of suburbia on your social sphere (nevermind how a lot of society discourages boys from emotional connection with their friends; if anything, the fact that this Michael was definitely queer might suggest that Jeremy even pulled back emotionally because he didn't want to seem gay or give this Michael the wrong idea). It definitely sells Jeremy feeling lonely, even with his best friend hanging around. Two-Player Game came across a LOT better than I was prepared for - I have waxed about how it's a hard number to pull off - not in spite of, but almost because of this. Like, sure, they've played through this game a million times before, they know every beat, they love it like they love each other, right? even though they seem.....kind of bored. Or at least like they're waiting for something else to happen. College? Girlfriend? Different friends? Just wait two years. Whatever.

To get critical, I will say that this dynamic did not really help Michael in the Bathroom. The fight beforehand and the song itself did.....not really lend themselves to a not-very-emotional friendship between them. The singing was perfect, so not faulting that: it's THE big song of the show, so that's a lot of pressure and the performer had a splendid voice, but the snarky-not-caring-that-much attitude didn't quite do it for me - Michael didn't seem sad or upset so much as pissed off, but still fully keeping it together (despite the lyrics saying otherwise). Tonally, the 'wish I'd offed myself instead' just sounded sarcastic ("wow, SORRY I CARED AT ALL, could've just killed myself for all you seem to care" kind of vibes) THAT SAID, it was consistent with the rest of the characterization, so I admire it as a very specific acting choice. There were also characters on stage - presumably outside the bathroom door, listening in - that turned a good portion of MITB into a comedic number; as I have said before, not my personal take on how that should go, but the audience was laughing along with it! So that's the wonderful mutability of theater.

Strangely enough, this actually made Michael and Jeremy's relationship at the end of the story work out just fine? The SQUIP experience kind of sparked a "wow we really do care about each other, huh" realization from both of them. Again, mad respect for taking such a different approach to such a well-worn character relationship.

So, overall, I am very happy I got to see this. Love to support live theater, love to be surprised by a story that I thought I knew pretty well inside and out, came away with plenty to think and talk about. If you can, go support your local community theater!

[lightleckrereins]

i imagine that if six had the broadway updates from the very beginning that we would’ve gotten so many more alternate costume designs 😪

like aragon skirts, the cleves reveal leotards etc

Love this hypotetical. Because a lot of things about the original costumes are the result of the circumstances. The original UK tour was still technically an indie show that expected a decent success but not to become a global hit. Budget was small, so a lot of thing couldn't happen even if the costume team wanted them to. Also they were literally figuring out how to make the costumes and how to work with the materials on the go which wouldn't translate into the super detailed current costumes.

Like. Cutouts are both an aesthetic choice and help add structure to materials. Most of the current skirt and sleeve shapes come from adding additional structure for every new set of costumes to stop them from collapsing, and costume team has said they had to figure out how to defy the laws of physics to make plastic so something it wasnt meant to. Stretch panels, underlayers, and separated costume pieces all appeared out of necesity: comfort, freedom of movement, easier cleaning and maintenance, extending costume's life, protecting the materials from wear. Custom boots happened because the show got the budget to afford them, but also specialized dance boots means its safer to dance and jump in them. And my favorite. Gabriella slade has said that she wanted both a full Cleves costume change and tall boots since the start but couldn't make it happen until the original broadway opening.

Aside from that, there is the question of how the alt costume system would have worked. Only principal costumes like bway and cruises means no alt costumes and no alt variations. Principal costumes plus alt costumes for alts and only alt costumes for swings like UK means completely different alt costume designs as those were created for the original WE covers. Only alt costumes depends entirely on covers and whether they had swings from the start or not. So a million variations.

So asuming alt costume systems evolved the same way but we got the super detailed costumes and massive budget from the start. I do have a list (and I might have called it costume fanfic multiple times already).

The bway still has only principal costumes and UK has principal costumes for the alts version.

Black: Lets say the first UK tour had pre update costumes and then update for WE; I don't think Grace would have all six variations for the tour but a main skirt plus cleves (in the original non cutouts version), shorts being worn for B and maybe pants. For WE she starts with S skirt and open skirt plus her tour C and pants as backup. Mallory debuts the Liv Boleyn skirt. Cruises give us updated closed jacket Cleves (I am asuming they still don't get the reveal) and Collette debuts the reveal. Natalie debuts updated pants (with cutouts and studs on the tabs). Since Grace had the open skirt for Howard maybe an Aragon variation with peplum happens on the cruises, or maybe Grace starts with the Karis variation and later Natalie debuts the main one in Bliss.

Teal: Dont know if Vicki has a Boleyn skirt from the start because Vicki B with shorts just makes sense. She does have a way more detailed version of the shorts and jacket. Think how principal Cleves went from solid red to cutouts, well teal square vinyl exists too. Also as alt Cleves she gets the reveal from the start. Nicole gets an Aragon skirt (I still stand by peplum and tabs teal Aragon) and pants with peplum. Bryony debuts the Boleyn and Seymour skirts (with no weird second top) and the Elizabeth Howard skirt. But Shannen does get the different squares on the Boleyn skirt and Jen has shorts for Boleyn (so it works for other queens). Current UK alts get either shorts or pants depending on what suits their interpretations better (instead of everyone having pants).

Orange: Courtney has an Aragon skirt and pants, both with peplum from the start and gets a Seymour skirt mid run after she and Grace switch first covers. There is still no time to make more alt costumes for the first US tour, but everyone says it sucks Shantel doesn't get the first orange reveal Cleves. For AUS Ella gets the Aragon skirt and debuts orange reveal Cleves. To this day we are still waiting for orange Boleyn and Howard. Current UK alts get mostly pants with an Aragon skirt appearing sometimes.

