#the characters interactions remind me a lot of the stagehands

[ansbobcar]

My thoughts on the mashle stage play becuz I'm sad I didn't record the whole thing

Only thing I didn't record but I did watch once was the Abel vs Mash part so I think I'm okay enough.

So, overall it was fun. Reminds me of how much fun I had while watching one of the mha stage plays (think the 3rd).

I love the details they added in this medium:

1. Mash NEVER sings showing just how unmagic he is (really looking forward to what the Divine Visionaries will sound like) it reminded me of Shrek and why the Shrek musical felt weird when I watched it. Like everybody sings and dances—except for Mash which really shows just how out of place he is. It makes you focus on the other characters too ngl.

2. Mash's muscles wearing creampuffs for headgear AND having nametags was just *chef's kiss*. I found it extra funny and they really help emphasise the absurdity of Mash's physical powers AND have their own personalities? They're like Mash's minions—the Duello moment where they score a bunch of goals—iconic.

3. Just the stagehands/prop ppl in general working with the projector to make the magic—magic itself in reality was extra cool. Like Abyss' Secondth Spell set up was kinda wild as if his own magic wasn't with the people waving around arrow flags. Using fabric for Wirth's Mud stuff. HECK THEY ONLY HAD 3 PARTISAN PROPS AND STILL MADE IT LOOK COOL.

Alright, so any highlights?

Let me go in order if I can.

The first door prop was wild. I think they used magnets in order to make it work. Pls use it againnnn in the next stage play.

The way Lemon and Love are the only two who use the rewind function is really funny, becuz Lemon's is for her introduction solo song and also semi-glosses over what happened during the entrance exam just like the rest of it was in song while also establishing her delulu love for Mash, honestly she's so real for it. Meanwhile, Love's isn't a musical number and is just the one where she explains how they got duped a coin. The use of practical magic tricks is really cool (I think they used one for the coin itself, those flipping blinds things to make the illusion of a diff object yk.)

The Magia Lupus choir-y ensemble songs were prolly one of my favourites, although I think it's just becuz I really liked Love Cute's presence as a whole since they only focused on Love, Wirth, Abyss and Abel as like the lead singers and Shuen is nowhere in sight? (I forgot if he was Magia Lupus in the first place) alongside the Finn-Lemon duet about like "ganbare Mash" (istg they made FinnMash so much more possible with this one song) and they're like definitely bestie coded 100%.

Anything with Mash's muscles is super funny too.

Lance's solos are emo, Dot had such a main character entrance but I dunno how to feel about the fact he doesn't tuck in his shirt (for context: the tea and the grades) but the fact I can't tell when his actor changes his fucking wig for the Ira Kreuz reveal is crazy.

RAYNE'S ENTRANCE GUYS. Bro has like my favourite musical solo entrance out of all of them. AND HE ALSO DANCES. HE FUCKING DANCES GUYS. KPOP IDOL RAYNE IS SO CLOSE TO BEING REALITY GUYS. They triple killed me in less than 10 minutes for that one.

Also the way they manage to put on the puppet masks without ruining the pacing makes me lose my mind becuz like... HOW???

I forgot to mention Wahlberg but honestly, him and Regro weren't my favourite favourite parts—I think it's becuz they have a lot of exposition dumps and more of a comedy out of the plot element since him and the cop interact with the audience quite a bit—oh but the acting that Regro does to make it look like he's squeezing from the neck makes you as the audience feel and believe his pain (when tehre isn't any). Like it was convincing. Plus they were funny during the entrance exam, they were dancing too.

Also Wahlberg pulled off the flash-paper thing. It was cool. I'm hoping for the thirds magic they make it look really cool in the next stage play.

The best part I looked forward too... was the Shu Cream Funk dance the main 5 did. They also made the others do it on the 2nd and 3rd time. Including Rayne. I recorded this in low-res. It was great.

