#mean girls tour bootleg

[enter-drfrog]

One thing I’ve learned through my years of consuming live theatre and bootlegs of live theatre is that you can almost always tell when someone used to be a Newsie.

They always have this like indescribable quality about how they move even compared to other incredibly well trained dancers. I think it’s just because Newsies is such an insane, other level caliber of dance that it just brings them to another quality of movement.

I don’t know how to describe it. I just know that whenever I watch something the Newsie always stands out.

[the-sparkling-theater-kid]

Bootleg Hunting

I’m looking for bootlegs! I was wondering if anyone has any bootlegs of the following shows with the following casts. There are so many shows with casts I want to see but sadly never got the chance to. I’d love if anyone has any! All bootlegs must be on drive or youtube since that’s how I like to watch them.

Sweeney Todd

-Aaron Tveit as Sweeney Todd, Sutton Foster as Mrs. Lovett, and Joe Locke as Tobias

-Jeanne De Waal as Mrs. Lovett

Moulin Rouge

-Derek Klena as Christian and Jojo as Satine

-Aaron Tveit as Christian and Jojo as Satine

-Casey Cott as Christian and Courtney Reed as Satine

-Derek Klena as Christian and Courtney Reed as Satine

Hadestown

-Original Broadway Cast

-Lola Tung as Eurydice and Jordan Fisher as Orpheus

Jagged Little Pill

-First national tour original cast

Dear Evan Hansen

-Gaten Matarazzo as Jared

Mean Girls

-Original Broadway cast

-Reneé Rapp as Regina George

Frozen

-Ryan McCartan as Hans

The Great Gatsby

-2023 Paper Mill Playhouse with Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada

-Original Broadway Cast

Gutenburg!

-Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells (Broadway 2023/24)

Chicago

-Ariana Madix as Roxie and Robyn Hurder as Velma

Back to the Future

-Casey Likes as Marty McFly

The Outsiders

-Original Broadway Cast

-Pre-Broadway

The Great Gatsby

-Paper Mill Playhouse

-Original Broadway Cast

[becca-petersen]

This might be a long shot, but if anyone has audio or video of Becca Petersen when she went on as Regina or Cady in the Mean Girls tour in Denver please let me know!!! I would likely be willing to pay for it if no one’s gifting! So excited that she got to go on for Cady again!!!

[bootleglesbian]

available bootlegs

this is everything i currently have available (updated 06/18/24). if you have anything to trade i generally prefer that but i am open to gifting any of the titles that are not starred! as a rule, if no cast is listed or only some members are listed, that means that i do not know the cast but i am happy to send a screenshot if you would like (and if anyone is interested in helping me identify unknown casts or dates of any files, let me know!).

green = video, pink = audio, starred = trade or donations only

*Anastasia (Hartford Theatre pre-Broadway run - Christy Altomare, Derek Klena)

*Anastasia (Broadway - Christy Altomare, Derek Klena)

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Broadway, 06/24/18 - Melissa Benoist)

Beetlejuice (Broadway, 10/31/19 aka Halloween)

Book of Mormon (Broadway - Ben Platt)

Come From Away (Broadway - Jenn Collela)

Falsettos (Proshot)

Falsettos (Broadway - ORC, not proshot)

Falsettos (Tour - Max von Essen, Nick Adams, Eden Espinosa, Nick Blaemire, Audrey Cardwell, Bryonha Marie Parham)

*Falsettos (Tour - Max von Essen, Nicka Adams, Eden Espinosa, Nick Blaemire, Audrey Cardwell, Bryonha Marie Parham)

Freaky Friday (La Jolla)

*Ghost (Broadway - Caissie Levy)

Hamilton (Broadway - Lexi Lawson)

Hamilton (First National Tour - Michael Luwoye, Solea Pffeifer, Joshua Henry, Emmy Raver Lampman, Isaiah Johnson, Jordan Donica, Mathenee Treco, Ruben J. Carbajal, Amber Iman, Rory O'Malley)

*Hamilton (Chicago Act 1 only - Karen Olivo, Ariana Afsar, Samantha Marie Ware, Miguel Cervantes, Joshua Henry)

*Hamilton (Broadway - OBC, not proshot)

*The Last Five Years (Off-Broadway - Betsy Wolfe, Adam Kantor)

*Lempicka (Broadway, 03/38/24 - Eden Espinosa, Amber Iman, Andrew Samonsky, George Abud, Natalie Joy Johnson, Zoe Glick, Nathaniel Stampley, Beth Leavel)

*Mean Girls (Broadway, 02/22/20 - Renee Rapp, Erika Henningson, Barrett Wilbert Weed, Grey Henson, Kate Rockwell, Krystina Alabado, Kyle Selig)

*Mean Girls (National Tour)

*Mystery of Edwin Drood (Broadway - Stephanie J. Block, Betsy Wolfe, Jessie Mueller)

*The Prom (Alliance Theatre pre-Broadway - Caitlin Kinnunen, Anna Grace Barlow)

*She Loves Me (Broadway - ORC proshot)

Waitress (ART pre-Broadway run - Jessie Mueller, Jeanna de Waal, Keala Settle, Drew Gehling, Joe Tippett, Dakin Matthews, Christopher Fitzgerald, Eric Anderson)

*Waitress (Broadway - Jessie Mueller, Keala Settle, Molly Jobe, Drew Gehling)