Pink: Shekinah does debut pink with only Aragon, Zara has only the main skirt, Courtney is treated as pink by the fandom but no time for costume to be made for the tour, Both Roxanne and Leah get only the main skirt. And then one random day we get a very blurry photo of the AUS cast featuring Cristina in a brand new pink costume with pants.

Silver: Costume appears for the first time when Natalie joins the UKT as swing with the original three variations. Esme still gets the Boleyn skirt after 2022 cast change and maybe has a Seymour skirt from the start. And then Madeline joins AUS with her cruise costumes only to get a silver with only the main skirt mid run.

The everyone still has alt costumes instead of principals version. And everyone gets a new costume.

Black: Stays the same. (And everyone is obsessed with knowing there were pants in progress for Mallory in 2020 and she never got to wear them).

Teal: Also the same but depending on which cover combo in the UK gets teal main variations change. If it's A/C its skirt and full C if its B/H they favor both skirts but the shorts make surprising appearances sometimes. UK keeps the Bryony skirt but US does the Shannen skirt (lets face it that would totally happen).

Orange: Same and still no Boleyn or Howard skirts.

Pink: This is where it gets fun. For Broadway opening in 2020 Courtney lets slip that since she is first cover Howard she gets pink instead of orange. For reopening she debuts the pants and Boleyn skirt. At WE 2021 cast change it depends on who gets pink if its Danielle she gets a Boleyn skirt, if its Paisley she gets Cleves reveal (Roxanne gets orange as S/P) and repeat for UKT. Cristina still gets a new costume with pants For the US tours pink is probably Erin and Taylor, nothing new in there. But bway cast change Holli' gets pink which means reveal Cleves appears if it didn't exist already.

Silver: same as before but with Marilyn being universal alternate the US needs five alt costumes. There are arguments for her being both black and silver (I say silver because of logistics and Elisabeth says black because of covers). But if she is silver she gets all four variations. If she is black then silver is probably Cassie/Cecilia/Aubrey which means Cassie debuts the Boleyn skirt, maybe Cecilia gets a peplum variation of the main skirt and Aubrey debuts the Seymour skirt. Madeline does get silver with only one variation.

[acatinafancyhat]

Doing my due diligence and watched 1993-5 Belgian Chess! It’s in dutch, but unfortunately the sound quality is not great so i could only guess at what they’re saying most of the time. The translations are quite different from the 2008 Dutch version i got that far... Fortunately it’s a boring London copy so there’s not that much going on anyway 🙃

And yet i had thoughts, therefore it is shouting into the void time! 🥳

Act 1

- Starting off with... statues sitting at a chessboard? Arbiter is here. People dance around the statues like they’re praying to the chess gods during Story of Chess. Real.

- This Arbiter looks so stressed and irritated already. The players haven’t even shown up yet u don’t know what’s coming your way my friend

- Merano folks have shown up in full lederhosen :)

- Real smoke to show Freddie’s train arriving that’s cool! Ohh and this Freddie’s going hard on the washed up rock star vibes. Not sure he looks like a Freddie to me though...

- Freddie walks out after Entrance, so Merano people start assaulting a random tourist guy instead. He looks confused. Then concerned. Then runs off-stage screaming. The Merano experience! :D

- Freddie and Florence Established Relationship but their chemistry is Off. Hmmm.

- This Freddie plays a chess computer (except. There is no computer. Only Disembodied Robot Voice and Freddie speaking his move into thin air.) and he also does push ups. Broadway influence?

- Commie Newspapers and Press Conference are both so slow...

- Wait no it’s speeding up for PC chorus but that’s Not Better. I don’t get this timing it sounds very wrong

- Punching a reporter, check!

- Anatoly and Molokov look like college professors but in different ways (Anatoly is your homeless depressed comp lit guy, Molokov teaches law and delights in assigning too much homework. the AU is real to me)

- Some guy is watching Anatoly do Where I Want to Be. Is he a bodyguard? Idk...

- Anatoly’s chess second also looks like a college professor what is this (Perpetually Anxious Uncomfortably Freud-Loving Psychology Professor vibe for him)

- “No one can deny what kind of times these are” I guess they are neither difficult and dangerous nor encouraging now. They are simply. A kind of times. You can’t deny it. 👍

- Lmao Walter and Molokov almost get in a fight at the end of Diplomats, Arbiter has to break them up

- Walter and Molokov are on Arbiter background dancer duty!!

- After doing Hymn, Arbiter calls Walter back. They both start laughing maniacally. Strange and disturbing...

- Anatoly and Freddie have both suited up for Chess

- There’s a group of background people behind them just kind of rhythmically swaying in place??

- Freddie fake flips the board it looks so silly. Don’t be a coward let him throw the actual board! Freddie board flipping rights!!!

- This Walter is so ready to fight everybody. Molokov, Freddie, his own camera crew. He’s a hands-on kind of spy.

- Side note I like this Florence actress much better for her than Dutch Florence

- Der Kleine Franz brings back the lederhosen

- Mountain Duet on an empty stage with Anatoly sitting on a chair and Florence standing across the stage. They haven’t even greeted each other. The Flonatoly is truly non-existent so far

- Awkwardly standing opposite each other now as they sing...

- He’s touching her and i cringe.

