#|| it's both theatre of safety and like. an again very relatable desperation to me.

[revvnant]

do you guys ever think about the mci.

[pubtheatres1]

ACTS OF DISUNION a double bill written by Alex Hayward, directed by Rachael Bellis The White Bear Theatre 16th & 18th March 2019 ‘... the best of the night came in the second half ... ‘Kingdom’ takes a brilliant, realistic and quite poignant view’ ★★★ I approach political theatre with some trepidation. It’s not my area of expertise, and like many I believe, I saw my fair share of highly questionable productions from angry young people during my BA, and MA for that matter. So, when coming to Acts of Disunion, I was hoping to prove myself wrong and discover that actually I can enjoy political theatre. And I was half proved wrong; because for me it was a night of two halves. Button – The first of the two shows took place in an underground bunker wherein there are two politicians of opposing parties and one big red self-destruct button. Stanley (played by Howard Lewis Morgan) is determined the button should be pushed, after all, the people voted, it’s what they asked for and this is a democracy isn’t it? Julia (played by Zari Lewis) thinks it’s probably not a good idea to ensure our complete annihilation by pressing the button, the only course of action must be what’s best for the people, despite the vote. This is not a new concept, the idea of a button that would end it all and people getting so deluded and desperate that annihilation is a better option than their current state. ‘Button’ unfortunately for me was everything I dread in political theatre; what it lacked in nuance it made up for in melodrama and vitriol. ‘Button’ for me didn’t say anything new or specific to our time, but was instead sound and fury without direction. It just got to the point with all the yelling, and two-dimensional characters, I didn’t really care if they pushed the button or not. And for me, if I don’t care whether the characters in front of me live or die then the piece just isn’t working. But perhaps that’s part of what political theatre is about, it’s not about the people, it’s about the arguments, it’s about the lessons that the audience are meant to be taught. The actors did work very hard and committed to their performances, but I feel like they were given a hard task with the writing and direction. Kingdom – The second half of the evening felt like an entirely different night for all the right reasons. ‘Kingdom’ takes as its focus Alton, an elderly man, who despite the pleas of his son and the danger of an excavated, unexploded bomb, refuses to leave his house. The old saying ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’ comes to mind, and Alton is determined to keep his drawbridge up, frustrated and probably a bit afraid to go outside the safety of its walls into a community he no longer recognises. Richard Harfst is utterly phenomenal as Alton. Despite Harfst being obviously too young to have seen the blitz first hand, as his character did, his physicality was consistent with that of someone far older than himself. Harfst’s performance is evocative of an entire generation. Despite uttering the occasional prejudicial comment, he always claims never to be racist or prejudice. We do not dislike him at all, even though we may disagree with him. I’m sure the audience often feel as Alton’s son Mark does. Paul Boichat gives a brilliant and understated performance as Mark. He loves his father deeply but is intensely frustrated with his refusal to accept change. The conversation between father and son covers politics through the prism of the personal. As an audience member, I feared both becoming Mark, a child who has to try and coax their parent towards what’s best for them, and a fear of becoming Alton, a grandparent who cannot accept change and carries on believing in the beauty of the past to the detriment of themselves and those who love them. There’s so much to be able to relate to in this play and it is incredibly effecting. There’s a lot of scope for this play to be lengthened and involve more characters and places, I’d be incredibly interested to see these characters again and for longer and hope to see this play progress and grow. I really feel the best of the night came in the second half. For me, now is not the time for dystopian future button pushing scenarios, but the everyday battles that people of all generations are currently facing, and have been facing in the past as well. Each generation gets to the point where they no longer recognise the world they grew up in, just as ours will one day, and ‘Kingdom’ takes a brilliant, realistic and quite poignant view of this that everyone can relate to. Verity Williams is a poet, actor, playwright, dog enthusiast and committed gin drinker (not necessarily in that order). Born and raised in Dorset, Verity has a BA in English and Drama from Royal Holloway, an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa and an MA in Acting from East 15. @Verity_W_

[shslscifihorror]

(questions taken from this questionnaire) 

so, You Want To Know About Youji Fen. well.

