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caissie levy as diana goodman in next to normal

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I keep seeing this comment that Jack Wolfe's Gabe in the Next to Normal revival is so childlike and innocent because "he's literally just 8 months old! he wants his mom!" Gabe is an interesting character because he can be interpreted in many different ways, but this characterization bothers me because he's not an autonomous being. Gabe doesn't exist. Any childlikeness is Diana's imposition of those traits on him. He's not suffering any arrested development or misjudging the effects of his actions because he's not real. You can say he's Diana's subconscious urging her to be reckless, you can say she's babying and coddling him because she only knows him as an 8-month old. But he's not staring at her blood on the ground in shock because he's just a baby who doesn't understand. He doesn't have any independent desires or thoughts. Now his symbolism as grief is very much an independent variable within the family- it pulls on all the characters differently, an external force that haunts them. And you can use that as a metaphorical expression of grief! It's not something within our control, even if it's within our psyche. But if you go beyond that to say he's a literal ghost who has individual self-concept, then it misses the bigger point.

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yet more lempicka stuff

I love the way Eden changed her voice between older and younger Tamara. In Unseen she sheds the heavy coat and twirls around and asks "do you know who I am?" But it's the first time her voice is brighter, younger. That's the cue we've traveled back in time.

"I Will Paint Her" is every lesbian asking themselves if they're attracted to this person or if they just appreciate their beauty in a totally benign platonic way

"I know you because I am you" is giving "I know what you are"

I heard a recording of Mariand Torres singing Woman Is and I am unwell. She is criminally underappreciated.

I love that moment right before Woman Is where she asks "what have I done?" Obviously she's cheated on her husband and that's the plain meaning of the line. But the additional taboo of sleeping with a woman. What does this mean? What *have* you done, Tamara?

Woman Is is so sensual, even sexual ("her cry" hello??) But it's not explicit nor pornographic. Suzy is the character we can have a cathartic sexualized connection with- she invites the audience to laugh at innuendo, she makes us blush and laugh and feel naughty. But Tamara's song is about sapphic passion. It's not lust, it's love and carnality and intensity. Something about it feels sacred.

Amber Iman is a goddess and deserves every good thing.

Speaking of: the first time we see Rafaela is via spotlight. That's how she enters the musical. She's just standing, looking at the audience. I love it. She didn't wander in, she's not introduced passively. She's the muse: she shows up with pride. It breaks the fourth wall a bit.

I read some critics who didn't understand why Rafaela asked Tamara to leave her husband and love her openly. Politically and socially it was too risky to make logical sense. But she answers that question in her first song: "Live tonight, cause soon we'll all be dead." She's not concerned with consequences or playing it safe: her philosophy is never self-preservation.

How she doesn't even look at Tadeusz when she says "fuck you." Her head is held high. A+ choice.

I can't believe I didn't mention this before: the parallels in her songs. "you bet your life/don't bet your heart" "give back my life/give back my heart." And then "always be ready to walk away" versus a whole song about staying. She gambled and lost.

That heart-ripping cry in "Speed" where she goes "I can't let go!" That's it. That's her turning away. It's over.

My first time listening to Speed I thought Tamara said "they didn't touch me, I walked out of there clean" and that didn't really make sense in the plot. But with the real line "it didn't touch me" she's not talking about the physical, but the mental. Her trauma was minimized because she had a reason for the suffering (reminds me of Frankl's work, which is... fitting.)

The Baroness's song used to annoy me because I don't love their characters (we don't get enough time with them to feel connected) but I've been thinking how much of it is a mirror to Tamara's life, especially since Blasted California Sun comes right after. Sitting in moments, knowing they're fleeting. Getting up off the floor. Moving forward.

I'm chewing on the idea of speed being a symbol of human progress. Marinetti obviously sees it literally in automation and industry, while Tamara refers to woman as "a creature of great velocity." Which one ushers in the future? Which one *ought* to?

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I've reached the point where any time Eden sings on the cast recording I get teary.

Her acting, her conviction, is perfect. It doesn't feel like she's just singing the words. You know that she FEELS it. Many Broadway actors can sing brilliantly, but they lack the acting. Eden nails both.

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more lempicka stuff

Tamara saying she's trying to capture the depth of Michaelangelo's blue, and then Rafaela has blue eyeshadow

Rafaela's whole song about how love is for fools and Tamara is immediately like "I love this woman" makes me laugh

The foreshadowing of that song. During "Stay" Tamara tells her she'll buy her anything. Bracelets, an apartment.

"And then one day he looks at you, and no one's ever looked at you just that way." Tamara looks. She sees.

Amber Iman's comedic timing is impeccable. "I'm not a vampire!"