*Waitress (Broadway - Sara Barielles, Chris Diamantopoulos, Charity Angel Dawson, Molly Jobe, Will Swenson, Christopher Fitzgerald)

*Waitress (Broadway, 06/19/17 - Betsy Wolfe, Drew Gehling)

Waitress (Broadway, 12/14/17 - Stephanie Torns, Jason Mraz)

Waitress (Broadway - Shoshana Bean, Jeremy Jordan)

*Waitress (Broadway - Shoshana Bean, Jeremy Jordan)

Waitress (Broadway, 02/03/19 - Sara Bareilles, Gavin Creel)

Waitress (Tour, 08/26/18)

Wicked (Broadway, 02/01/15 - Caroline Bowman, Kara Lindsey)

Wicked (Broadway, 02/10/13 - Donna Vivino, Ali Mauzey, Kyle Dean Massey, Randy Danson, Adam Grupper, Catherine Charlebois, F. Michael Haynie, Tom Flynn)

Wicked (unknown - Eden Espinosa, Megan Hilty)

*Wicked (Broadway - Stephanie J. Block, Annaleigh Ashford)

*Wicked (Broadway - Lindsay Mendez, Katie Rose Clark)

[cometomecosette]

"Les Misérables" musical character interpretations: Éponine

Next in my series of characterization comparisons: every audience's darling, Éponine.

These five interpretations of the character are the main five I've seen in various performances. But they can also be combined with each other to create still other portrayals. For example, in the bootleg video of the US tour performance from 2000, Sutton Foster's Éponine is "the Wolf Child," but her natural charm and humor adds an underlying layer of "the Gamine Next Door." Whereas Joanna Ampil's Éponine in the same year's London video – from what I've seen of it – is also a "Wolf Child," but with the underlying fragility of "the Waif." And when I recently saw the current US tour, I thought Christine Heessun Hwang's Éponine was a cross between "the Gamine Next Door" and "the No-Nonsense Street Kid."

The Gamine Next Door

            This is a simple, straightforward portrayal of the musical’s Éponine, who projects an air of easy likability. First and foremost, she’s a spunky, sassy, cheerful street urchin, much like an older female Gavroche. She might occasionally hint at the true sadness of her life (i.e. “Look what’s become of me”), but she always quickly hides it behind a bright, cheeky smile. And as her name implies, her interactions with Marius have an air of a tomboyish “girl next door,” with free and easy playfulness and warmth. She might sometimes add a hint of flirting, but she never crosses the line into bad manners. This isn’t to say that she can’t be gritty when necessary: her “Attack on Rue Plumet” can be very fierce and angry, although she’s more likely than some Éponines to mix relatable fear with her defiance. Nor does her lighthearted veneer mean she’s immune to suffering. When she’s alone, she gives heartbreaking voice to her starry-eyed yearning for Marius and her abject anguish that he doesn’t return her love. Of all possible Éponines, this one is the most idealized compared to the novel’s Éponine, which obviously won’t suit everyone’s taste. But in general, audiences are guaranteed to like her, pity her, and relate to her. Teenage girls, in particular, who are in the throes of their own first unrequited loves, will embrace her as one of their own. 

The Waif

            This Éponine is the most vulnerable of them all. She’s likely to be small, delicate, and “kittenish” in appearance. She’s more soft-spoken than other Éponines too, although still with a powerful singing voice for “On My Own,” and with a gentler, more girlish demeanor. Of course, she does affect a tough, sassy veneer, boasts about her street smarts, and stands up to her father and Patron-Minette with all the necessary fierceness. But that veneer is more fragile than glass. She constantly seeks Marius’s attention with a look of wistful yearning – even if he fails to see it, we can – and when they interact, her teasing is obviously a cover for the shyness and awkwardness she feels, knowing how out of her league he is. Nor is anger and aggression her first response to danger. In “Attack on Rue Plumet,” expect her to try to reason with the men at first, and to only turn defiant when they won’t listen. Above all else, the audience will remember the tenderness of her longing for Marius and her raw anguish that he’ll never be hers. Where other ‘Ponines express their pain without crying, this one’s rendition of  “On My Own” will more likely be drenched in tears. Throughout the show, the audience will want to hold her. shelter her, and comfort her, so in “A Little Fall of Rain,” however sad the circumstances, they’ll be glad that Marius finally does.

The Wolf Child

            This feisty tomboy is very much a street urchin, not a street waif, and very much the Thénardiers’ daughter. She’s a grubby yet self-assured, iron-willed survivor, just like her father, and she has more than a little of her mother’s brashness and temper. Among Patron-Minette or with Gavroche, she’s clearly “one of the guys,” and when the time comes to fight off her father and the gang at Rue Plumet, her anger and ferocity are positively feral. Expect Montparnasse to get a good kick or punch if he dares to bring his knife near her throat. Her teasing of Marius is bold, boisterous, and physical: expect to see her pushing and pulling him around in a very unladylike manner. This girl is determined to gain his attention, and apart from brief moments of despair, she clings stubbornly to the hope that he’ll fall in love with her someday. But in “On My Own,” she’s forced to admit that she’s been fooling herself. She faces this sad truth with heartache, as all Éponines do, but with anger too. Anger at Marius for his blindness and failure to appreciate her, at the world for being empty when he’s not with her, and at herself for being vulnerable in this way, when she’s usually strong enough for anything. Of course, her story ends in tenderness, with her final moments of bliss in Marius’s arms. But what the audience will remember most are her toughness and her fiery passion.