- This has so little going for it i’m sorry, worse Flonatoly development than RAH fr. Depressed professor Anatoly has no discernible personality he just Stands There. Florence actress does her best to look charmed but she has nothing to go on it is not working for me

- Freddie is SITTING ON A BENCH WATCHING THEM KISS the camera was zoomed in on Flo & Toly idk how long he’s been there 😶

- He loses the match, stalks off, angrily takes off his shirt and shoes and throws them at the wall... Goes to get a robe and a bottle of booze...

- Drunk Freddie during Florence Quits high key Worries me

- He’s so tense fr

- Punches a wall after she leaves

- Floor time even before PTC starts

- Oh okay there goes the robe. This is a weird time for him to be shirtless?

- Aaaaand more floor time for the Sad Man

- Florence comes back!!!!! And puts her coat over him djskskaldgsh What.

- And then we get Florence Someone Else’s Story while she’s sitting with him he’s sleeping(?) on the floor with his head on her knee and she’s like. petting his head. Wahh...

- Okay i mean it’s sweet i guess but they just did Florence Quits so is this really the time???

- Also uncomfortable Freudian vibes tbh

- Anatoly and the Press is slow. Anthem is fast. Make up your mind people >:(

- Toly looks distressed during Anthem. He asks Flo for a hug at the end aww (i'm still not into it)

Act 2

- Hey they translated ONIB i’ve not seen that before actually

- “we’ve barely recovered from those lederhosen” he says. me too buddy, me too

- I think this is the tamest ONIB Feddie i’ve come across so far. he’s just hanging out, the Bangkok people aren’t paying too much attention to him or he to them 🤔

- Reporter Freddie wears a flower blouse and he has a little paper notepad. he looks like he’s on vacation. Real Tourist Freddie :)

- Soviet Machine aka Socially Awkward People Having a Party

- Viigand sits quietly off to the side playing chess while everyone else gets super drunk and dances around, wins the social awkwardness contest

- Lol one guy does the high ooooooo and everyone is so startled and annoyed! Molokov smacks him in the head!

- Freddie looks hyped to do Interview the hard way

- Anatoly takes a step back when he sees him he looks very nervous hehe

- Whyyyyy is this one also slow???

- Oh nope awkward speedup again

- Florence and Svetlana both wearing red in The Deal hmmmmmm

- The Freddie/Anatoly part of The Deal happens over the phone? They’re standing on opposite sides of the stage :(

- Florence/Freddie is irl but for the “who’d ever guess it” verse they don’t look at each other they’re standing next to each other facing the audience i don’t like it :c (also another weird tempo change ugh)

- IKHSW direct translation not flipped!! (thank god) however i have no idea where they’re supposed to be right now

- They’re still both wearing red outfits but Florence’s is a suit and Svetlana’s is a dress the effect is Something. They look more alike than most Flo and Svetas it’s giving me Thoughts.

- They exchange a look at the end and Flo gives Sveta a little nod and then they walk off together i support this :)

- Everyone stands so far apart all the time in this production idk... and every time they get close to each other it’s uncomfortable... only Queens have any kind of chemistry.

- Fun fact instead of chanting the championship years in Endgame they say “first champion... second champion... third champion”

- Freddie and Sveta are off in a corner together watching the game??

- Freddie joins the party to point an accusing finger at Anatoly but we’ve had Talking Chess so i’m not sure what his issue is right now (lyrics are sadly unclear to me)

- Immediate Flonatoly hug after he wins. this Florence just can not make up her mind

- And now she’s telling him to leave

- Freddie is still here. watching them. again. O_O

- Walter tells Florence he’s not sure her father is alive, kisses her forehead and walks off. She should kill him.

- The End

So uh yeah okay that was a Chess. No regrets i will watch them all 🫡 but i hope you make better choices than i did.

Tl;dr on the off chance someone was on the fence about watching this (nah) please let me assure you that You Don’t Need To Do That! You will gain nothing and lose 2+ hours of your life :) Maaaaybe watch Florence Quits, Pity the Child and Someone Else’s Story if you’re a huge Florence/Freddie fan and have nothing better to do!

[twistedtummies2]

Top 15 Portrayals of Christine Daae (ALW’s Phantom)

As many of you know, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” is an important show to me. As well as being my favorite adaptation of the classic novel, it is perhaps my second favorite musical of all time…and given how many musicals I love, that’s saying a lot. It’s certainly one of the most popular pieces of musical theatre ever created; it’s had numerous tours worldwide, many productions in non-English-speaking countries, has been running for decades straight on the West End in London…and, of course, it currently holds the record for the longest-running Broadway musical in existence, with 35 Years Onstage under its black belt.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. That long-running streak of shows is about to fade away: on April 16th - three days from now - the original run of the Phantom of the Opera will be closing on Broadway. While it is possible the show could return in a revival production, and of course the show itself won’t be disappearing entirely, it is sad that such a long-lasting fixture on the New York stage scene will be coming to an end. In honor of this celebrated musical, I thought it would be good to present a few lists naming some of my favorite actors who have played the key three roles in the show: Christine Daae, our main character; the dashing Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny; and, of course, the Phantom himself, known in the book as Erik. I’ll be naming my Top 15 Favorite Actors to play each part between now and closing day for the Broadway production. There are only two rules in order for performers to count. One, I obviously have to have seen or at least heard their work, and heard it in good quantity; if I’ve only heard or seen a performer do one song, I don’t think it’s fair to give them a heap of credit, because I don’t know what the rest of the performance is like. Two, I won’t be counting JUST Broadway performers: actors from the West End, Las Vegas, Canada, Australia, and many others will be included too, along with cast members from the 2004 movie and the 25th Anniversary production at Royal Albert Hall. HOWEVER, I will be counting ONLY English-speaking performers. Why, you may ask? Well, primarily, it’s because I simply and honestly just haven’t seen or heard that much from non-English versions of the show. The ones I have heard or seen have been great, but the ones who perform in my own native language are the ones I know the best. With all that said, let’s begin with Christine. Christine is a more interesting character than I think a lot of people give her credit for. Her heart, her mind, and her will itself are all put to the ultimate test in this show, as she has to figure out where her loyalties and love truly lie. For her, the events she lives through are equal parts traumatic and exhilarating. It’s not an easy journey, and while Christine never swings a sword or gives great commands, she’s a much stronger and more layered character than many likely realize. The best versions of Christine find solid ways to blend her innocence and her maturity, and all have voices that truly match that of a person whom the Phantom considers “His Angel of Music.” This will be a description-less list, as will be the other two to come: just names and pictures. This is mostly because analyzing some of these actors and performances is honestly really, REALLY hard to do, at least for me. Having said that, I think I’ve prattled here long enough: allow me to present my Top 15 Portrayals of Christine Daae from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera!