{cw: uh... family drama, a lot of family talk, ableism}

1. She does not have any siblings as her father left her mother after having her, and the two met pretty shortly before then. However, who she does have is her maternal cousin, Yang Yunxu - her mother went to live with her sister and her spouse to avoid living in more poverty, and they had one kid. A bundle of energy and naiivite, he and Ailani unfortunately lost contact after she moved to Japan.

2. Poor Chou. Hailing from a poor background, she was an itinerant all her life and eventually underwent the difficult process to move from mainland China to Hong Kong, hoping three degrees of separation would give her a chance at a new life. She brought along remnants of her past life - this is why Youji Fen is properly written with pinyin, though Ailani grew up remembering only Cantonese. Chou didn't find her life there easier, and was frequently out of the house trying to gain employment. Ailani herself has a very distanced view of her mother, but also one that is dependent. The daughter, seen as a way to make the mother proud and give her a motivation to keep on going, but on the flip side Ailani relies on her mother to give her necessities and admired her for her dedication and hard work. This was one of the things that motivated her to write, as she wanted to make enough money to support the both of them. So while Ailani admires her mother, she did everything in her power to avoid ending up like her.

3. Oh boy. Chu is actually the son of a first generation immigrant from Vietnam who also found himself in Hong Kong for similar reasons to Chou. Also from a poor background, though not to the degree of his ex-wife, the two bonded over this and married fairly hastily. He was always a coward and left when Ailani was young, seeing her appearance as an omen of sorts. As she grew up she realized there was something different about her family arrangement, especially as she entered school and was exposed to others. After the events that led her family to move, she became acutely aware of his absence and began blaming him for leaving the family. This has continued until the present day, and there probably isn't a single person she loathes more than her father. 

4. Oh yes, absolutely. There were three of these events, two of them are sort of stuff that hasn't come out yet, but in vague terms they are 1. the event that she witnessed that directly caused her to move 2. the time she lost a friend of hers and 3. what I'll be talking about now, which basically solidified her choice of career. Ailani, for her thirteenth birthday, was taken to a movie theatre to watch a film. On her way back from concessions, she accidentally walked inside the wrong theatre, and witnessed a horror movie. She only caught bits of what was going on, but the gory scene she beheld implanted itself in her mind, and as she grew older and was an edgy teen who liked to rebel, it made an impact on her and was essentially the day she knew what she wanted to do.

5. She likes to keep her pockets clean, typically one'd only find a pen, her keys/keycard, a miniature notepad, and a tissue. Anything else is only transitive.

6. ; )

Okay, but she does have many dreams about flying. One of her secret desires has always been the ability of levitation, and this has transferred over to her subconscious. Incidentally, another desire of hers has always been to become a robot, which she has dreamed about before. 

7. She does, indeed have reoccurring nightmares, mostly about stuff she's seen in her life. However, a common theme with them is abandonment. 

8. Nope. She has never, in her life, fired a gun. 

9. Yup! Back in the dawning years of her life, she was very poor. Ailani's still poor but less so because she's actually making money from her books, but not enough to drag herself and her mother out from being lower-class. However, her life's doing substantially better since she's actually living with her mum in their own apartment instead of sharing with others. 

10. Takes a long, hard look at Ailani and her jorts. Well, it's dependent on the weather but she gets cold very easily so she prefers more clothes, but usually as a safeguard rather than because of actual comfort. 

11. Several, again. The first was the threat of being homeless following the incident that made her have to move, but she was still a child during that and didn't fully understand what went on. The second was the immediate period of time following the incident in which she lost her friend. 

12. For the year she was preparing to write her third book, she would go to a temple and pray. That assisted greatly in instilling a sense of calm in her, and she looks back upon the last stretch of that time fondly. 

13. Yes, she's disconcerted by it. As much as she works with blood and guts in her writing, there's no substitute for the real thing even if it helped desensitize her slightly. 

14. Names. She's a very word-oriented person though she has a great talent for visualization, but the way Ailani's mind works it's simply easier for her to recall a string of letters. 

15. Ohhh boy. Yes, absolutely. Being in poverty for much of her life has left her with a hunger for wealth and as a result she tends to hoard money and physical comforts (i.e. she still has a collection of hotel soap from when they were moving into their apartment even if they were in a better spot). It's very hard to get her to spend on material comforts, even if it won't affect her financially, and she treasures anything she's given. 

