#bare: a pop opera

[lethe814519]

I can’t talk I’m too busy liking posts from 2 years ago about musicals with a fan base of about 20 people.

[kateeorg]

I swear, the number of dead musical teen characters these days could populate their own high school

[short-insomniacs07]

confession is such a jam, and alan confessing he forgets to recycle sometimes will never not be funny to me.

[veeflix]

Hello, I’m Vee

Honestly am just a desperate theater kid who needs to interact with other theater freaks rn.

If you’re interested in any of these musicals, you should hit me up because again, I am DESPERATE (on my knees begging guys)

MY FAVORITE MUSICALS (as of late):

Some Like It Hot

Falsettos (The entire Marvin Trilogy, actually. This is and has always been my favorite — I love In Trousers and the original 1992 cast of Falsettos, but the 2016 revival have my entire heart as well obviously — huge C. Borle fan)

Grand Hotel

Next To Normal

A New Brain

25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee

(I like any/everything by William Finn)

Spies Are Forever

Something Rotten

The Boys from Syracuse

Some honorable mentions:

Ride The Cyclone, Avenue Q, Bare: A Pop Opera, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, Annie, The Book of Mormon, School of Rock, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Six, 1776, Bring It On, Jekyll & Hyde, The Producers. . .

A lot more I don’t feel like listing, but my musical theater/showtunes playlist is well over 24 hours. I’m getting into Gutenberg right now and recommendations are very much welcome

That’s all, bye

My Discord is @voxflixx

[songofpurple-summer]

it’s been years since i’ve even thought about bare: a pop opera but i relistened to the soundtrack recently and genuinely all of us that could relate to Role of a Lifetime and See Me deserve financial compensation

[heartburstings]

i think the thing about jason mcconnell for me is that i don't think he has to be likeable. of course i wish more people liked him, or at least hated him correctly, but jason does not have to be likeable. likeability should not, and does not, change the fact that jason's death was an un/avoidable tragedy. it is aspiring to be as likeable as possible that led to his death, and that lead to the actions and words jason says that make him unlikeable and unrelatable to most people today, and in general is the main problem for many characters. to argue that jason should be more likeable is to miss the point, to me.

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

i am so thankful for fandom.

i am so thankful for the gifsets, the fanfic, the fanart, the memes, the overanalysis of every little aspect of a piece of media, the group chats, the private spamming in dms, the openness towards making our own representation, the queer and neurodivergent safety that is created, the lack of shaming for intense emotional reactions or for being obsessive, the community aspect and discussion, etc.

and i am especially thankful for the validation, the closure, the healing, the solidarity, and the connection that fan spaces can provide. i’m thankful that i can have so much content for all of my interests, that i can feel that fulfilment of my deep desire to enjoy the things i love fully. i’m thankful that after i finish a show, a book, a movie, anything, and i’m genuinely upset, in tears, or maybe even having a trauma response (ex. media with mental illness or grief themes), i can come here and laugh. if i’m angry, if i’m ecstatic, if i’m unsatisfied, if i’m so anxious i don’t know what to do after i finish something, i can come here and know i’m not alone.

fandom is NOT all good. the discourse, the gatekeeping, the lack of boundaries when real life people are involved, and yeah, a lot of it enables unhealthy relationships with media. so many obsessions i’ve had have been toxic (*cough* supernatural *cough*), and being a part of fandoms didn’t exactly help me get out of that. however that can coexist with the fact that having other people as passionate as i was made me feel so much less alone and to this day gives me a safe space to release what is in my mind.

basically, thank you. if you’re on this hellsite, if you’re a creator within fandoms, a commenter, or just a lurker contributing with likes, you contribute to people like me feeling less alone, and i’m really glad you exist.

[basil-doing-things]

y’all ever engage with a piece of media so devastating it makes you nauseous? yeah.

[crow-in-springtime]

Matt referring to the portrait as it vs Ivy referring to the portrait as her and she

[and-i-forgive-you-father]

It's the way I'll never get over the lyrics for the song bare in the 2004 production. Always fucks me right up.

[art-o-gant]

portrait of a girl (:

[theabyssgazesalsointoyou]

i can't stop thinking about how jason opens his speech with 'webster's defines promise as a declaration that something will or will not be done' in promise. like. that's THE most cliche way to start an essay or a speech it's so funny

[saint-starflicker]

5 Dark Academia Movies That I Don't Find Too Many Other People Posting Very Frequently About

Note my definition of Dark Academia: dark because somebody dies (at a stretch, the darkness can be oppression or abuse from which no one necessarily dies but it still gets pretty dark—or if someone attempts suicide or murder then I count it as dark); academia because they go to uniform school or prepster university (the academia part can be an intense study, discussion, or research of a subject even though they are not at a campus.)

1. The Moth Diaries 2011

The book was better, more detailed, but the movie is still pretty good. The campus is peak neoclassical splendor, the uniforms are on-point aesthetic, and the darkness is gruesomely bloody and also it's on fire. The book is set during the school year of 1970 to 1971, but the movie is set in 2010 thereabouts.