15. Jennifer Hope Wills.

14. Kelly Mathieson.

13. Claire Moore.

12. Rebecca Caine.

11. Ana Marina.

10. Emmy Rossum. (Not sure how popular or unpopular this opinion is, but I’m sticking to it.)

9. Lucy St. Louis.

8. Sandra Joseph.

7. Sara Jean Ford.

6. Anna O’Byrne. (I should point out I am NOT counting or considering “Love Never Dies” with these lists. However, when a performer has been in both shows, I do find it interesting.)

5. Katie Hall.

4. Sarah Lawrence.

3. Kristi Holden.

2. Gina Beck.

1. Sierra Boggess.

Tomorrow: My Top 15 Portrayals of Raoul!

[writerchickmarie]

John Lloyd Young - A Magical Musical Trip Through Jersey

John Lloyd Young was in a Jersey State Of Mind on Friday night...even more than usual. And he led those of us who were in the audience on a magical trip through Jerseyland, which made for an unforgettable evening at Bell Theater in Holmdel.

This adventure took many forms, including stories both about the Jersey Boys productions that JLY has been in, and the various experiences that he has had in the state itself, from where he lived at various points to Italian restaurants that he loves to visit while back in town. It was a fun and knowledgeable history lesson than enhanced the musical selections of the evening.

He opened with "Walk Like A Man", starting everything off on a strong Jersey related note. He then moved into his powerful version of "My Prayer", filling the theater with his rich voice and commanding the stage from the start.

Accompanying JLY on piano was Andrew Hertz, a friend and fellow Brown alum who not only shared his skills on the keys, but provided some very cool background vocals as well. It all added to the enjoyment of the night.

JLY mentioned that when he got his big break playing Frankie Valli on Broadway, he lived in Jersey City and commuted to NYC to perform. In honor of his Broadway dreams coming true, he performed a beautiful "I Have Dreamed" from The King And I. He followed with "In The Still Of The Night", which showcased his non-JB falsetto abilities.

He told the story of finding out that he and Frankie both have the same vocal idol, then performed two of this singer's tunes. One is extremely well-known, and JLY made "Only The Lonely" his own while paying homage to the original. The other song was a previously unreleased Roy Orbison track that he likes to perform on occasion. The haunting "Say No More" is a perfect fit for him, and I hope he is able to get whatever permission he needs to record and release this song himself. It is THAT good.

After a poignant "Since I Fell For You", JLY came around to greet the audience while singing "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me". It's always a thrill for us...and also so special to witness new audience members receive that thrill for the first time.

Up next was the dedicated Jersey Boys segment of the show, beginning with favorite "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". JLY also brilliantly performed a section of the song in Italian, which he said he definitely needed to do for the New Jersey Italian contingent. He told stories about his trip to Cuba in conjunction with "Big Girls Don't Cry", and we got to participate in this one as well. Along with tales from set and on location filming the Jersey Boys movie, and singing the lovely "My Eyes Adored You", he told the interesting story of how the mayor of Jersey City gave him the key to the city after he had been on Broadway for a while. It definitely sounded like a Gyp DeCarlo moment!

He related the entertaining story of singing to Smokey Robinson in Cuba, then sang that song for us. "Ooh Baby Baby" was perfectly done, also showing off that incredibly stunning and clear falsetto. JLY then said he had to add another Broadway song for the evening - the soul-stirring "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables". I still wish I could have seen JLY play Marius in Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl...but I'm so glad he still performs this song in his sets for us.

He finished the night with "Show And Tell", complete with audience participation, his incomparable version of "Maybe I'm Amazed", and a little more Jersey Boys with "Working My Way Back To You" and "Sherry, with all of us on our feet and singing along.

There were quite a few priceless, fun moments that are difficult to describe in detail; they were something you had to experience in person. (Extra incentive to come see JLY in concert as often as possible!) Those of us who purchased VIP tickets in the first two rows also got to have a reception/meet and greet with JLY after the show, where we had a chance to talk and take pictures together at the microphone. It was a wonderful evening in Jersey, in every way.

JLY has many concerts and special tour events coming up, so be sure to check his website so you can also participate in all of the fun. The best is yet to come...and I am so glad that we as friends and fans are all part of this magical ride!

[terranoctis]

Favorites of May

For May, I made more of an effort to read and watch stories that are foreign and non-English. Love of foreign film is nothing new for me personally, but it should still be reiterated how many good films there are in the world. As the famous Bong Joon Ho once said at the Golden Globes, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” This is longest list of favorites thus far because I mostly chose foreign films that I've heard about and those stem usually from recommendations or good reviews--likely because these films are top-tier international films.