16. Success, full-stop. She'd rather be famous and known rather than happy, which has been her mentality her entire life because she's desperate to become known and not stuck in the lot life dealt her. 

17. Does a book count? She had a pop-up book of various animals that she found utterly fascinating, and would read over and over. It was actually what helped her learn to start reading and imprinted a love of the craft in her. 

18. Both. She's harsh towards perceived negative traits in others, and while she doesn't believe ambition is inherently evil (look at her!), she feels those seized by it can easily become soured. Wisdom is also important in her mind, as one must know how to approach the world and not keep themselves closed off. She feels sympathy might be reached if people simply considered the circumstances of others. 

19. -laughtrack- Well, uh. Ailani is ambitious to the point of ruthlessness herself, as in she will make herself successful and prioritize that above the happiness and safety of others. I'm not going to elaborate on her relationships rn but let me just say that this has caused big, big issues for her in the past. 

20. Welcome to petty mcgee. Ailani feels she needs to be the best, and consequently can't help but compare herself to others. She doesn't mind criticism at all, but at the same time she's fully willing to rip elements of other people and learn from their failings in order to better herself. So for the most part she does this for self-criticism, but she's the nasty kind of person who looks at critics ripping apart others works in order to self-validate.

21. -laughtrack part two- Well, without getting too deep into it, Ailani blames others for anything negative that's ever happened in her life. She has a pretty good self-image but at the same time it's fragile and she doesn't like it being challenged, which causes her to blame others in like 90% of the cases. She really, really doesn't like being in the wrong. 

22. Ailani's a person who's willing to genuinely like others, but keep them as arm's length. However, she prefers people who are honest and consistent, where she can better predict their reactions. The other kind of person she likes are those who are similar to her, who she can't help but relate to and feel a connection with. See the people she likes most: Yuka, Holly, Ayato, Piney, Sarara.

23. An entire laundry list of things. She hates hypocrisy above all else though, which, in itself, is hypocritical. Another trait she loathes is when people are unpredictable, as she prefers consistency. She also dislikes incompetence. 

24. As can be displayed by her behavior in trials, pretty quickly. Ailani actually suspected Kanon after Haruna was defensive of her during investigation, and this carried with her all throughout the trial just for example. 

25. Not quick at all, enough said. Unless your name starts with "Y" and ends with "uka Kagome". Really, Ailani only deeply trusts like five people in her entire life, both inside the simulation and out. 

26. Ailani finds children kind of annoying and has no interest in having any, so she isn't very good around them nor should be trusted to look after them - she'd probably just leave them be and begin reading a book instead. Fictional preteens are enough, thank you very much.

27. Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!

28. Usually she only resorts to violence if pushed to her max, i.e. trial 6 with the knives and stuff in her backstory.

29. Believe it or not, she wanted to be an auto racer as a child after reading a book on it. Author was her second choice which took over her life, and she eventually did.... kinda fulfill that dream. 

30. In terms of symbolic stuff? Hypocrisy and injustice. In terms of physical stuff? She really hates heavy food, especially cheese - and not just because she's lactose intolerant.

31. Relaxing in a quiet spot inside her house, book in hand and cup of tea to her side. Ailani's alone and can read at her leisure. 

32. [monobear voice] youji fen shsl faker [ailani] -screaming-

33. Always willing to improve if it comes to her works. She doesn't mind if what she creates is criticized, moreso if she herself is criticized. Should someone suggest ways for her to improve as a person, she's likely to pull a knife on them.

34. Move on to a different method/solution. Ailani tends to search for creative ways to deal with a problem, and because of that will keep on trying different tactics until she find one that works. This isn't always good, as she might disregard a method if it didn't work once - even if it was her own fault it tanked.

35. Nice. No, really.

36. Nice, but in a super passive-aggressive way. She tends to regard them with disgust, and insult them covertly at every chance she gets.

37. Status. For Ailani, the concept of keeping honour is a thing she's never given much consideration to especially because of her family situation where keeping mum about not having a father was necessary, which caused her to resent the concept of "honour". As for her status, one needn't look further than trial seven.

38. It depends on the severity of the problem/threat and if it affects her directly. If it doesn't and it's relatively harmless, then she tends to take a hands-off stance, but if it does Ailani deals with it at earliest possible time, always. 