Overall, highly entertaining. I think considering how they had to cut down 4 hours down to 2 hours with song, choreo (fight and dance numbers) they were pretty successful. I just think as someone who cannot understand japanese that the first 20 minutes was really REAAALLLY plot dump exposition a bit like the funny stuff from Ep 2 and Ep 3 with the entrance exam doesn't exist.

But they made up for it enough.

There's a lot that I skipped like the bullying thing and Bamboo guy. I don't remember his name but that's kinda covered with the rest. I'm really wondering how they're gonna pull off the next arc... I forgot who they cast...

[theficplug]

Wild N Out - Karlous Miller

Karlous Miller x Black Reader

warnings: none, fluff

{You are the new Wild N Out girl. Fun ensues.}

Wild N Out was never your first option , hell, it wasn’t even really your last option. So, becoming the new Wild N Out Girl never even crossed your mind.

You had met Karlous at an event on a business trip in L.A. where you two had hit off and began dating ever since. You were in school to become a dentist and did modeling in your spare time, but both were becoming something you despised.

After your boyfriend convinced you that you were the funniest person he knew and your manager agreeing with him. You finally caved and went through the casting call process. Fast forward and you were chosen to be a part of Wild N Out: New School vs Old School. 

The day had finally come for the first taping and rumours were that Mo’Nique and other well known fans of the show were in attendance tonight. 

Karlous massaged your sides backstage and gave you a run-down of how the show would typically flow and run.

“Bae, Keke Palmer said she liked my shoes earlier and asked me where I got em from. Bae she called me a pretty girl and everything, like, I’m really doing this.” you say talking a mile a minute

“I call you that everyday now I’mma have to come up with somethin’ else. Keke just gon’ steal my girl right in front of me.” he jokes. “You gon’ be alright . It’s like a family here so everything gon’ go smooth. You up here worrying for nothing with your fine ass.” Karlous says holding your hands and kissing them gently.

“Okay, you right.  I got this and don’t think just cause you my man i’mma go easy on you! You not on my team, Old School.” you say to him teasingly and the stagehand lets you both know that it’s time to go on. 

“Alright but don’t be talkin bout “you sleepin’ yo ass right on that couch” when I return that heat!” he calls after you and you just shake your head laughing as you walk out onto the set and wave at the fans. You see a few familiar faces like Tim and Justine and Chico/DC of course. But, there's also a few new faces that you didn’t recognize. Probably people who couldn’t make it to the welcome dinner so you make sure you go by greeting everyone and accepting hugs from some of them.

“Welcome to Wild N Out: New School vs Old School Edition. If you’ve been watching the show you already know what the hell is about to go down. Dj D-Wrek is going to give us some answers and we’re going to come up with some funny questions, and then rush up to this buzzer. Team with the funniest answers wins the game.  I am your new host Keke Palmer and this is Hood Jeopardy.” she announces and the crowd cheers before the round starts. You blow a kiss at Karlous and his goofy self catches it and places it in his pocket dramatically. 

Your eyes scan the crowd and you definitely seen some well known faces in the crowd. You even flanced over at Dulce Sloan on the upper deck. 

You give a small smile to the crowd and then keep your focus on Karlous knowing that he’d either nod his head at you or do something to distract you from your nerves.

“Things Karlous Miller is built like.” DJ D-Wrek calls out 

You let out a loud laugh before your team starts ooh-ing and ahh-ing like schoolyard children as you run over to the buzzer at the same time as DC. 

“Aww hell naw , bae you just gon do me like that?” Karlous shouts while throwing his hands up in the air and you can hear the crowd giggling already. 

“Move DC. That’s my man. You BETTA MO-” you squabble with DC and play fight over the buzzer before knocking him on the floor with your hip and he makes a show of it flying and sliding across the floor yelling “damn she-hulk damn”. 

You smile softly to yourself as the bell goes off and a point goes to your team, letting the small victory ease your nerves.

“What is zaddy built like. Well, that’s easy, what is  “a beautiful chocolate man” ”. you say in the White Chicks voice before Karlous adds “that’s right baby, that’s right.”