I want to add that it's extremely difficult to find international live plays and musicals subbed in English. I hope subbed live plays and musicals becomes a more prevalent and accessible part of international film and media import in the future for a Western audience member like myself. Shoutout to Tanz der Vampire and Death Note the Musical though for being subbed by fans!

Films

Dance of the Vampires: The Musical (2005) I will admit I was pleasantly surprised to see this and liked it more than I thought I would. It's my first non-English musical I've seen and I'm glad I saw the original German version before I ever saw the Broadway adaptation (which apparently alters much of it). It's pretty fun and good. Is it a little over-the-top and sort of goofy and horny at times? Yes, but that's kind of it's charm. The music is fantastic. As someone who loves orchestral overtures and rock, the musical has a fantastic blend of both and notably incorporates "Total Eclipse of the Heart" into its music as well (apparently the musical and the song are both by the same composer). It's a musical that embraces its goofiness while still being dramatic and serious at key moments. This is the only musical I know that has a whole song about how much they love garlic! It's a fun watch about vampires.

Perfect Days (2023) Perfect Days is a film that somehow beautifully captures Japan and a man's simple life as a toilet-cleaner through a minimalist lens. There's structure to the film, in the way the main character Hirayama wakes every day to follow his routine schedule and works to the fullest -- and somehow that routine in all the little moments informs us much about his life and how he sees the world, especially when there are little alterations to it with situations that occur. There are some of the most beautiful shots and frames in cinematography I've seen of quite mundane scenes that I loved, and it's perhaps one of the best things about this film. His day-to-day is broken up at times by haunting, hazy dreams he has each night and interspersed with a collection of fantastic songs from his cassette tapes. You can look at the film in two ways, where it's kind of sad because this man has isolated himself as an introvert--or you can find the beauty in the small things and how he lives. And in my opinion, it's both. Life comes that way, and he's experiencing the happiness as it comes (the shots of him looking up into the sky and sun), but also will feel the intense sadness as it does as well, as noted by the ending where he's driving and crying. His life will stay routine, but that's life--it has both the good and the bad that make you feel emotions. "Komorebi" defines sunlight filtering through trees and I think that word perfectly captures this film. There's beauty in his mundane life that brings happiness and those fleeting connections with people. For a film where not much progress in a plot happens (in the traditional sense) for the first half of it, I somehow loved it. There's a sort of zen, relaxing feeling to the film that also deals with a man's complicated feelings towards his family and connections to people. I related wholeheartedly to this film in a strange way.

Persepolis (2007) I've heard about this film before in a good light, but as I didn't know the source material, I was very much surprised (in a good way) about its focus and manner of execution. The film balances humor and serious matters in such a fantastic way through its black-and-white comic-book style. It's about a time of upheaval and conflict in Iran, which obviously is a distressing situation for those living there, but it's also about a child growing up and looking at the world with great curiosity and that punk-rock attitude of youth. There was a review I read briefly after I watched the film that captured it quite succinctly for me--it's somehow both the funniest and most depressing story. It's a rough time in Iran with the main character growing up, but the small hilarious moments interspersed between scenes of conflict somehow don't contrast the rough situation the character is subject to--only enhances and humanizes the character more. I love it. As someone who is American and is often witness to the way Western media portrays those from Iran and reduces them often to the stories of conflicts and terrorism, this story--this movie--does a beautiful job of portraying the wonderful culture and life of a girl who grew up in Iran, even in the midst of conflict and her life as a foreigner abroad. Of course, it's not a portrait of every Iranian's experience in similar circumstances, but it's a telling biographical picture of the author's experience in animation, which is pretty fascinating in itself to me. It's also rather informative of life in Iran and its culture from someone who disagreed with some of the more restrictive natures of its culture while also simultaneously taking pride in being Iranian.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) Umbrellas is often listed on top hundred film lists I sometimes look over to keep in mind films I might want to watch in the future, and after having seen it, it is definitely one of the most quintessential films for good reason. It's the first film, I think, that is entirely musical and it's charmingly done with how the dialogue is portrayed in all sing-song language. I used to think that kind of film was cheesy, but Umbrellas of Cherbourg executes it in the best way that matches film by doing dubbing and allowing the actors to act without having to worry too much about how they sound. All the music is composed in such a compelling and charming manner that I can't help but enjoy it. The color palette of the film as well as how it's filmed is beautiful, saturated with vivid colors that is quite unique. I can see how this film has influenced in terms of aesthetic so many modern films I've seen and inspired modern musical films as well. This is a film that feels like the natural predecessor to La La Land, not only for its music and sets, but also its ending. Though La La Land is more hopeful in framing its tragic ending for the pair we followed, this film allows you to grieve it in all the sweeping music. It's perhaps the most iconic of the foreign I've seen this month in its framing.

Chungking Express (1994) Could I ever really be a true Asian cinephile if I have never seen a Wong Kar Wai film? Probably not. He won't be for everyone, and there are aspects of this film if taken literally are problematic, but if I interpret it in a metaphoric way (as I did) and let myself stew in the sort of dreamlike state the movie evokes, it's rather charming. I liked this film more than I thought I would. I understand now why people like his films because I was enraptured with this one. The shots he has through glass are some of my favorites, but in general, all of the way the film is framed and filmed is beautiful and unique. It also evokes that memory of love and loneliness everyone has had. Sometimes you meet people at the right time--sometimes you don't. Love is transient because it also changes for everyone. One day you might like pineapples, one day you might not. Never quite seen a film that depicts the transient relationships you have in life as charmingly as this one.