39. Nah, she's never been bitten by an animal. 

40. Considerately. She's very much one to root for the small person, and is a big fan of underdog stories. She knows they're just trying to live and make minimum wage, and she tends to try to be as polite as possible to people in general even if she resents them. 

41. Oh boy, here's Ms. Entitled. She feels that, because of her lot in life she deserves to have good things happen to her eventually, but she also thinks she must work for them even if she deserves to have what she wants. In general, she believes it to be pretty dang unfair that she has to work, but she goes hard at her desires. 

42. Yup, a librarian at the library she frequented. Because the librarian knew JSL and MCJ, she spoke frequently with them, and they grew fond of her. The librarian saw her grow up too, and as a result their relationship was rather parental, especially since they fretted over her and wanted to see her succeed.  

43. Again, yes, a certain person in her backstory. They were her first crush, but they regarded her more as a sibling and friend. Still, the relationship eventually crumbled anyways. 

44. It's very easy for her to say ilu, both with and without meaning. Ailani's willing to do a lot to ensure her success, and pretending she actually likes people is on that list. However, she also says ilu easily when she genuinely likes people - it's just a feeling, why shouldn't she be honest?

45. Ailani was raised Buddhist, and believes in rebirth. She's always been pretty religious, and this only intensified recently in her life. While she gives consideration to the idea of an afterlife, which she's afraid of the possibility of, she holds firm to her belief in reincarnation though.

[ismael37olson]

The Sweet Smell of Success

I used to go to New York at least once a year to see shows. Recently, neither New Line nor I have been able to afford to send me, so I settle for bootleg videos (don't judge me!). But I have seen a lot of really wonderful shows in New York over the years, quite a few of which New Line has produced soon after. In fact, our company has been the first to produce several musicals after their Broadway or off Broadway runs, short runs in many cases, 'cause that's the kind of weirdo, tourist-unfriendly shows we like... It was in 2002 that I saw The Sweet Smell of Success on Broadway. I loved a lot about it, but somehow it didn't totally work for me. Now that I'm working on the show, I think I understand what it was missing. First, it's a very intimate story about four people with incredibly volatile, complicated relationships, and even though I had good seats, the theatre was too big for us to connect to these people emotionally, so that the tragedy of the ending couldn't really gobsmack the audience the way it should. I think doing the show in a 140-seat blackbox will fix that problem. There will be no distance from these ugly, ferocious, fragile emotions, no safety. Second, this is almost a jazz opera. Like Sweeney, the music only stops periodically, to underline certain moments, to punctuate the flow of the story. But this kind of 1950s club jazz, as filtered through Marvin Hamlisch's rich, dissonant film and Broadway sound isn't a big, heavy, orchestral thing; it's an up-close, sweaty, sexy, subtle thing. A full Broadway orchestra, a big stage, and a big chorus, took the urban and the desperate out of this story. Our band will be two keyboards, bass, drums, reeds, and trumpet. The kind of sound you'd hear in a jazz club in the 50s. The third thing was J.J. Hunsecker, the Devil/Evil Wizard figure in this Faustian tale. He's thoroughly despicable, deeply, irretrievably fucked up. And genuinely powerful. As much as I love John Lithgow, who created the role, I now think he didn't really access the full darkness of this terrifying man. Zak Farmer will play the role for us, and he specializes in deeply fucked-up villains. And again, the intimacy of our theatre will allow Zak to do much more subtle, more interesting work than Lithgow could do in a Broadway house.