The Wild Urchin

            This girl comes as close to the novel’s Éponine as the musical allows. Physically she’ll probably be dirtier than other ‘Ponines, with bad posture and skittish movements that recall an abused dog or a stray cat. And more than any other musical ‘Ponine, she gives off an air of mental instability. Yet she combines it with a lively, free-spirited nature, and the result is a wild, whimsical, childlike quality that’s strangely endearing, even as it earns pity. She “frolics about,” swinging her legs as she sits, playing with her skirt, kicking stones in the road, or casually lying down and stretching out on the pavement. With Marius she’s even more forward and unladylike than the Wolf Child, freely invading his personal space, and sometimes trying to flirt in a way that recalls her father with the girls at his inn. This might make even Hugo’s Éponine blush, but it drives home the point that her social skills are lacking. She strives hungrily for Marius’s attention, but between her upbringing and her mental state, she doesn’t know how to begin to win his heart. She’s also more ashamed of how awkward and “odd” she is than she pretends to be, which we see when she’s alone, along with her wistful dreams and the pain of her hopeless love. She’s a “crazy homeless girl” whom in real life, we might try to avoid on the street, but we’re forced to understand her, empathize, and care for her anyway.

The No-Nonsense Street Kid

            This ‘Ponine is less fierce than the Wolf Child, but she has a similar toughness, and though she’s quieter than other ‘Ponines, it’s not a gentle quietness like the Waif’s, but a hard quietness. Her usual demeanor is sullen yet stolid, unhappy yet resigned to her lot and ready to “tough out” anything. She stands up to her father and the gang with hard, calm defiance and mocking disdain, and though she can be sassy and playful like all Éponines, her humor is drier and more subdued than most. Her only genuine smiles are reserved for Marius. Yet she might be a mild tsundere toward him, as they say, teasing him in an “annoying little sister” style, but closing herself up and pulling away if he offers her too much friendship. She doesn’t expect him to fall in love with her; she knows it’s foolish to hope. But she can’t help but hope anyway. She wants to be resigned to living without him, but though she tries, she can’t conquer her anguish, yearning, and secret fragility. Even when dying, she’ll still be tough, walking away from Marius to try to take care of herself, only to collapse; only when Marius takes the initiative and holds her will she finally show him her inner tenderness. This is different from Hugo’s Éponine, as is her grounded personality compared to the free-spirited Wild Urchin that Hugo wrote. But this portrait of a “hard nut” slowly cracking is moving in a different way.

More comparisons to come!

[ladybirdvariant]

Narcissa Black is a diehard Reneé Rapp fan

listen I can see Marlene being a Young Ex Wife as well

but narcissa black..... that mf CONNECTS with Reneé on a primal level

Imagine Narcissa being a secret theater girlie (yk that bitches dream role is Veronica Sawyer)

Imagine her watching the Jimmy Awards and immediately stanning Reneé (something she will bring up to Alice whenever the two fight about who's a bigger fan)

Imagine her being a huge fan of the original Mean Girls movie and watching a bootleg of Reneés Regina

Imagine Narcissa moving through her daily life feeling trapped in her families and her own expectations for herself and just wishing she could turn around all Glee style and start belting World Burn

Imagine how this woman would relate to Colorado to EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE to in the kitchen in a cannon complacent universe "strangers to lover to enemies" yeah I hear you Alicissa

Imagine Narcissa listening to Snow Angel and thinking abt going home to noble house of Black every Christmas break

Imagine Narcissa listening to Pretty Girls and wishing her family was different and she was different and she wasn't so scared

Imagine her watching TSLOCG and relating SO much to Leighton and seeing Alice in the adorable smartass short brunette that is Alicia

Imagine her fucking sobbing when Leighton comes out to Kimberly, because she's been there, because she still is there, because she knows what it is to be terrified of her carefully curated life and image crumbling

Now imagine a few months later, everything isn't solved and fixed bc it never is, the black family elders will never change their ways and their ideals, but that isn't important. Imagine Narcissa and Alice coming to a Snow Hard Feelings Tour concert in matching homemade merch and singing along to the top of their lungs when it gets to the kiss a blonde kiss a friend can a gay girl get an amen part of Not My Fault

Imagine Alice proudly showing Narcissa the Rejanis smut she semi jokingly wrote for her one she saw how excited her gf was for Mean Girls 2024

[yourlegacysnotyourstosee]

Live Levi reaction (to DaP reacting to every pinof #3)

Ok Im almost 6 minutes in and decided I need to write down my thoughts

THE PHULGE????????

Tbh putting a “ph” in front of anything that has to do with dnp is actually peak comedy keep up the good work

I will now be referring to dnp Lore are Phore, thanks for the suggestion

I hate to break it to you Dan, but the reason it’s the most played part of the video is probably because you guys touched.

LADDERS JUMPSCARE

“It’s when you go fast in a plane, and it goes *bomp*” Im obsessed with him

This entire series is just an excuse to answer pinof questions without having to actually do another pinof

THE NACHO FANFIC???????? I actually had to pause and stim to get the gross feeling out (does anyone else do that btw?????? I call it “ick stimming”)

What is the plural of Weenus? Is it Weens? Weenuses? Weeni (pronounced “Ween-eye”)?

Bruh im only like 9 minutes in

New phore drop??????? (Phils grandma is my idol I aspire to be her)

🎵THE INTERNET IS HERE🎵

Dan making the same noise as his past self it’s making me unwell

DANS WHAT NOW????????