“Sike, what is Crash Bandicoot. What is Perry The Platypus from Phineas and Ferb. What is-” you blurt out as you hear the crowd and both teams in hysterics laughing and falling over each other as Karlous stands there with his lips pushed out. 

The bell goes off repeatedly signaling that your team had won that round as DJ D-Wrek stands there wiping tears from his eyes and Chico comes over to join you. 

“What is a small Booker T.” Chico wheezes into the microphone as you two hold onto each other’s shaking shoulders. 

“Hold on I’m not done. Who is Thurgoode from the PJs. What is-” Karlous cuts you off by running over and saying “Yo baby daddy” into the mic and your team yells oop. 

“Don’t be salty baby. It’s not my fault you built like a Fun Dip stick and a thermometer had a baby. You still luh me though?” you ask and he follows up with hell yeah. 

The crowd eats up your dynamic as they watch the both of you interact. 

“Alright, Alright , Alright.  That round goes to New School. They coming with that heat for the o.g.” 

You take a quick commercial break before starting the next segment “Now You Wild Out”. 

“Everybody already knows how this goes. We get a topic from D-Wrek and we go in. Team with the best improvs wins the round. Let’s get it!” Keke says before going stepping back onto team New School. 

Each person from the team goes with almost everyone being evenly matched with points until it’s finally you and Karlous up next with the category Date Night. 

“I got this. I got this.” you tell your team as you strut to the front of the line and Karlous runs over to steal a kiss real quick while the crowd aww’s .

“Aww nothing. Get your milk dud headass over here Lous.” DC says pulling him by the back of his shirt. 

“Lemme get a quick wax. Lemme get a quick wax. Now you wild out.” you say and you hear a mhm before a roar of laughs from the women in the crowd.

“Gotta wash the balls off. Gotta wash the balls off. Now you wild out.” Karlous returns with quick fire while his team copies him and dances with one leg up.

You dance to the music before patting your pockets and all over you “Where’s the plan B? Where’s the plan B? Where’s the plan B? NOW YOU WILD OUT.” you say and Karlous stands there with his hands on his hips with his mouth slightly open as the crowd and your teams laugh along. 

He was standing there shook at the fact that your lil quiet shy self was standing there talking about it. 

He quickly snaps into the character and starts yikin side to side yelling “I sholl did. I sholl did. I sholl did. Now you wild out.” 

The audience erupts into laughter at the chemistry and comedy between the two of you. 

You push him playfully and return to the back of the line as the bell signals that his team had won that round.

The rest of the episode goes smoothly and your team comes close to winning but Old School ultimately won overall. Karlous finds you waiting for him in the parking lot and in a conversation with some people from your team.

You grab his hands softly as he hugs you from behind. “Damn Justine, I've been thinking bout you too.” you joke and turn around to kiss him deeply for a moment.

“Girl you were on fire. I’ll see later. “ Gabby,  one of the new girls on your team says before leaving you two alone. 

“I was talking to one of the producers and baby, they loved what they saw from you. They think you add something extra to the show and in they words “you guys were off the chain”. I know you ain’t have nothing to worry about.” Karlous says mocking them and congratulating you. 

“Thank you baby, for pushing me to do this. I actually really enjoyed today and can’t believe this is my new gig and my new lil found family. I love it here. I can’t believe freaking Mo’Nique was in the crowd. I got to talk to her. Queen gon’ tell me “You remind me of how comedy used to be. Just spittin’ about life and shit. We ain’t mean nothing by it. Just shooting the breeze. You’re going to go far niece.”  I thought I was gonna pass the fuck out or something babe.: you say to him and he just stands there in awe of you while you give him the rundown.

“I told you. You be funny without even trying. Just doing the most random ass shit and I still be in the crib hollering.” he says chuckling softly

 “Thanks baby. But the way you was looking at me all night in my lil Wild N Out shirt. You like what seen or what?” you tease as you lean in to lick over his lips and he lays you against the car grabbing your chin and kissing you. 