2. "O" 2001

A modern retelling of Othello by William Shakespeare set at a prestigious boarding school. Adapting classical literature in a high school was trendy at the time, trying to capture the magic of Clueless 1995, and in my opinion "O" was the most glammed-up production with the most dark academia atmosphere out of all of them.

3. Educating Rita 1983

A working-class British young woman takes a social enrichment outreach education opportunity to study literature, in hopes that a study in the humanities will give her a better sense of self. Her tutor is a "failed" poet who struggles with substance addiction. Unbeknownst to them, both their lives are at the crux of change. In their consistently non-romantic conversations together, they unpack class discrimination in academia and society, as well as argue about the meaningfulness versus empty pretensions of studying humanities.

Nobody dies, well all right somebody almost dies for pretentious academic reasons...but the conversations leave a lot between the lines.

4. Private Romeo 2011

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare set at an all-boys military school. Sure, it's not the Oxbridge-Camford or "Hollywood New England" collegiate aesthetic...but it is very gay, a feature that I hope lends the movie some compensatory merit in this context. Juliet's a boy. Romeo is still a boy. Nurse is a boy. Juliet's mom is a man. Paris is an abstract concept. They are studying Romeo and Juliet at the military school English class at the same time that they are living and speaking the lines in Romeo and Juliet, so it gets surreal and I recommend getting more into the emotion of it than get caught up in what the lines they're saying are supposed to mean.

This should be chaotic academia or frenzy academia, but there's homophobic hazing and bullying so I think that's pretty dark.

5. Bare: a Pop Opera ???? There was supposed to be a movie but I deduce that it's stalled in development purgatory. I have not liked a movie adaptation of a stage musical since Chicago 2002, so I guess I don't really like movie adaptations of stage musicals—but I definitely want my current hyperfixation to be more accessible than a Spotify album oh hey while waiting for this adaptation to happen you can listen to the Spotify album. It's an operetta, so it's sung-through and you won't miss out on any story dialogue unlike with other musicals. Here's my argument for B:APO being Dark Academia.

DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE #5 SPOT ON MY LIST DOES NOT EXIST...WHAT DARK ACADEMIA MOVIES DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE IN THIS SPOT IN THE MEANTIME?

I CAPSLOCK IN ANGUISH THAT THE B:APO MOVIE DOES NOT EXIST YET AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL.

YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS ARE CONSOLATION.

Honorable Mentions:

The History Boys 2006 had one subplot I was bothered by at first and then grew to despise which is really too bad because this movie had racial diversity, directly addressed misogyny in academia, and had canon gays in a love triangle — but it is dark and it doesn't really seem to know that it's dark.

The Children's Hour 1961 "dark academia is mlm while cottagecore is wlw" WRONG watching this movie to consider evidence of dark academia wlw is part of your yuri duty! remember our history!

Never Let Me Go 2010 I can't describe objectively because I read the book at a time in my life that I was having a time at that time. The movie is a faithful adaptation. I re-read it recently and I think it's more Dark Academia than I gave it credit for, but if you're not into Contemplative Dystopia then I completely understand it not being your thing.

Like Minds 2006 — Huh, so 2006 was a busy year for this genre that did not yet exist at the time. Witness the folie à deux of 21st century teenaged Templar Knight kinnies who are also homoerotic serial killers. (Waves to the people that introduced me to this movie, who—contrary to the header of this post—actually do post about it.)

Rope 1948 does have some activity that I've caught recently enough, but I thought maybe it wouldn't be considered Dark Academia right away because it doesn't take place at a school. It takes place at a dinner party where ex-schoolfriends talk to their philosophy professor who they remain well-acquainted with after graduation, an interrogation of putting this professor's morally heinous philosophy into practice. Also there is a corpse at this dinner party. There's your academics and your darkness, so there's your dark academia.

[heartburstings]

that post abt how fatphobia is rampant even among progressive circles is so true and it highlights my issue with bare la 2014's skinnywashing of nadia. here is a show that seeks to get audiences to consider their biases, how they can intertwine with and contribute to stereotypes and narratives of conformity, and how it affects not just ourselves but more specifically how it affects young people who struggle to find themselves and connect to each other, and even moreso because of these biases... and you skinnywash the fat character. you skinnywash the fat character who has a whole song about how fatphobia prevents her from getting good roles (OH THE IRONY) and how fatphobia prevents her from socializing and how being fat has informed how she interacts with others because it informs how other people interact with her. you SKINNYWASH nadia and undermine her whole character. i say i don't watch it because i'm petty but it's also because i just don't trust productions with skinny nadias. how are you supposed to properly send that message when you don't understand it? when you're casting a fat character and you don't? and don't play like they couldn't find a single fat actor to play nadia in all of fucking california. college productions are able to find fat actors to play nadia and that's a much smaller pool of people than all of california because fat actors aren't unicorns. it's fatphobia, plain and simple. (or plain and jane, aharharhar.)