The fact that I know they have a proshot of ii but instead they choose to use bootleg footage (also true for The Internet is Here)

Phil forgor the diss track 🥲

Phil doesn’t like bananas so true king

“A Dil doll”

Why are their voices harmonizing on the “yeah boi”

I love Phil ❤️❤️❤️

Not to overanalyze (this entire video is an overanalysisq) but Dan did the Tongue Thing™ after he said “your mum.”

Dan talking about the Phulge AND the Phass in the same video??????

Ngl Truth Bombs was a slay. I got one for Christmas many years ago and it’s still in my room, relatively untouched because I’m scared of using all the papers

WAIT TRUTH BOMBS GOT REBRANDED???????

That’s actually so funny bc I was recently in a production of Mean Girls

“Looks like Margaret Thatcher” has me DEAD

ii being the branding for their second tour was so clever idec

STOP GUILTING ME ABOUT NOT GOING TO INTERACTIVE INTROVERTS I HAD LITERALLY NO MONEY

STOP I HAD NO JOB NO MONEY

Valid reason to end pinof /srs

“I think I am so comfortable around you that like, the brain to mouth connection? There’s no filter” that’s how you know they’re besties (this is literally what’s I’m like around my friends)

I FORGOT THEY SAID THEY WERE GONNA MAKE A TIER LIST

“You might have different opinions, but this is the correct opinion”

[blankvort]

watching the mean girls tour bootleg today (right now) so i can Experience danielle wade’s cady

i am exploding today (right now) in fear that the hype train i have painstakingly laid the tracks for is about to fall off a cliff but i hope you enjoy the ride <3 but also get ready to Experience tour mathletes i love them

[izloveshorses]

Just out of curiosity what's wrong with zadkins!dimya? I never got to see the show at all (just bootlegs) so I don't know anything.

I do agree with the 1NT though. I have no idea what they were thinking with Lila Coogan. She pronounces every single thing she says the same way?

anon you have no idea how much this ask delighted me. i'm in tears. i'm so so so excited this made my whole week.

first-- lila was only casted bc she knew lynn ahrens, i believe. this happened a lot with anastasia at the time unfortunately, when it came time to replace the principal cast they kept choosing people they knew or people who were already in the show instead of finding new talent. stephen (steven? i can't be bothered to remember) covered dmitry on broadway so they hired him as principal dima on tour and that was such a waste too tbh 💀 other than a few delightful people here and there, 1nt was such a bland and forgettable cast to me. 2nt superiority <333

now. for zadkins. a couple years ago i would've answered this privately bc his stans would've eaten me alive, but it appears no one left here cares for him anymore anyway ashdljfdjk so!!! i'm gonna be mean. so sorry. or not sorry. i don't really care anymore lol.

man. another bad case of promoting someone mediocre instead of hiring and training someone new. he always kind of gave me an ick, like on a Regular Person level, but for now let's focus on his performance:

the man cannot sing. he yells. he cannot act. he yells! i'm like not an expert or anything on either but i know a bad singer when i hear one lol. there's a moment in my petersburg where he growls? yuck. he and christy, as talented as she is, had no chemistry. not even like compared to christy and derek (which was like ~Magical Chemistry~), they just had zero chemistry period. even off stage their interactions felt weird and forced. i think he tried too hard to be Different™ from derek that he ended up playing dmitry wildly off book. i mean, you Should come with a new and fresh take on the character, that's fair. but he was almost playing a completely unrecognizable character altogether. (the glebya stans love his dmitry for a reason)

and then he kept thowing little fits off stage-- he got a tattoo when he wasn't supposed to, complained about being compared to derek, etc. he was kind of strange with christy sometimes. on one of her live streams during playtime (the 15 minute stretch between crossing a bridge and iacot, where she would invite the little girls and other folks off stage to hang out in her dressing room) he said he saw her in spring awakening, a show with some nudity, and she was clearly uncomfortable by the way he said it. he was also weird online, there was one instance where a teenage girl tweeted and asked him to come to her birthday party and he?? showed up????? he was also dating ashley park at the time and i think the breakup was messy 💀

his stans were awful. i know it's not his fault, but god. they were so loud, constantly complaining about derek for some reason? a man who minds his own business??? bc the only way you can support your fave is by hating everyone else on main?? the infighting was insane. you had to be there.

and oh man. when they announced cody simpson was replacing him.... it got so much worse. they were tearing that little blond australian man (who can actually sing and act, mind you) to shreds. every review was scathing when the show needed a boost. zach threw a fit about it too, because his contract was ending early (i mean. the show was actively losing money because he was so terrible. so yeah of course they're gonna replace him with a stunt cast ashdljfk) and you compare that and his stans to derek and derek stans just quietly mourning his exit and enduring but otherwise minding our business.... yeah. the only anastasia obc member with a bad attitude fr

so you pair that (the Yikes that is zadkins!dima) with max von essen's gleb (as much as i loved him he was also a miscast, i believe he's said the same) both yelling at anya the whole time with the mediocre 1nt cast,,,, of course you have people walking away from the show going 'so,,, what the hell was that. i could've just watched the movie.'

