#gracie writes overly long media analysis

[common-grackle]

The Story of Winnie Foster

I'm gonna start with the music and what's happening onstage and get into all the emotional theater kid stuff after.

Music: Seventeen. Winnie dances in her yard alone, then reunites with Nana and Betsy. There's a key change as she dances around the back of the house, and an older version of herself comes around the other side. (The music at the end of teenage Winnie's dance also sounds a little like My Most Beautiful Day, but I think that's more the instrumentals than the tune.)

Music: Good Girl Winnie Foster. Hugo comes in from stage left and offers Winnie a flower; she refuses at first, and then accepts (Betsy and Nana are still onstage). You can't see this in the bootleg, but Jesse enters and watches from a distance. In the Broadway production Winnie and Hugo kiss; in the licensed script they embrace. Jesse exits. Winnie and Hugo disappear around the back of the house.

Music: Top of the World. Winnie and Hugo emerge on their wedding day. Constable Joe marries them. The ensemble dances around them.

Music: My Most Beautiful Day. Winnie and Hugo dance.

Music: The Wheel. (This is the bridge - the "just floating on top" instrumental bit. The chorus shows up later.) Nana dies. Winnie and Betsy exit.

Music: Everlasting. Winnie re-enters, holding a baby. She circles behind the house.

Music: Time. Winnie emerges on the other side of the house (stage right) and chases her son, now a young boy, around the back again. There's a short reprise of Everlasting as they exit.

Music: The Wheel. Winnie and her son appear again. This time Winnie is middle-aged and her son is a teenager. Winnie dances around him.

Music: Good Girl Winnie Foster. A teenage girl catches Winnie's son's eye. They dance. Middle-aged Hugo and Betsy are onstage next to Winnie.

Music: Top of the World. The two do the same courting dance that Winnie and Hugo did together.

Music: The Wheel. Betsy dies. Winnie's son and his girlfriend exit. Winnie and Hugo walk stage right, but they don't go behind the house.

Music: Top of the World. Winnie and Hugo dance at their son's wedding.

Music: My Most Beautiful Day. Winnie and Hugo are left alone onstage. They repeat a few steps of their courting dance. They walk around the house and return as elderly Winnie and Hugo. They finish their courting dance. Winnie takes Hugo's hand.

Music: The Wheel. Hugo dies. Winnie walks back up the steps of her house.

Music: Time. Winnie turns back around and walks center stage.

Music: Top of the World. The dancers return and dance around Winnie. She stands in the middle and watches her life replay around her.

Music: My Most Beautiful Day. Eleven-year-old Winnie enters from stage right and faces elderly Winnie.

Music: Seventeen. Eleven-year-old Winnie dances the same steps that she did at the beginning of the ballet. Elderly Winnie matches them and they dance together. Eleven-year-old Winnie hands elderly Winnie Mae's music box and walks behind the house again.

Music: the music box/My Most Beautiful Day. Winnie turns around and enters the Foster house.

Okay this is already 550 words but we're gonna keep going. I'm going to repeat the music tags to try and eliminate confusion.

Music: Seventeen. The Story of Winnie Foster takes place directly after Everlasting, which is Winnie's main turning point in the show. When we see Winnie dancing with her family to Seventeen, we're not totally sure what her decision is yet - the music could be a hint in either direction. The music is definitely not what the audience is supposed to pay attention to here.

Music: Good Girl Winnie Foster. I really like the music choice here. This arrangement of Good Girl Winnie Foster makes it sound almost the same as the dance break in Partner in Crime, which is a pivotal part in Winnie's story arc (she's gotten out of the house! she's having fun!). Good Girl Winnie Foster is a song about how trapped Winnie feels, and having that song reprised as she has fun onstage makes me really happy. (Also Betsy and Nana are watching all of this play out, which is really sweet.) As a side note - Partner in Crime and Top of the World are the two songs that Winnie and Jesse sing together. (Seventeen is also kind of that, but I have more analysis coming with stuff about that song.) Top of the World is used multiple times throughout the ballet, but we don't hear Partner in Crime at all. My guess is that Partner in Crime is too tied to Jesse to be used here. It's their song; it can't really be used for Winnie's other relationships. (Also Hugo is literally a detective so the title seems a little weird in that context.)

Music: Top of the World. Top of the World plays every time there's a high point in the story - the weddings and courting dances. It seems pretty natural that that would be the music choice for these.

Music: My Most Beautiful Day. It's Winnie's most beautiful day! Cute.

Music: The Wheel. The bridge of The Wheel is used three times, for the deaths of Nana, Betsy, and Hugo. That's the part of the song where Winnie really understands what Angus is trying to tell her. Using that instrumental for the deaths really drives home that message.