After Life (1998) I don't think this is anywhere near my top-favorite film of the month and it is for certain my least favorite of the Koreeda films I've seen, but somehow it is the film I thought about the most after I watched it this month. For that, I do think it deserves to be part of this list. This is one of Hirokazu Koreeda's first films, and I believe the first film he directed that he personally wrote as well. A thing I learned about watching this and some interviews from his cinematographer was that Koreeda's roots were from documentaries, and it shows in this film. The film focuses on people who've passed away and the limbo they go into before they pass on, which consists of a social building where they are to select one memory that they carry with them into eternity. The memory they select is recreated by the team of counselors in the state of limbo (creating a film is like recreating a memory in some ways, after all), individuals themselves who were unable to select one memory to pass on with or are individuals who decided to stay and help others pass on. It's strange to think about what singular memory you would choose, your happiest memory, to carry on with you--and the movie poses that question to people from all walks of life. The film presents itself in a documentary way when it interviews the people who has passed on--and also beautifully demonstrates the power of how memory and knowing the way a memory has changed someone is utterly powerful. There was something so poignant about how happiness and memory is addressed, particularly with the way the two main leads deal with it as one of them meets the husband of the woman he never got to marry. There is something so quietly beautiful about the pair of leads staring up at the moon, contrived or not, in that old building they live in. There is something so utterly beautiful about realizing how you played a role in someone else's happiness and choosing that to be the memory you carry with you.

La Haine (1995) Considering the modern-day relevance we've witnessed as a society with police brutality and marginalization of some identities and the violence surrounding them, La Haine feels utterly devastating in the way it portrays the life of three young men in the Parisian outskirts. The creeping (and explosive) anger from someone in the Parisian suburbs that is not unlike those of individuals from the projects or the worst city suburbs of the U.S. in a system that constantly disrespects them can be felt throughout the film. Visually, the film displays in such a gritty manner the volatile nature of these neighborhoods and its multicultural people in the face of marginalization and how their lives circle around violence. The film is also simply a film about three young friends out on a typical night together, and that makes the tragedy of its ending all the worst, because you know it's not how you fall that matters, it's how you land. The film starts with those words and ends on those words in such a haunting way that reframes it by the very end and you can't help but be haunted by the whole film. Society is in a free fall, but how is it landing? The film leaves you with that question. The film has some of the best cinematography and blocking I've seen in an urban setting, with some shots I will remember for years to come. Its three leads share a remarkable chemistry that depicts very well friends similar to ones I've grown up with and I admired how genuine the film felt for it. Thematically still a rather relevant film today.

The Battle of Algiers (1966) I want to be clear that this wasn't a film I enjoyed watching, as most of my favorite films tend to be. It is a film that I find haunting for how relevant it is even today. Though it is about the French-Algerian conflict and revolution which I personally know very little about, it still portrays its conflict in a way that I can recognize today, much like what I see going on with the Palestine-Israel conflict and other more recent conflicts (even those less overt than a revolution). It's a film that controversially was filmed only several years after the actual conflict it is about, but made all the more special for it. Realistically captures in a documentary-like, neorealism style the conflict and the people of both the Algerian and French sides. Its use of sounds is great at establishing the tensions of the individuals involved, and the scenes with crowds look phenomenally similar to how I see crowds and revolutions in the news. Though I can't say I would watch this again because of how heavy I sort of feel watching it, I do think it's a film everyone should see at least once in their life (thus why it's on my list this month). On a technical level, it's top-notch too for its time.

Swing Kids (2018) This Korean musical film is fun in a way musical films usually are, but it is also heartbreaking and tragic in a way that belies its initial demeanor. Though it takes place in a prisoner of war camp, it starts in a way in which you might hope for a happy ending with different individuals overcoming their differences. About halfway through the film though, the film reminds you viscerally of the fact that this is a war and they are prisoners of that war, all of them. The characters we follow certainly overcome their differences by dancing, but it doesn't stop the rhythm of ideological differences and how those in power will commit horrific war crimes to smother such differences, regardless of how the dancers might want to say "fuck ideology." The ending is tragic, but somehow hauntingly realistic. I liked this film way more than I expected I would have. The film is somewhat messy in its construction and some of its writing is ham-fisted, but it also balances out by having nuanced perspectives on people of different backgrounds. There's also one long scene of the male lead and the female lead dancing the same dance in different places and it's one of my favorite edited long takes of a dance scene in film. Metaphorically, it also shows them breaking down all the barriers and bounding across different places of the camp in such a wild and free manner, breaking past gates and protestors. This parallel to a scene at the end where the male lead tries to visually break out past the stage to stop his brother from killing everyone showcases how even his dance fails to sort of "break" past that and is stopped in place by his brother and the onslaught of conflict in a war. I thought that was such a nice (and tragic) touch there, whether it was intentional or not. For all its messes and difficulty balancing what is a fun dance film with what is a war film, the film tugged emotionally at my heartstrings.

Literature

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami I can't say I've been subjected to the level of bullying in this book, but I can relate to the kind of isolating human experience of it. The book is somewhat rather bleak in its depiction of bullying, but it's also a sort of testament to endurance and how people think, whether they are the individual being bullied or are the bully themselves. I can't say it's really among my favorite books, but I did feel for it... and there's something so poignant about two bullied kids just writing to each other that got me in the beginning.

Music

I find that my music favorites of the month have started reflecting or relating to the movies I watch each month, and this month really showcases that! Most of my favorites this month were non-English songs.