this is just speculation but i truly believe if i had to pinpoint an origin as to why the show isn't open anymore i would say principal zadkins at such a crucial time was their downfall. the second year is so important to get people to come back and to get new audience members at the same time and they botched it. instead of bringing in new talent they just stuck with mediocre people who already knew the tracks. the show had all the ingredients for being the next wicked, but damn. casting for anya, dmitry, and gleb are so important. you really need people who Get It to portray them, and if you have one weak link the whole show falls flat. and for several months, before cody was brought on and before constantine returned to play principal gleb, christy altomare was carrying the whole thing on her little shoulders.

and THEN you have the whole year two Red Dress marketing campaign, which misinterpretted the show So Badly as ~just another princess show~ to compete with frozen across the street... yeah of course it tanked. but that's another topic.

so! in conclusion........,,, summer-winter 2018 was a dark time for fanastasias ashldkjfjk we were in the Trenches

i would also like to let the record show the fact that we got masters who returned Twice in the same month to film derek/obc in september 2017, which are the bootlegs that are probably the most circulated other than hartford, and returned again in january 2019 to film cody and constantine, and returned AGAIN for closing in march. two whole bootlegs of my guy cody simpson and uhhhh zero for zadkins <3 as god intended <3

this isn't even half of it but this is what i remember from The Dark Time. anyone else is welcome to chime in, this is a safe space to be a hashtag hater <3

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 796: Rolling Stones In Paris 1970

I grew up hating the Rolling Stones.

I was born in 1977---the year Some Girls (often considered their last great album) was released. I was introduced to the Stones the same way as many children in the '80s were first exposed to them: via MTV. There was the zero-budget production and awkward, uninspired dance moves of "Start Me Up" on Classic MTV or... even worse... the grinning old guys in bright pastels lip-syncing to their flat new single "Mixed Emotions." They were an arena rock band from the previous generation, and they sounded thin and stale compared to all the hair metal bands that were hot at the time.

But things changed during a pivotal summer after my first year of college when I worked a job painting campus housing. Me and the other 3 or 4 students on the paint crew spent the summer listening to the local classic rock station, and I slowly realized that the Stones actually had some decent songs back in the day. Sure, I still didn't get why "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was considered such a trailblazing tune, but I could at least get behind "Jumping' Jack Flash" and "Sympathy For the Devil." I still didn't give two shits about 99% of their catalog, but I could at least admit to liking a few of their songs.

Every year, my appreciation for the Stones expanded a little more. On an early These Arms Are Snakes tour, we talked with a few guys that played with blues legend R. L. Burnside who derided Zeppelin for stealing from African-American musicians while applauding the Stones for helping insure those same musicians got the recognition and compensation they deserved. We also did an early Against Me! tour where I bonded with Andrew and Laura over our shared love of roots rock, and they were flabbergasted when I admitted that I had never dived into Exile on Main St. So I picked up a cheap used CD of Exile and began my journey to the heart of the Stones' world.

Even the Stones songs I'd heard a million times began to sound different once I understood that they were essentially these British ruffians who were celebrating and elevating taboo music. As a child raised on '80s Stones, I thought they sounded like every bad rock cliche rolled into one mediocre bar band. When I began to hear those old tracks from the '60s with the context of the society's racism and Puritanical rules in mind, the Stones began to sound far more dangerous and radical than most of the punk stuff I loved.

Then I started to learn more context about the Stones: how they were marketed as the anti-Beatles. How they refused to smile in press photos. How they were addicts and tax exiles. There was a lot of darkness that surrounded the Stones. A lot of things about the band were problematic and it's pretty easy to frame them as villains, but they were also pioneers who navigated the turbulence of the '60s and the hedonism of the '70s without a road map. Even the gross commercialization they underwent in the '80s seems less offensive when you consider that there wasn't really another band they could look at and say "we definitely don't wanna sell out like those guys."

And at the end of the day, they were a live band. They may have been an arena band by the time I was aware of them, but they had been prone to playing small clubs between bigger shows even up through the '70s. They made music that was meant to be loose and malleable and alive. They adhered to the same principle as a lot of the punk and hardcore bands I listened to: the albums were meant to sell you on their live show, not the other way around.

In Paris '70 is one of many, many live Stones bootlegs out there and despite its excellent track list, its audio quality leaves a lot to be desired. But the live energy still translates and serves as reminder of the band's strongest attribute---the ability to go out on stage and tear it up. It's by no means a good entry point for folks out there who haven't fallen in love with the Stones yet, but it felt like a good one to introduce as an overview of my long and gradual appreciation for the band before I start really nerding out over individual studio albums here in the next few days.

Apologies to the Stones haters out there; you're about to be inundated.

[justforbooks]

Jerry Lee Lewis, who has died aged 87, achieved dazzling early success as a defining hero of rock’n’roll, when he muscled in among Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, creating rock’n’roll piano from honky-tonk and hymn, as if doing so were as natural as breathing, and commandeering rhythm and blues with a casual authority achieved by no other white performer except Presley. With Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, Great Balls of Fire and High School Confidential, he made three of the genre’s indispensable classics.

These hits, plus unbeatable versions of Mean Woman Blues, Berry’s Little Queenie and many more, shared an immediately identifiable style, an alchemy of the “Sun Studio sound”, fluid vocal brio and a pounding yet lyrical piano. Both hands were crucial in his playing, his striding left hand the foundation of the rhythm, even with a bass guitarist behind him.

Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On was his second single. Widely banned for lewdness, it sold poorly until Lewis shook up Steve Allen’s national TV show in July 1957, after which he was a star, undertaking nationwide tours while the record sold more than a million. The glorious Great Balls of Fire followed, then Breathless and the title song of the film High School Confidential, in which Lewis performed. All stormed the pop, country and R&B charts.