Music: Everlasting. We already know that Winnie isn't going back to the spring. Everlasting plays when she dances with her baby - the story WILL end! It IS a wheel! Wow.

Music: Time. This part gets me in the feels. Time is about Miles's wife and son, and a more upbeat reprise of it is playing when Winnie chases her son around the house.

Music: The Wheel. This time, it's the chorus of the wheel. Winnie's son is growing up. Girl to wife to mother to daughter, right?

Music: Good Girl Winnie Foster. Winnie is trying to parent her kid in a way that her mother didn't for her. She's encouraging him to have fun.

Music: Top of the World. Parallels!

Music: The Wheel.

Music: Top of the World.

Music: My Most Beautiful Day.

Music: The Wheel. There wasn't anything new to say for any of these lol

Music: Time. She was left behind.

Music: Top of the World. Top of the World is the song that appears the most in the Story of Winnie Foster; it was Jesse's song, and now it's hers. (Also, none of the Tucks dance around her in the circle. Take from that what you will.)

Music: My Most Beautiful Day. I'm not sure how to interpret the music here, but I want to believe it's My Most Beautiful Day because Winnie didn't have just one most beautiful day. (I don't think Mae did, either, but that's a discussion for a different time.)

Music: Seventeen. Top 10 things that make me cry in the wings. Now we know that Winnie didn't drink from the spring when she was seventeen; for better or for worse, she took the other path.

Music: the music box/My Most Beautiful Day. It's Mae's music box from her song!! Winnie is remembering her most beautiful days!!

[common-grackle]

Miles Tuck as an outsider

I'm going to spend a couple hours typing up my thoughts so I can share my brain goop with all of you. Should I be doing computer science homework right now? Absolutely, but this is more fun.

To me Miles is the most interesting character in Tuck Everlasting, and I think it's because he's clearly different from the rest. The first time we see Miles is in the prologue, which is not super helpful for establishing his character other than "wow, he drank water." But in Live Like This, there's a lot going on with Miles.

Jesse and Miles sing their part of the number together (despite not being in the same place). The contrast between the boys is obvious.

Miles's first lines are "Off the train in New Hampshire, and it's back in an instant/The feeling that I'm somewhere I don't belong." Excuse me?? In itself, this is an incredibly effective way to introduce him as a character, but it hits even harder when we hear Jesse's verse: "Hello Treegap New Hampshire, catch me up on what's new/Your silo I see still has the best view."

Jesse belongs. Miles doesn't.

Jesse's verse is a greeting, where Miles's is closer to an internal monologue. There's also a parallel between "it's back in an instant" and "catch me up on what's new." Returning to Treegap is an adventure for Jesse; Miles has seen all that it has to offer, and he's not interested in coming back.

Miles and Jesse's parallel character arcs are something that I never shut up about, so let's keep going. Jesse has positive memories associated with Treegap (or he's buried the negative ones), and what he's looking for is a new person. Treegap brings back almost entirely negative memories for Miles, and he's looking to forget the people he used to have.

Going back to the song, we have Jesse singing "I swear/Is there anyone who still knows me?" and Miles echoing "I swear." Like I said, Jesse wants people, and Miles does not want to be here. Miles's next lines, "Almost there/This town never outgrows me" pretty much solidify this in my head; he's just tired. (Jesse's "Almost there" is clearly excitement about arriving at his parents' house.)

And then their part together: "Unaware/I'll never know why this world chose me/to live like this, live like this, forever." This is another key difference between the two: Jesse takes immortality as a blessing, and Miles takes it as a curse.

As a bonus, Miles is clearly on edge in his next scene. He is not going to his Happy Place.

In the next scenes - everything surrounding The Story of the Tucks - Miles is actually pretty quiet. (That's also just kind of How He Is, but it really stands out when he's around Winnie??) He also has a lot of lines that insinuate that he's expected this kind of thing to happen for a hot minute. Miles's role in his family could be read as the downer or as the voice of reason, and I think he knows that.

I kind of love how Miles doesn't want to participate in the discussion, but he needs the facts to be correct. (I'm now realizing that he's kind of coded as autistic but I'll let you guys figure that out.) He's the one who cuts in and actually gets Winnie to understand what they're saying at the end of the song. Miles isn't wordy, but he knows how to get his point across.

The bit that always gets me about this song is Jesse's "He survived much worse" (referring to Miles). In the cast recording his tone is closer to teasing, but I still can't tell if he's referring to Miles's family. (If he is, Miles's "Shut up, Jesse" makes it That Much Worse.)

Jesse: Stop. She's just a kid. Don't make any good thing seem like it's the end of the world.

Miles: Easy for you to say when you've never looked out for anyone but yourself.

Jesse: That's what you think of me?