“Where the Plan B? Where the Plan B?” he jokes and you shake your head , chuckling softly.

“Now you wild out.” you say , wrapping your arms around his neck

@arination99 @genuinedonnie @ljstraightnochaser

[wineandhargreeves]

1-13, 31-41 ?

1.       Newsies song

At the moment, probably The Truth About the Moon.

2.       Newsies song lyric

“Courage cannot erase our fear; courage is when we face our fear.”

3.       Quote from newsies

“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.”

4.       Character

Honestly, Hannah and Medda because of their iconic lines and unmatchable sassiness.

5.       Costume

I love how David and Katherine’s costumes change between acts to reflect how they feel more comfortable around the newsies.

6.       Newsies related memory

Seeing the tour for my 16th birthday.

7.       Newsies fanwork created by somebody else

There are far too many for me to list, but the ones that come to my mind are @crystallizedtwilight @wetcoffeejpg and @freedomfriesandapplepies because they’re all talented as heck at art. As for writers, I love @javidblue and @bentylershook. I’m sure there are others, but there are so many!

8.       Newsies fanwork that you’ve created

These fics.

9.       Newsies blogs

Can I answer all of them? Because I couldn’t possibly list you all!

10.   Thing about the newsies fandom

How we managed to make a box office bomb from 1992 into a celebrated, Tony Award winning musical smash.

11.   Romantic ‘Ship (OTP)

At the end of the day, Javid has my heart.

12.   Non-romantic relationship between two characters

Les interacting with anyone. I love that little ball of fire and excitement.

13.   Newsies actor/actress

I look up a lot to Julian DeGuzman. I see him as a kuya to me.

Write a headcanon about

31.    3 background characters of your choice

- Romeo is actually illiterate and had to listen to Specs read Romeo and Juliet to understand why he has his nickname.

- Tommy Boy is actually from Australia and carries seeds that are native to his home country in his pockets.

-  Hannah lives with another woman named Margaret; they’re in love and look forward to coming home to one another every night.

32.    Something that happened before the strike

Jack actually started off as a stagehand for Medda, but she insisted he go into painting after she saw his art.

33.    Something that happened after the strike

Mr. Jacobi the deli owner now leaves some leftover food out for newsies who are coming home late at night.

34.    What kind of pet the character of your choice would have

David would actually have a rat he rescued from a lab that performed animal testing.

35.    What kind of food the character of your choice would like

Spot loves Hungarian cuisine because it reminds him of home.

36.    Something very depressing relating to the character of your choice

Kid Blink and York were brothers who lost use of their eyes after trying to stop their father from abusing their mother.

37.    Something very happy relating to the character of your choice.

Elmer sews up blankets out of spare cloth to give the others on their birthdays.

About You

38.    Which newsies character do you think you are most similar to and why?

David because we’re both academically minded, but will take a stand when there is injustice present.

39.    Which newsies character do you think you could be friends with and why?

Once again, David if only because we can bond over nonsensical facts and stories about school.

40.    Why do you like newsies?

I like it because the music is inspiring, as is the true history behind it all.

41.    How did you first discover newsies?

My first exposure to it was the 2012 Christmas Day performance.

[builtbysnowman]

Snowman’s Favourite Games of 2017

It seems like we find ourselves saying it every December, but it really is true: this year was a spectacular one for games. 

From inventive new entries in blockbuster series to deeply resonant games crafted by independent creators, and everything in between, we were constantly inspired by this industry’s talented creators.

As we reflect on all the great titles we had a chance to experience, some in particular continue to linger in our hearts and minds. Whether they made us laugh with delight, cry out in frustration, or in some cases just cry, these games were our favourite of 2017 (in no particular order). 

What Remains of Edith Finch

In our Snowman Review of the game, we said, of Giant Sparrow’s masterpiece:

The deeper I dove, the more I was surprised by how resonant the whole experience was on a personal level. How despite getting lost inside it, the magical Finch house never lost its grip on me. How, underneath all of the Rube Golbergian mystery of it, What Remains of Edith Finch was ultimately a tale of loss, and of how we deal with it. Of finding perfection in our own fallibility, and the fallibility of the people we love. And maybe most of all, of forming the shape of our future out of more than the contours of our past.