However, it was all to change in May 1958 when Lewis arrived in Britain. The press discovered that the 13-year-old girl with him was his wife of five months, Myra Gale Brown (who was also his third cousin). His tour was cancelled, Lewis was deported and his career under threat. Jerry confessed his whole hillbilly history: “I was a bigamist at 16 … My wife Myra and I are very happy.” The public were not.

Born in Ferriday, Louisiana, to Mary Ethel, who spoke in tongues, and Elmo Lewis, a labourer, Jerry had two sisters, Frankie Jean and Linda Gail. His elder brother, Elmo Jr, was killed by a drunk driver when they were boys. His father, imprisoned for bootlegging, was brought to the funeral in chains.

Jerry was raised in the Pentecostal church, on family gospel singing and country music by Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry, Hank Williams and the state’s singing governor, Jimmie Davis. He taught himself the guitar, drums and fiddle as well as the piano, and hung around a local club, Haney’s, where he claimed he heard top black performers from Duke Ellington to Muddy Waters.

At 12 he made his first paid appearance, moved on to Radio WNAT in Natchez, Mississippi, and at 13 played clubs there, while his cousin Betty Jo Slamper taught him to “smooch”.

Hired as a pianist by a travelling preacher, in February 1952 Lewis married the preacher’s 16-year-old daughter, Dorothy Barton. Jerry Lee, too, was 16. The following year he attended the Pentecostal Bible Institute in Waxahatchie, Texas. Expelled for playing gospel music “like coloured people”, he told them, rightly, that they “might as well accept it, ’cause some day that’s how it’s gonna be”. Back home in September 1953, a month before his divorce from Barton was finalised, he bigamously married a pregnant Jane Mitchum after three days’ jail for store-breaking and stealing a gun. Whether or not this second marriage was ever legalised, it ended in 1957.

In Shreveport he made two country music demos, and in Nashville sought work from Slim Whitman. But rock’n’roll was erupting across the south, and like others drawn to Sun Studios, Memphis, by Presley’s success, Lewis auditioned there. In December 1956 Sun issued Crazy Arms, which sold well despite Ray Price’s version having long been on the charts and despite Lewis sounding almost diffident (not something that would recur). The B-side, End of the Road, one of Lewis’s few compositions, was an authentic dark howl, a perfect expression of its name and place.

At year’s end Lewis played on the sessions for several other artists’ rockabilly cuts, among them Carl Perkins’s Matchbox and Billy Lee Riley’s Flyin’ Saucers Rock’n’Roll. Days later, Roy Orbison asked him to play. Lewis replied: “I don’t do sessions any more.” Later, pressed by a discographer as to who had played on Jerry Lee’s own records, he would offer one of the all-time great ripostes to the collector mentality: “I played on ’em: what the hell else d’you need to know?”

Live, he was an explosive performer in the early years, genuinely close to the edge. And uninhibitedly competitive. Resenting lower billing than Berry on a date at the Paramount Theater, Brooklyn, New York, in 1958, the rumour is that Lewis ended his act by setting the piano on fire. As they met in the wings, Lewis challenged Berry: “Follow that!” Whether or not it happened, it is a rumour Lewis himself perpetuated with glee.

Two 1964 live recordings show his genius. On a tawdry, humdrum date at the Star Club, Hamburg, playing to what sounds like about 50 people, and using, in the tradition of visiting American stars, an English backing group he met mere minutes before showtime, Lewis suddenly rose to a transcendent Your Cheating Heart, with exquisite vocal phrasing and unsurpassable piano, coursing with understatement and grace. In front of an audience of 50,000 in Birmingham, Alabama, he threw down a Hi-Heel Sneakers of shuddering, majestic excitement, stealing the song from all previous occupants.

Following his rise and fall, Lewis remained at Sun, its heaviest star, making rock’n’roll A-sides and wonderful country B-sides of the immaculate Hank Williams kind, years before country became an established new career for ex-rockers. Lewis would be a main player in opening up this route.

He regained the UK Top 10 once, in 1961, with a superb version of Ray Charles’s What’d I Say, its sumptuous thunder Sun Records’s last golden moment. Lewis left in 1962.

On record he lost direction for a time, but toured with an arrogance burnished into art, wilfully infuriating audiences of Teds by dwelling on slow country songs while provoking country crowds with unabashed rock’n’roll. In mid-song he would order a musician to “Play it, son!” only to prevent his doing so with a piano solo no one would interrupt.

For a while he joined the rock festivals circuit, including appearing at the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, but by the 1970s he had cracked the mainstream country market with a succession of hits such as What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me) and the impeccably wily She Still Comes Around (to Love What’s Left of Me). A rangey, muttering Me and Bobby McGee in 1971 was made “to show that damn woman [Janis Joplin] how it should be done”.

Ten years later, his skin waxy and his gait old, he combed his greased hair for the Wembley Country festival crowd, put on filthy sunglasses and delivered a consummate Over the Rainbow: the mic still placed to show off how stylishly his right hand could steer around it, his vocal control sublime. He continued to switch between the two genres for the rest of his career and, as late as October 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.