Miles: Who says I think of you? (He goes to exit, but turns back.) I shouldn't have implied that you're always selfish. You were an amazing uncle. Sometimes I think about that. (Miles exits.)

So much to unpack here. I'm going to make bullet points.

Jesse becomes more abrasive when he's around Miles.

Miles is obviously holding onto a lot of resentment.

Miles thinks Jesse is immature; he took care of his family, and Jesse has only ever taken care of himself (I feel like this is how a lot of people feel about their youngest siblings).

Jesse had a good relationship with Thomas (who we'll talk about later).

It's my personal interpretation that the reason Jesse and Miles don't get along (or, part of it) is that Jesse encapsulates everything Miles is trying to push down and forget. Jesse is optimistic and young (sort of), and he still feels like Miles's baby brother, even if he's 102.

Angus: Not natural, how much that boy has lost.

Jesse: He's not the only one. I used to have a brother.

And Jesse is bitter because Miles doesn't treat him like an adult. There's growth in that area later, but not yet! It's a while before Miles appears again, and when he does, it's...it's a lot. It's also the most insight we get on Miles.

Jesse: I refuse to keep living alone in the shadows.

Miles: Jesse, if you won't listen to your big brother, then listen to some common sense. So, okay: your plan works for three years, maybe four if you're lucky - then what? Do you someday start a family, and make your children drink the water? And what about when the neighbors catch on to your secret? Then what? Do you wanna go to jail - forever?

Jesse: I already feel like I'm serving a life sentence, Miles! I'd rather do my time next to somebody who actually appreciates it! (Jesse exits upstairs.)

Miles could've spared Jesse's feelings a little more than he does (although, with The Way That Jesse Is, I'm not sure that would've been as effective), but he mostly just wants to keep his brother from going through what he did.

Miles arguably went through the most loss out of the characters in the show, but he doesn't talk much about it. When he does, it's usually vague, and always blunt. Even his song (which makes me cry) is just giving us the facts.

Anyway...those are my two cents. I should probably sleep now.

(tagging @marinesocks and @claireverlasting again!)

[common-grackle]

Winnie Foster and growing up

@claireverlasting @marinesocks You guys wanted this?

Here's the thing about Winnie Foster. She's not dumb (anything but), but she is naïve, especially at the beginning of the show. From literally the first time we see her on stage, we know a lot about her home life and her motivations:

She's obedient, especially to her mother (who is...pretty stifling)

She wants to go to the fair (and she's hopeful that her mother will let her)

She's unhappy with her life (she can't "live like this forever")

There's some other stuff too, like how the setting is casually dropped (August 1st, 1893 in Treegap, New Hampshire), which I love because the music is catchy and it's an excellent way to get the audience to remember stuff. I'd also point out "I wish I had wings, I'd look good with a pair" - we really get a feel for Winnie's whimsy and youthfulness, but also that she has her expectations set pretty firmly.

This especially comes to light with Mae's verse. Mae's plotline is about her finding that youth again (Tuck actually does a great job of developing plotlines for each character and I appreciate that greatly). In her part, she also talks about feeling stuck (duh, that's what the song is about) and about anticipation - her boys will be home by the end of the day. But that excitement feels more mature than Winnie's for the fair.

Miles and Jesse have a really interesting part that deserves its own post. I'll skip over Miles's lines for now because there's too much to unpack.

Through the lens of Winnie's character arc (or at least the fragment of it that I'm focusing on), what I notice is the parallels between her and Jesse. Jesse is 102, but he really does seem 17 here. His enthusiasm aligns perfectly with Winnie's - it's more childlike, more free. (We'll get there later, but it's my personal theory that that's why their song sounds like it does.)

After Good Girl Winnie Foster, we see Winnie shouting at her mother ("No! I hate you, and I hate your rules!"). It's implied that she doesn't have outbursts like this often (if at all), which is...really interesting with what happens next. My favorite part of this scene is Winnie's line when she's talking to her toad: "Why should I apologize? I don't want to just be 'good.' I want to be daring."

She then has a short reprise of her song, and I think these lines are the most significant:

If I don't leave now I'll only wish I had

How can I know good without trying bad?

Winnie knows exactly what she's doing: she's breaking the rules. She goes directly from being a "well-behaved eleven" to literally running away from home. That escalated quickly.

Let's pause before we meet Jesse to talk about the plotline the show has set up for Winnie. She wants to go to the fair, wear a bright color, have fun, and then she gets in an argument with her mother and runs away. Honestly? This could've be the plot of a story on its own, if we hadn't also been introduced to the Tucks and the Man in the Yellow Suit. Winnie really is just a kid who got caught up in the plot (and proceeded to stir up a lot of drama herself).