"Good Night," Utada Hikaru An animated film that I watched at the beginning of this month called "Penguin Highway" had this as its ending song. I liked the movie quite a bit, but it was a little too convoluted to make my favorites list of the month. However, as a film about meeting someone and losing them for incomprehensible reasons--and the beauty of the world you had with them, no matter how strange, the song hit such a strong chord with me as the credits rolled.

"Feeling Good," by Nina Simone I've always liked this song every time I've heard it over the years, but I never quite looked it up until I heard it in the last scene of Perfect Days. It's honestly one of the best songs of all time for me, a timeless classic.

"Dreams," by Faye Wong I love this song. As a cover of The Cranberries' song of the same name, it's a great mix of that classic rock I like and a wonderful voice from Faye Wong. This played in Chungking Express and made me fall in love with it instantly.

"Simple and Clean (Re-recording)," Utada Hikaru I have the distinct memory of hearing Simple and Clean for the first time on an English commercial between some cartoon shows as a kid, in an advertisement for Kingdom Hearts. It started a lifelong love for Utada Hikaru's music. The re-recording is beautiful and nostalgic all at once. Kind of funny I have two favorites this month from Utada.

"Moves" by Suki Waterhouse Suki's music has been growing on me in the past month and I found this song of hers from two years ago that I love. She has the kind of music that I like to blast on my own while I'm taking a walk and thinking about everything. This song in particular though encapsulates so well when you're in love with someone who's apprehensive of being in love. Love that slow guitar and drums.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Longtime follower here. You’ve gotten me curious about musicals but I don’t think I’ve ever watched one. Only thing close to a musical I’ve seen is ABBA (the film)? I did like that one (I do love ABBA) Does that count? Any recommendations for a newbie?

Oh, dear follower, you’ve unknowingly set me off.

The ABBA musical is Mamma Mia, a jukebox musical. I hate jukebox musicals. They’re cheap and lazy and appeal to the average person already knowing and liking the pre-written songs. I was just talking to one of my friends recently and he said he liked Mamma Mia, and I said, “No you don’t, you like ABBA.”

He thought about it and said, “…Oh yeah, you’re right. I thought the story was really stupid.”

The reason why jukebox musicals fail is because they’re pretty much antithetical to how a musical is supposed to work. In a good musical, each song is supposed to reveal something new about a character, move the plot forward, or both. A musical is an album telling a single story. Jukebox musicals inherently cannot do this, or at least not do it well, because the songs weren’t originally written to tell a larger story or be part of a character’s larger arc! Pop songs are always written to be standalone, so they cannot be squished together to tell a larger story in a coherent, well-thought-out way. The songs just weren’t designed for that. That’s why the stories of jukebox musicals are typically so threadbare and the songs are really forced.

I’m saying all of this to explain why I hate them lol, instead of giving a simplistic, “they’re not real musicals.” But they’re not, and that’s^ why. Even Queen has a jukebox musical, and I have no interest in it lol

So let’s talk about real musicals!

If you’ve never really sat down and watched one before, there are some I wouldn’t recommend right away, so let me see:

Sweeney Todd. It’s my favorite show of all time and one of the most complex musical scores in American theater. It’s dark, it’s sometimes comedic, it’s screwed up and presents everything in a very matter of fact way instead of an edgelord way. There are a lot of differences between the film and stage show—in summary, the film actually adapted the show into a movie while the stage show works as a Broadway show!—but I’m not going to go into all of that in this post. If it’s your first musical, watch the movie. It’s played much more straight and with faster pacing that makes it more accessible to a non-theater-going audience. This is a film about a man who returns to London after being wrongly imprisoned for 15 years and seeks revenge on the man who ruined his life, raped his wife, and stole his baby daughter, all the while his former landlady is in love with him and an accomplice to his serial killing, so be warned that the film is rated R. Bonus points for eventual implied cannibalism. Sweeney Todd is insane to talk about out of context lmao but trust me, give it a chance. It was written as a horror movie for the stage

Into the Woods. This is also by American theater god Stephen Sondheim, and yes there’s a movie, but it got the tone completely wrong. The entire Broadway production with the original cast is right on YouTube! It’s a satire on fairy tales, and it’s what happens when multiple fairy tale characters collide in pursuit of their wishes. Act One ends with happily ever after—and Act Two is when everything goes wrong and multiple people die! It’s a really funny show, but it’s genuinely moving and sad by the end. Like any good fairy tale, there’s a moral of the story. It’s among Sondheim’s greatest work.

Jesus Christ Superstar. This is by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It’s a 1970s rock opera about the last week of Jesus’ life, heavily featuring Judas as a sympathetic character, a tortured soul. The 1973 film is the best version out there and there are many clips on YouTube. Listen: it’s a period piece. It’s hilariously, amazingly 1970s, but the music is genuinely great, it presents Christ as a troubled man and not a god, and Judas is a compelling character. Start with the song “Heaven on Their Minds” at the beginning of the show to see if you’re interested

Fiddler on the Roof. Oh man, this one gets me. The entire film is also on YouTube right now. It’s about a small, traditional Jewish village in Czarist Russia in about 1910, and centers around Tevye, a loud, devoutly religious man who believes in the Jewish traditions of his village, but has his ways directly challenged when his daughters each gradually step away from tradition with who they want to marry. There’s also political tensions with the Russian government growing gradually hostile to Jews, so the story is about a lot of things, a lot of different ways a person’s way of life, beliefs, and traditions are challenged in life. It’s another show that’s kind of hard to describe, but trust me, it’s a funny, beautiful, and well-written show and it makes me cry.