He proclaimed himself for ever a rock’n’roller, through his remaining decades of turmoil, lurid tragedy and farce. His son with Myra, Steve, drowned in their swimming pool in 1962 aged three; one of his two sons with Jane Mitchum, Jerry Lee Jr, died in a car crash at 19 in 1973; Myra divorced him, citing mental cruelty and physical abuse; in 1983 his fifth wife, Shawn Stevens, took a fatal overdose 10 weeks into their marriage, a year after his fourth wife, Jaren Pate, drowned in another swimming pool. Rolling Stone published The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs Jerry Lee Lewis, accusing him of murdering one wife and abusing and/or hounding to death several others.

In 1975 his plane was seized with cocaine and 11 kinds of amphetamine on board; in 1976 he was arrested outside the gates of Graceland, drunk in possession of a gun; the IRS seized his property in 1979 and 1983, and he filed for bankruptcy even as Dennis Quaid was making the 1989 Hollywood film of his life, Great Balls of Fire! A short, tax-avoiding emigration to Ireland with his sixth wife, Kerrie McCarver, and their young son, Jerry Lee Lewis III, followed in 1992.

The marriage to Kerrie, remarkably, lasted 21 years, from 1984 to 2005; in 2012 he married for the seventh time, to his former “caregiver”, Judith Brown. There had been decades of medical catastrophe, including a collapsed lung, gall-bladder removal, bleeding stomach ulcers, spinal surgery and car-crash injuries. In 1984 he was twice brought back to life in an ambulance, and had half his stomach removed in 1985, a year his wife said he also spent shooting up methadone, tranquillisers and speed. In old age he also suffered from arthritis, pneumonia and shingles, in Rick Bragg’s 2014 book Jerry Lee Lewis: His Story.

Lewis embodied pinched obduracy, brooding, malevolent ignorance, violent unreliability and borderline madness. He abused women, played with guns and shot at men; he drove the highways of the south blind drunk with his loaded pistol on the dashboard. Yet in the vivid contrast between the meanness of the man and the grandeur of the artist, the common denominators were his phenomenal energy and admirable, all-conquering self-belief.

He will be remembered for his lifetime of hillbilly delirium, but he will be renowned for his seizure of the musical moment at the dawn of rock’n’roll, when an incomparable talent was his intoxicant and ours: when he shot up the old order and played out his defiant dramas on the keyboard, in the studio and on the stage.

He is survived by Judith, and his children Ronnie, Phoebe, Lori and Jerry Lee III.

🔔 Jerry Lee Lewis, singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist, born 29 September 1935; died 28 October 2022

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[this-is-macy]

I can't believe I watched 28 musicals this year! And I got to tick so many off of my "to watch" list! (The starred ones are shows that I saw for the first time this year.)

tick, tick…BOOM! (2021)

Newsies (2017)

Newsies (1992)

The Sound of Music (1965)

West Side Story (2021)

Hairspray (2007)

Grease (1978)

*The Last Five Years (2014)

Hamilton (2020)

West Side Story (1961)

*Newsies (OBC bootleg)

Dear Evan Hansen (touring production)

*Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Dear Evan Hansen (OBC bootleg)

Mean Girls (local production)

Heathers: The Musical (2022)

*Once (2007)

*Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Camp Rock (2008)

*Footloose (1984)

*The Greatest Showman (2017)

*Les Misérables (2012)

*In the Heights (2021)

*The Prom (2020)

*The SpongeBob Musical (2019)

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

*Theater Camp (2023)

*RENT (2005)

This year, I really expanded my musical repertoire and found a bunch of new favorites in the process. It's been so much fun discovering so many new stories and songs, as well as continuing to replay my old favorites over and over and over again! I'm excited to see what shows await me in 2024!

[sitpwgs]

Hi! I know what voice you're talking about and it seems like it really sucks. I know when I can't talk..that means it's also pretty painful too. Which is once again so awful and I'm sorry for the horrible timing! Oh that seems fun but it sucks that you're not seeing a show, and it sounds like a nice tradition. If it makes you feel better, I don't have any plans to see any shows either. I mean I probably will see one eventually next year but there's nothing I'm excited for or looking forward to.

Maybe watching a bootleg can help, but I know it's not the same. I know i have said I haven't been very into or caught up on recent Broadway stuff and sometimes it does make me sad. I am planning to read the Starless Sea in January too I hope so I'll keep that in mind. I didn't think of the Pippin revival but that's also an example of a revival trying to do something a little different I think. And I actually did watch Schmicago and thought it was pretty good! They might've actually referenced Pippin with a narrator character. I think it was actually better than the first season actually and the references were a lot more clear, at least to me. I would recommend it but did make me miss Broadway. At least they have Broadway actors though. I need to get better at watching shows too..that might have actually been the last full show I watched and that was back in July lol but I think I'm just more of a movie person usually.

But mostly I'm a music person and I can recommend my favorites. Omg I didn't know that..I've seen a few clips of Fall Out Boy on tour and it seems awesome. I hope you have the best time! So I'm not as into Fall Out Boy..like I've never done a deep dive on old albums and I was more of a casual fan at first. But their new album is great and since you're seeing their tour, you can just focus on that for now. My favorites are Fakeout and Love from the other side. For Paramore, I would listen to their albums in order cuz it's cool to see their evolution as a band and they don't have that many. They also have some covers and unreleased songs too. But if you wanna start with their newest album, I think it has a good mix of all of their sounds too. It's my favorite album of this year. I can also just list some favorites of mine here kinda going in order by album,. Oh Star, I caught Myself, Brighter, My Heart, Misery Business, When it Rains, Crushcrush. Brick By Boring Brick, Turn it off, Playing God, Misguided Ghosts, and all I wanted. Daydreaming, Last Hope, Hate to see your Heart Break, one of those crazy girls. Rose colored Boy, Fake Happy, 26, Tell me How, Running out of time, Big Man, You First, Liar, Crave and Thick Skull. I know that's a lot..wow i'm even surprised. I debated cutting it down but in case you don't listen to the full albums, this is what I would recommend! For her solo music, I would just recommend hearing the albums. Anyway what other vinyls did you get?