One of Jesse's lines right before Top of the World is "There's no use running away if you don't make it an adventure." Jesse and Winnie's friendship took off because they shared the same view of the world, and neither of them had ever known someone like that before (or, not in a long time - part of me wants to know what Winnie's father was like, but again, topic for another time).

Winnie: Everything looks so different, up here!

Jesse: You ain't seen the half of it.

She really hasn't. All of these scenes have been setting up who Winnie is at the start of her story, but where it gets interesting is when she's faced with more things that she's never thought about before.

Winnie: I can't believe you tricked me. I trusted you. (As if they got engaged.) We climbed a tree!

Yes, that's the actual text from my script. Climbing a tree with Jesse was The Biggest Deal to Winnie, because she'd never done anything like that before, with anyone.

There's so much I could say about The Story of the Tucks, but the gist of it is that Winnie has no idea what to do with this information. The first thing she asks after they finish is "where is this cat?", and the second is "How can I be sure you're not just telling me a story?"

There are two other lines here that I'd like to mention. First, the bit where Winnie asks what else they can do, and if they can fly. She's picked up the immortality thing (which is likely something that she's read about), but she's assuming that it's some kind of superpower (positive connotations - keep that in mind).

The second is "It must be so fun to be you!" Winnie, you sweet child, no. Winnie just isn't grasping how eternal life could be a bad thing, and I don't think she really does until the end of Act One.

(Also, the way that Angus says "Not natural, how much that boy has lost" when Miles exits? This is why Tuck Everlasting causes audiences pain. It's because we already know more than Winnie does.)

Okay, let's talk about Partner in Crime and Seventeen. Like I said, I'm pretty sure that (besides it just being the right tone for the song) Partner in Crime is fast and upbeat because that's the mood that Winnie and Jesse share. This song happens literally directly before everything goes south. I also love all the echoing and overlapping that happens in this number, because they feel the same way but they have different contexts for it.

There's a line before Seventeen that haunts me when I'm trying to sleep: "Listen: Ma and Pa and Miles? They don't know how to enjoy anything anymore. They're stuck in the past. But you? You thought it was amazing to climb a tree." Jesse is still optimistic because he thinks he's found a way out (and it is a solution, just not the right one).

But do you want to know something? Neither Jesse nor Winnie sings anything upbeat for the rest of the show. All of their songs up to this point were fast and cheerful, and that doesn't happen again after Partner in Crime. Actually, none of the Tucks sing anything upbeat after this point. The Man in the Yellow Suit, the Constable, and Hugo are the only characters who appear in the faster songs in Act Two.

Why?

It's because Winnie is finally learning how negative immortality can actually be. She's still herself, just more somber. Jesse's already losing hope, and with our two most optimistic characters (not counting Hugo) finally getting hit with all of this, it travels over to the rest of the Tucks. (Miles, Mae, and Angus all have their own reasons for this too, but there's too much to say about those.)

Time is a song that most of us have cried over at one point or another, and I think it's this scene that starts to solidify Winnie's decision not to drink from the spring. (It's also the most insight we get into Miles's character, I think. I love this song.) However.

The Wheel doubles as a Winnie and Angus bonding moment and the moment where Winnie finally puts everything together. She echoes Angus's words, and she strings together her own in Everlasting.

Not to ruin the mood that I've set here (whatever that may be) but I think that seeing the Man in the Yellow Suit dead (killed by someone she knows and loves) also probably contributed to Winnie's sudden maturity.

The effect that Winnie has on the Tuck family is made very clear throughout the show. She shows Mae how to live like she used to, and remember the joy that she's lost a bit of. Winnie and Angus have one of the sweetest dynamics in the musical, this father-daughter relationship that develops between them. Miles and Winnie have...a lot going on that I will save discussing for later. And Winnie is Jesse's first real friend in pretty much forever. But this experience also has an effect on Winnie, and that's what I'm trying to get at here.

Right after she says goodbye to the Tucks, Winnie sings Everlasting. It's a song about a decision, and although a little bit of the suspense is kept, we as the audience already know what Winnie is going to do, because that's what's been set up the whole show. (And we're right: she gives the water to the toad.)

Winnie starts her story as an eleven-year-old girl who wants to get out of the house and go to the fair. Throughout the course of a few days, she grows up and learns a lot about the nature of life and humanity and everything Tuck Everlasting is trying to teach us.

Remember how I said that Tuck hurts because the audience knows more than Winnie? I really do think that's the reason. We know early on what's going on with the Tucks, and we see Winnie figure it out and sort out her emotions on her own time. We basically go through that pain twice.

(I'm not sure if this is significant, but going back to my thing about how the music changes in Act Two, I did notice that the ensemble carries the fast part of the end of the show. It's not the Tucks anymore. Oof.)

If you made it this far, please discuss this with me because I am desperate to hear more theories.