A couple years ago, I came across a bootleg video of Sweet Smell of Success, and I really did love the material, so I watched it again. And it worked much better for me than it did the first time. I think it was because most of the video was shot in close-up. The bootleg provided the intimacy the theatre itself couldn't, the kind of intimacy which the Marcelle Theater gives the New Liners. The reviews of the Broadway production weren't great, but I think many of them really missed the point. This isn't a conventional musical, if there even is such a thing anymore, and that's how they judged it. Like almost every show we produce at New Line, Sweet Smell is sui generis, one of a kind. But like a few other shows we've done in recent seasons, The Sweet Smell of Success is a moral thriller. It will leave you breathless, and the Act I finale is a killer cliffhanger! More than any other show I've worked on, this show is a virtuosic translation to the musical stage of the devices, tone, and atmosphere of film noir. Which reminds me... one of the coolest things about The Sweet Smell of Success is that the story is so different in its three different forms, first as a short story by Lehman Engel, then a greatly expanded screenplay also by Engel, and then this jazz noir stage musical. Each one is so different from the others, each one brings unique elements to the story, and yet they all feel like they are fashioned from the same clay, each one so right in relation to the other two. I was sick the first week of rehearsals, so I didn't start my blogging like usual. By now, we've finished learning the score, and Taylor Pietz has choreographed three of the four dances. Starting next week, I block the show. I've worked out all of Act I, and I may wait to work on Act II until after I see how my Act I blocking works... But I feel pretty good about what I've got. Even though there aren't any other musicals quite like this, there are other shows that taught me lessons I can apply here. Working on Andrew Lippa's genius Wild Party was a show in which 90% of the staging was to music, with an ensemble both inside and outside the story at the same time, living the story and narrating it directly to us. Though Sweet Smell shouldn't look as stylized as Wild Party, it's very theatrical, very music driven, and constantly bursting through the Fourth Wall. I think there are two keys to this show. First, we really have to swim in the period and the jazz. I've asked Rob for an all-blue, New York, 1950s set. Wait till you see it. There's an attitude to this world that's pretty foreign to us; we have to find it and get comfortable with it. Second, we cannot fear the Darkness. As the great scholar Joseph Campbell taught us, in many Hero Myth stories, the hero has to go to the Underworld to do battle with the Evil Wizard and learn something about himself. You can't get more Under than the 1952 world of New York newspaper gossip. We have to embrace the Dark Side. That's our story.

I'm reading some great books about that time and place, and about Walter Winchell, the real life Broadway columnist that J.J. Hunsecker is based on. What surprised me the most -- and it made me understand better the high stakes in our story -- was that sixty million Americans across the country read Winchell's nasty, petty, shitty gossip column every morning over their coffee. Sixty Million People. That's close to half of all the men, women, and children in America. This horrifying idea is explained in Act II as our Greek Chorus of press agents sing:

Dirt! It's the reason I read. Dirt! It's an animal need. I don't pick up the paper For the sports or the news; Those ain't the sport That I choose. Dirt! With my bacon and eggs. They go together like a skirt, And a nice pair of legs. Got the ink on my fingers, Got the smudge of a smear. Oh my! What dirt we got here!

By the end of this song, you might be laughing, but you'll also realize deep down that J.J. only has power because sixty million people want their morning dirt. Like Chicago, Sweet Smell lays the responsibility for this nightmare world right at our feet. But I don't read gossip columns. Yeah, nice try. Do you ever read the headlines of the tabloids at the checkout? Do you ever watch Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, or E!...? Do you click on celebrity stories your friends share on Facebook? I honestly don't. And maybe you don't either. But a hell of a lot of people do.

Dirt! Got a hunger to feed, Got a hunger and a thirst, Gimme, gimme some dirt, take me down in the dirt! It's an animal need! Give it to me in the First Amendment! Give me something that can get me through, Something dirty on the whole who's-who And keep this in mind as you dirt: It don't have to be true... Don't have to be true... Don't have to be true... Yeah!

Oklahoma! this ain't. In the age of Fox News, Breitbart, social media, and Fake News, The Sweet Smell of Success may be even more timely than it was when Hamlisch, lyricist David Zippel, and playwright John Guare wrote it in 2002. This is muscular, fearless, adult musical theatre about the real world. Today's real world. So we don't forget that information is power. And power corrupts. It's already been such a great ride, working on this amazing piece, this rich, gorgeous music, these brilliant, caustic, acrobatic rhymes; now we get to really dive into these dark, complicated characters and their deliciously acid dialogue. Another wild, awesome adventure! Long Live the Musical! Scott from The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-sweet-smell-of-success.html

[holliehock]

La La Land: Musical theatre is back!

Warning: This review includes some big spoilers, not for people that have not seen the film and do not want the ending ruined!