I definitely prefer Folklore, because I love a lot of songs on the album and I just know what my favorites are. Compared to Evermore, where some of it is more like background music to me. Ive already told you what my least favorites are and I might have unpopular favorites. My favorites are Evermore, Coney Island, Dorothea, and Gold Rush and Long Story Short . I also like No Body No Crime, Cowboy Like Me, Ivy and Right where you Left me cuz sometimes it feels like a movie. Ya Evermore does feel more cohesive to me or like it all blends together but my favorite songs are definitely on Folklore. That's why I've never understood the whole Folklore is a better album but Evermore has better songs thing lol. Also now it's Taylors birthday today..yay! Are you planning to watch the eras tour movie? I think I will sometime this weekend probably. Then its your birthday too and if anything, I will send you a message wishing you happy birthday if I don't reply. I hope you have a great weekend and birthday!!!

guess what guess what my voice is a little more back today !!! so fingers crossed it'll be completely back by saturday!!!! i've decided to make bracelets for the hockey game, so i'm going to be doing that tonight/tomorrow i think!! it'll be a nice break from making taylor bracelets :") (although i need to make some so i can mail them out next week eep!) i think my next show will probably be the company tour ... unless i see a regional production of spring awakening (which i'm tempted to; just depends on the cast and stuff).

i almost watched TBOSAS last night! but then i put the kraken game on instead </3 (which i'm glad i did because it was a beautiful game! and we won!) and i originally was going to stream eras tonight (i have $20 digital credits expiring on the 15th) but i forgot i have a thing at 7, and by the time that's over i won't want to watch a 3 hour long movie — so something for another night! you'll have to let me know how it is watching it from home! i suspect it'll be so much nicer to watch it all cozy and all but i wonder if i'll miss the cinema vibe!

i listened to part of the first paramore album yesterday when i was getting my allergy shot! i liked what i heard, but will need to finish it and then do another listen through to figure out what my favorites are! i ordered from the dirty hit store, so i figured if i was paying for ridiculous shipping costs i might as well bundle up so i actually ordered more than i normally would: i got the japanese house's saw you in a dream & pools to bathe in, beabadoobee's loveworm + the way things go 7", finally preordered benjamin francis leftwich's some things break vinyl + ordered his to carry a whale vinyl and after the rain, and the 1975's 7" all i need to hear + i like america and america likes me (real world version) ! and i have sabrina carpenter's fruitcake ep coming in i think on friday! so definitely way too many vinyls coming in haha. i need to cool it! way too many vinyls! i still need to finish working on my little vinyl craft project too, but that might be a next week problem / after the game / after my bracelets are done! i have like 15 ? that i need to prioritize for mailing out but then i can chill out for a little bit!

have i asked you for an updated taylor discography ranking yet? i'm curious to know what your ranking is/if it's changed since we last talked about it, especially with 1989 tv! you can distinguish between stolen and taylor's version if you'd like too!

i hope you have a lovely weekend 🤍 and thank you for the birthday wishes! x

[iwantallyourmidnights]

I’m in search of a bootleg for the Mean Girls tour (either the past union tour or the current non union tour, both were great!). I’ve checked YouTube and they don’t have any besides local productions!🫶

[rimouskis]

as someone who has also seen the broadway and touring productions, hard agree on everything you said. the touring eurydice especially really didn’t work for me either which made my experience a little :// and i felt the exact same way like how do i get back to nyc asap. so i am here to support your potential future nyc trip bc i wish i had lol

I've heard some people say she (Hannah, touring euridyce) is bringing back some of the original new york theater workshop version eurydice energy, and... man, I didn't like it 😅 i watched a bootleg of the NYTW performance with nabiyah and damon and it didn't work for me!

I also listened to that entire cast recording and while I admit that maybe I like the Broadway version better bc it's what I was introduced to first, I just sincerely believe that the characterization changes (making orpheus into a naive lovesick head-in-the-clouds savant instead of a Cool Suave Guy and making eurydice into a mean, wounded girl with a chip on her shoulder instead of just The Girl Orpheus Is In Love With) make the show work.

To her credit, Hannah doesn't play eurydice as Just A Girl like NYTW did, but Hannah's eurydice felt so very hungry and desperate that I didn't really buy that she was in love with orpheus, you know? She clearly wanted him and was in pain over it, but she played her SOOOOO tortured and world-weary and I missed Eva's "I'm trying to act mean and tough but you can tell I'm a scared young woman underneath" version. It was a valid acting choice but I just liked eva better.

And I won't get started on the singing 🥲 how can your female lead be flat and late for half of her songs 🥲 like it's an uphill battle when you're gonna be compared to Eva but come on now 🥲 please 🥲 what really hurt was at the end of "all I've ever known," Hannah and J. harmonized SO WELL and it was beautiful, so I was like !!! you do have a lovely voice! but where is your control!! why are you so flat and why don't you enunciate anything

anyways it may be stupid and financially irresponsible but I think we have to go back to NYC, anon