Fucking Tadeusz with his whiny song about getting over himself

Every time characters walk through the large frame. Tadeusz and Rafaela walk through it together when it's meant to be Adam & Eve.

"Did she always know I would have to go?" Babe she sang about staying. She trusted you to finally be a soft place to land. And you confirmed her cynicism from her first song. She was right all along. Love is for fools.

When the Monocle gets raided. Heartbreaking.

The whole musical ebbs in and out of time (years pass in seconds) but "Woman Is" is so singular, the physicality of that moment is captured in that song. The immediacy of bodies and desire and making love in the dark. The juxtaposition between that night and the rest of the musical where time moves fast. It's so interesting.

She mentions "to [her] surprise" she cried for five days when the Baron died. She's insinuating that she wasn't in love with him. Did she cry for losing her last connection to Paris and her former life? For outliving everyone? He was her biggest fan. Does she fear falling into obscurity?

When Eden pulls out the cane and you realize she's older Tamara again. Brilliant. The fast span of time, of aging, of waking up and realizing your past is drifting further away every day. A whole life across the sea just, disappeared. Eden embodies that sort of resolved sadness with precision. It's heartbreaking. There is no resolution with Rafaela. The years are gone. She's gone. Everyone is gone.

"What matters? You and I" when older Tamara and Rafaela look at each other. Sobbing. I can't.

That whole finale. I just can't.

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2024 Tony Award Nominee EDEN ESPINOSA as TAMARA DE LEMPICKA

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lempicka stuff

In Unseen when she sings "my beauty all behind me" I'm convinced she's thinking of Rafaela

The motif of sight- "unseen," "teach me to see," Rafaela asking if she ever saw her, it's all connected to art, beauty

Eden Espinosa has this enigmatic capacity to break my heart. When she's on the ground in front of the Baroness, that's a broken woman.

A man could not write "Woman Is." It's the kind of thing that could only come from a sapphic writer. Critics have said the lyrics are lacking but they're not meant to be narrative or clever, they're the sense of being alive and enraptured

Related: "A New Woman" is all about Tadeusz saying he wants a woman who is "his." Someone who would cling to him "like a vine." He's not a villain and Tamara does love him but god fucking dammit girl, you were set on fire when you had lesbian sex for the first time. Leave this idiot.

"Woman Is" as this nighttime ballad, the secrecy and fragility, the shadows and light, daring to finally admit these things to herself in the way only darkness can pad that vulnerability. Perfection.

The chemistry between Eden and Amber could light a wildfire

Did I mention we got lesbian sex in a Broadway musical????

Tamara telling herself it was just one night and she'll paint her and set her free, then immediately climbing back into bed when Rafaela beckons

Rafaela asking "will she leave" in The Most Beautiful Bracelet as foreshadowing kills me. Then she sings"I think I'll stay" in Stay because she finally feels seen and loved

I Will Paint Her is such a perfect description of those early feelings where you're trying to justify them- I just want to paint her, she's just a muse- and not understanding the intensity of why you feel what you feel

Eden Espinosa is so fucking beautiful

When Rafaela asks her to leave him you can see Tamara's eyes drop because she immediately knows she can't

How did Eden play a queer woman so well? She mentioned once she was hesitant about this kind of role & honoring it, but she nailed it.

At the end when Rafaela is sitting on the bench and Tamara says "I'm sorry"? Tears.

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I knew as soon as I heard this song that it was written by a sapphic person and I was right because no man could write this way

“teach me to live / teach me to breathe / teach me to see no question / no hesitation / kiss me” EDEN ESPINOSA performs 'Woman Is' in LEMPICKA

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AMBER IMAN as Rafaela & EDEN ESPINOSA as Tamara de Lempicka LEMPICKA the musical

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it's just the two of us AMBER IMAN & EDEN ESPINOSA in LEMPICKA

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reviving this Tumblr just to yell about Lempicka

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I’m fine

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i'm gonna go home and draw

ⓘ Misinformation check: He's not going to draw when he gets home. This user is known for often lying about this.

hey man what the fuck. untrue

ⓘ Misinformation check: This user has not drawn in weeks.

dude come on

ⓘ Misinformation check: He doesn't remember how to.

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loudly going "YOU'RE GOOD YOU'RE GOOD" to myself to ward off the memory of every embarrassing thing i've ever done

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thr funniest part of therapy to me is when you first come in and you're exchanging niceties and they say "hello! how are you" and you say "im fine how are you :)" and then 30 seconds later they put on their therapist voice and say "so how are you doing?" and you go well lisa. believe it or not im doing Bad

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"humans are naturally selfish and evil" factoid actually just statistical error. former united states president ronald w. reagan,