Hamilton. Yes, it really is that good. No, don’t listen to this insane website about it. It’s well-written, engaging, entertaining, and does highlight an important figure on American history while sending the message through the music and diverse casting that the story and founding “myth” of America is for everyone, even people who look very different from the way the actual Founding Fathers did, because one of the messages is that you have no control over who tells your story.

Les Misérables. It’s just a great story with a lot of universal themes, like oppression, poverty, faith, misery, unrequited love, rising up against corruption (and failing 🙃). It’s a long story in post-revolutionary France, but I think the movie tells it pretty coherently. The movie does have problems though, like Russel Crowe as Javert was a huge disappointment because that’s such a great part, but it might be the most accessible version of the show. I like the 10th anniversary concert a lot, but yeah, it’s in concert and not staged out like in an actual production

I’d say start with those and then get back to me if you want any more lol. If you have any questions, come back here

[toonformers]

Did I go overboard on designing characters related to canon characters? Probably

So anyway lemme tell you about Shockwave's brothers!

Let's go in order of like....birth or whatever. Meet Shockblast! This guy is Shockwave's twin brother, but Shocky didn't know about him for a large part of his life. In fact, Shockblast was the last brother that Shockwave met.

For those who don't know, in the Tooniverse, bots who are forges from the same mold are related, be it siblings, cousins, some very rare instances where one can be a parent to the other, but the most common one is siblings. Now for this biological connection to happen in forged bots is very rare, like VERY rare. But there are some protoform molds that are double sided; those molds have a higher chance of having blood relatives through forging. And Shockwave's mold turned out to be, in fact, double sided!

Shockwave and Shockblast were forged at the same time, but while Shockwave was fighting in the arena, Shockblast was a lab rat for Perceptor's synthetic energon experiments on live test subjects. He miraculously survived such experiments, but ended up very sick, mentally AND physically. His blood ended up being turned into synthetic energon, which caused both insanity and a deteriorating physical condition.

During the Cybertronian civil war, the Decepticons decided to take Shockblast for research purposes, being transported from one prison to another. His physical condition continued to deteriorate as he was taken to the DJD, once Centinela's peace movement had been established and Decepticons began to defect. He got so bad his arm was replaced with a very crude version of a portable life support, out of a canon. In summary he got a canon arm, and then was placed in a quarantine cell to extend his life for more research, before he escaped with Shockwave and his siblings, who had been captured in preparation for execution. Once back in Cybertron, Shockblast got the treatment needed to stabilize his blood and fix his insanity.

Shockblast loves hanging out with his brothers, and loves the idea of Shockwave being his twin. He's very perky and energetic, despite his age, and has a passion for the theater. He is currently on his way to being an amazing Broadway superstar.

Onto Scalpel now! Scalpel was forged with his twin Horizon, WAY after the war. He was the second one to meet Shockwave, and didn't meet him until he was over 800 years old!

Scalpel was part of an illegal forging scheme from the DJD. Their plan, after seeing all the Decepticons that defected upon hearing about the peace movement, was to create a weapon that could successfully infiltrate Cybertron and pose as a non-threatening huggable bot, and shut down its emotions and morality with a spoken code that only Tarn knows. Scalpel was considered a failed attempt, as he didn't have enough of a convincingly cuddly appearance and couldn't hold as many weapons as the DJD wanted inside him. So they knocked out the kid and made him live his life in a Cybertron as a regular bot. However, Scalpel's amnesia left him completely unaware that he was a bot who could shapeshift, so he remained in his smaller form for years, until Shockwave and Horizon stumbled upon him by pure chance; he was working as a medic in Fort Max! Some introduction and adaptation later, Scalpel grew to like the idea of a family.

Scalpel, as previously mentioned, is a medic. He works in Fortress Maximus and is very passionate about his job. He is precise, hardworking and neat. Unfortunately, he has also battled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder his whole life. But his work has helped him with his compulsions, and he's got a nice support system with his brothers and his mentors, Syringe and Ratchet. (I'd explain about Syringe but that's @perytonpred 's OC, so it's best they explain about her uwu).

Last, but not least, Horizon! The youngest brother, but the first to meet Shockwave.

Little historian Horizon is Scalpel's twin, forged a couple hours after him. Just like Scalpel, he was another attempt in illegal forging, to make a weapon for the DJD. This time, Horizon was exactly what they wanted; a plastic, easy to compress frame with an adorable squishy appearance, who could shut down his morality in seconds upon hearing Tarn's activation code, making him the desired weapon, project Eclipse. He was going to be immediately shipped from Cybertron to the hidden location of the DJD, but the Elite Guard put a stop to the illegal forging scheme, unknowingly also detaining what could have been Cybertron's demise.

They took Horizon to Fortress Maximus for some medical evaluation, and he turned out to be fine. He was in fact, quite intelligent and wanted to be put to work immediately. Sentinel did as he requested, putting Horizon to work under Shockwave, whom had just met him. In all honesty, Shockwave didn't like Horizon. At all. He was envious of his sleek modern design and felt outdated because of it. It took some time before Shockwave opened up to the concept of having a younger brother. But once he did, both he and Horizon became very close.

Horizon is a very knowledgeable historian, and loves learning of every event that happened before him. He went as far as to write a book about the Cybertronian civil war, in which he analyzed every detail of the cultural, social and legal matters in that time from a completely neutral perspective, not siding with neither the Autobots, nor the Decepticons. He appears very shy at first, but once you get to know him, all you see is an adorably charismatic and kind soul.

And that's it! Those are the Shockwave brothers. Will I make more? Probably not. I think Shocky has had enough with these three. Hope this makes up for the lack of content these months, and I hope to post again soon! :D