Even as the year comes to a close, we constantly find ourselves bringing up Finch. Full of haunting, sometimes heart-wrenching vignettes, this is a game which is best experienced completely unspoiled. If you’ve yet to visit the Finch house, do yourself a favour and take a trip there as soon as possible. 

TumbleSeed

On the surface TumbleSeed is a game about rolling a small seed up a big mountain. But in reality, TumbleSeed is so much more than that. It’s a game about learning to delight in intrinsic rewards. A game where the high score isn’t a point value, but the realization that you’ve become a more patient person — a person who deals better with small setbacks, who breathes deeper for a little longer before becoming agitated. TumbleSeed is a shining example of a game created with singular conviction. It’s an experience some players will bounce off of. But for those who stay, it’s that wonderful type of game which gets under your skin, and into your bones — always calling you back for one more try. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The term “open-world” gets bandied around a lot for games with large maps, lots of quests, and long checklists of things to do. Breath of the Wild, however, is something altogether more brilliant. A game that presents the player with a massive playground full systemic interactions, and sets them loose to craft their own adventure. Climb to the top of a snow-capped mountain, use your shield to snowboard down, jump into the air above a camp full of enemies, and electrify them all by shooting a lightning-powered arrow into their tin cooking pot. Then go do a hundred other things you haven’t yet planned on your way to another mysterious peak in the distance. Breath of the Wild is a return to and revitalization of the sense of wonder that’s so central to the Zelda series. It’s a shining example of why Nintendo are such masters of their craft.

Gorogoa

There’s no other way to say it: Gorogoa is perfect in every conceivable way. It is a profound experience so clever that it’s actively hard to believe it exists as it’s happening. As a puzzle game, it’s a master class in how to teach people what to do as they do it, all while ensuring that nothing ever feels unfair or too far out of reach. But our advice when playing this - and you must immediately go play this if you have a couple hours to spare - is not to get too hung up on what type of game it is. Instead, enjoy getting lost in every resplendent, hand-drawn frame, as the game’s concept and story unfold before you one layer at a time. 

Stagehand: A Reverse Platformer

Sometimes you stumble on a game whose concept is so elegant and intuitive that you wonder how it hasn’t been done before. Stagehand is one such gem. Part platformer, part runner, the game has you moving the landscape to guide intrepid hero Frank to safety amid a gaggle of classic obstacles like spikes and lava. Moment to moment, Stagehand is a constant delight with clever design, pixel-perfect art and nostalgia-inducing sound design. Developer Big Bucket Software continues to impress as a creator of modern classics for phones and tablets. 

Cuphead

Much has been made of Studio MDHR’s seven-year journey to bring Cuphead to life, and playing it, you can instantly see why. The game is a Silly Symphony in your hands: a playable Fleischer-era cartoon that leaps off the screen and into your heart. It’s almost impossible not to root for the adorable Cuphead and Mugman as they run and gun their way through inventive boss battles to earn their soul back from the devil. We say almost, because the game’s brutal retro difficulty might just have you throwing your controller. Good luck!

Old Man’s Journey

In our review of the game earlier this year, Snowman founder Ryan Cash sums up why this game is such a treasure:

So much of the [game’s] emotional journey is wrapped up in the beautiful art style — the pastel colours flowing around the screen in wisps. Subtle animations pepper the painterly flashbacks of the main character, stirring up wistfulness and nostalgia. A children’s storybook with an adult heart, brought to life...Truly, the title of the game says it all. Life can pass us by so quickly, and this game was a beautiful reminder of that. A chance to pause, and do something we often forget to do — reflect.

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy

In the trailer for Getting Over It, the game’s creator Bennett Foddy says that he created it “for a certain type of person...to hurt them.” This game, about ascending a massive mountain as a man stuck inside a pot using an axe, more than lives up to Foddy’s aspirations. There are no checkpoints, the landscape is deliberately designed to rebuff attempts to find clear patterns in movement, and nearly any misstep can result in tumbling all the way to the very bottom. Why then, does it make our list? Because there’s something intoxicating about the oft-unexplored feeling of friction and frustration that Getting Over It captures. Of all the games on this list, it’s perhaps the most fun to play with a group of friends, delighting in one another’s misery, and - somewhat inexplicably - your own.

Monument Valley 2

We’d be remiss not to include ustwo Games’ followup to the gorgeous Monument Valley. This second kaleidoscopic journey into the world of sacred geometry continues the series trend of taking your breath away in every shot. This is the the type of game that makes the devices you play it on feel more beautiful — any isolated shot could be a painting hung on your wall. This time around, take particular note of the transcendent, transportive sound and music from artist Todd Baker.

Super Mario Odyssey

It may seem biased because we have our own Odyssey title on the horizon, but we promise: this game is spectacular. In a series known for its tight controls and balletic movement, Super Mario Odyssey is a crowning achievement. A game where every hop, skip, and jump is so responsive it will put a smile on your face, and where the rewards for mastering the controls feel nearly endless. Speaking of endless: this is the kind of game you hibernate with. Every nook and cranny of its bright, ebullient world is filled with secrets and treasures to find, so make sure to keep playing even after Bowser’s been defeated.

Perhaps the greatest shame of all is that for every game mentioned on this list, there are probably three that we’ve forgotten or which we didn’t even get a chance to play. Then again, that will just make discovering them later all the more joyful. 

Here’s to a 2018 that’s even half as filled with amazing experiences as this year was – a few them even from yours truly. 

[stitching-in-time]

The other day I went to see A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, so here’s a reaction post:

The national tour of Gentleman’s Guide came to town, and I wasn’t going to go at first because it didn’t especially impress me when I heard the cast album, and I didn’t want to shell out money for something that isn’t a favorite show. But the promos for it were all over the place, and I know people who love it, and I always wondered if maybe it’s one of those shows you have to see to really get it, and it was surely my only chance to see the original production live.... So I broke down and went on it’s closing night in town. And I definitely like it better after actually seeing it live, versus just hearing the cast recording. A good deal of the comedy is visual, and it’s very stylized and intentionally cheesy, which I think helps get past the distatefulness of having to sympathize with a lead character who’s literally just murdering people for his own gain. Of course that’s the whole joke, and the D’Ysquith family is meant to be absolutely horrible, but I could never find Bryce Pinkham’s slightly swaggering and crazy eyed Monty endearing enough to overlook the fact that he’s a murderer and root for him. This production’s Monty, Blake Price, on the other hand, has a much more boyish, nerdy quality, which worked in his favor when it comes to making a social climbing murderer into a genuinely likable character, which he did. The fact of him looking like just about the least likely person ever to be a serial murderer was an irony that added to the comedy, and he never lost his adorableness even while dispatching relative after relative- and I wanted him to get away with it all. (Spoilers: he does! It’s a comedy, after all.)

James Taylor Odom had the gargantuan task of playing all eight of Monty’s victims, but did it with such energy and gusto that he made it look effortless, despite the numerous quick changes which must have been chaos backstage. I was sitting in one of the front boxes and could see into the wings on one side of the stage, and seeing stagehands and cast scrambling to set things up, and then the moment of transformation when the actors stepped on stage and turned ‘on’ as the crew slipped away in relief, was a familiar sight to me, but a reminder of how hard musical theatre magic is to make, and that, no matter how big the show, it’s just another bunch of theatre nerds working their butts off because they love this stuff as much as we do. And that’s what makes experiencing live theatre so different from just seeing it filmed: that excitement and passion fills a whole auditorium and everyone can feel it. As the only person in any of the front boxes at that performance, I got directly looked at by Monty, Sibella, and shot at by Adalbert D’Ysquith- and let me tell you, no matter how old you get or how many shows you see, having one of the characters in the show you’re watching suddenly make eye contact or interact with you, is always, always a huge thrill. For a moment, you’re part of the magic, and if anyone says that filming theatre will replace that, they’re wrong.

But back to the show: I liked the set very much. Having the scenes set in a little box mimicking a Victorian theatre was very ingenious and helped sell some of the more corny low-tech conceits like actors miming skating behind cardboard trees or climbing imaginary staircases. Hi-tech modern stagecraft wasn’t abandoned totally however, since many of the backdrops were created with moving pictures projected on the back wall of the little theatre box (or it might have been an LED screen- I couldn’t quite tell- but a projector would seem more practical/likely for a touring production).

Getting to see the whole story also helped me appreciate the score properly at last. On listening to the cast recording I’d thought it was solid, but un-inspiring. But now I really do think a lot of it is quite superb: the clever counterpoints in ‘Poison in my Pocket’, the gorgeousness and sensuality of the old-fashioned ballad ‘Sibella’, the precise, deadpan humor in ‘Why Are All the D’Ysquiths Dying?’, the surprisingly soaring, uplifting melody of ‘The Last One You’d Expect’... this is some of the better musical comedy music written in the last few decades. 

However, the show isn’t quite the ‘non-stop laughs!’ and ‘rolling in the aisles!’ comedy that it’s made out to be. It does have some very funny moments, and the tone is very zany in general, and the cast was playing it to the hilt, but there are definitely spots where it drags. Monty’s attempts to dispatch Aunt Hyacinth contained no less than two reprises of her song about wanting to civilize ‘savages’ in the far-flung British Empire, and while the attitudes of the D’Ysquiths are meant for us to laugh at for being so objectionable, it begins to cross over into the territory of actually objectionable, not to mention repetitive, to keep hearing the more and more insults about non-white cultures. The parts where it veered into the territory of sexual humor were also the most unfunny parts, the jokes being both incredibly stale and juvenile at the same time. One got the sense that the part with angry tenants confronting Henry D’Ysquith for mistreating them was possibly a last minute addition to make him into a terrible person worthy of being bumped off, since all his song tells us about him is that he’s gay, which would be an unbelievably insensitive thing to suggest he’s worthy of being hated/killed for. (His bee-sting death was absolutely hilarious though, I have to say- in addition to the bee swarm projection and sound effects, Odom came out wearing a bee-keeper helmet with little fake bees attached to it by wires, and he was hamming it up so fantastically, and the little fake bees shook when he screamed and flailed, it was so funny!)

As for the other principals, Colleen McLaughlin was also surprisingly likable as Monty’s sweetheart-to-secret lover Sibella, who, while self-absorbed and seemingly shallow, underneath it all genuinely cares for Monty as much as he does for her. They have a genuine rapport together, and their messed-up romance rings true in spite of, or perhaps because of, it’s lack of fairy-tale illusions. But even the usual fairy-tale princess type girl doesn’t stick to the usual narrative here: the sweet and refined Phoebe D’Ysquith, played by Erin McIntyre, boldly proposes to Monty herself, and overcomes her initial shock over his relationship with Sibella to help get him out of prison. In fact, the two of them deciding that their love of Monty is stronger than their jealousy of each other, and joining forces to save him, provides an absolutely delightful and somewhat subversive ending, wherein Monty lives happily ever after with both his wife and mistress, and both ladies very pleased with the arrangement. It’s an ending that redeems the show from it’s some of it’s more old-fashioned attitudes and it’s a nice feel-good happily ever after that neither sacrifices it’s naughtiness nor gives into cynicism completely. (And I’m not sure if the curtain-call antics with Monty giving his would-be assassin the belladonna flower was scripted or not, but it was brilliant and very funny!)

All in all, I’m glad I went. And considering that I sat way up in the balconies where I was in the throes of terrible vertigo the entire time (boo I hate economizing!), that’s saying a lot more in this shows favor than you might imagine!