I have been going to the theatre to watch musicals since I was three. I believe my first ever show was Cinderella, my first ever musical Beauty and the Beast. I vaguely remember travelling to London with my parents, and going to the London Victoria station, and being very confused why it was named after my cousin. The only part of Cinderella I remember is that one of the Shetland ponies (used to draw the carriage) decided to empty his bowels onstage. Both of my parents love the theatre, and it has made up a huge part of my life, eventually leading me to perform onstage, and do my literature degree. However, musical theatre holds a special place in my heart.

You can imagine my excitement when I first heard that there was going to be a new musical called La La Land released in cinemas. I didn't care what the story line was, I was hooked. I watched every teaser trailer and interview there was at the time, and was determined to see it.

So much of what is being produced now is empty for me. Both in books and film, the mass media is an absolutely fantastic tool, but it means that you spend a lot of time searching your way through "art" that lacks any real depth in order to find hidden gems. Don't get me wrong, I love a good action movie, Marvel films are my guilty pleasure in life. But films and books alike lack the soul of what came before. You don't get books like Ulysses or films like Breakfast at Tiffany's anymore, it's a rare find nowadays to find something that isn't afraid to be obscure, or truly heartfelt (without being cheesy). But then something breaks through the ice, and for me, that something is La La Land.

In Sebastian, I saw so much of myself. Someone who is passionate about dying arts, passionate about things that, realistically, no one (my age at least) cares about anymore, desperately wanting to revive it. It is so rare for me to mention that I love poetry or classical theatre and hear an excited "Me, too!" Sebastian is also trying to figure things out, muddling through and taking whatever opportunity comes his way until he can grapple-hook his dream. However, compared to Mia, Sebastian is lost, and that is something I can heavily relate to. I know that I want to work in the literary industry, helping to keep it alive, but I don't know how to achieve that.

From the opening number, the film managed to put a smile on my face. Echoing the street dance from Fame, it was lively and colourful and beautifully executed. The scenes with Mia at work, and with her friends were very relatable (especially as a student), and made me laugh. Emma Stone neatly captures the frustrations of working a job that you don't want or like so that you can follow your dream on the sidelines.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBUXcNTjviI&w=560&h=315]

Most of the film, I actually felt a little disappointed. It was good, it was really good. But it lacked that wow factor of musicals like The Bodyguard or Wicked, and some of the scenes with real potential felt a bit rushed. But once Mia and Sebastian's romance started to flourish, the film slowed down and got better as time went on. Reading some of the headlines about this film, I expected it to be a cheesy romance and end that way. But the film came with a surprising edge to it.

As time goes on, Mia and Sebastian's lives start to diverge. Sebastian takes on a job that he doesn't like just so that he can please and provide for his girlfriend, and Mia takes a leap of faith that doesn't pull off. Sebastian is forced to spend a lot of time away from home for work, and then Mia's dream forces her to leave the familiar safety of LA, and their life together. As much as they (and we) want the couple to work out, life gets in the way. Both have to make sacrifices in order to pursue their passions, and ultimately their relationship is on that list.

Mia's last audition is the point in which I started to get blurry-eyed. The words of her song spoke to me directly. As a little girl, I too wanted to be an actress, but life got in the way, and I was told that it was an unrealistic career to pursue. Since, I've started piecing together a new dream, but it feels just as foolish as wanting to be an actress. Part of me doesn't even want to entertain the notion, but to just settle with a secure office job that pays the bills. Then, came the talk after the audition. I related to both Sebastian and Mia. I was in a relationship for over four years, which ultimately came to an end because of the very same reasons. They had to leave to follow their dream, and I had to stay to finish figuring mine out. We could tell that our lives would continue to go in separate directions, and that no matter how we felt, it wasn't going to work. I have heard the phrase "I will always have feelings for you" far too much in the past few years!

As I'm sure it was for everyone in the cinema, the icing on the cake for me was when Mia walked into Seb's. To see her influence upon his dream, all those years later, and how he believed in her enough to finally take her advice, was heart-warming. It is everything you hope for when you leave a relationship - for them to pull off their dream, and to see that you have helped them to reach it. For Sebastian to then play their song once he had spotted her in the crowd, was heart-breaking. And for a moment, Mia was all of us post-break up. Replaying all of the plans that they had made together, all of the things they could have been. And it was this montage of their what-ifs that was the crowning moment of La La Land. Beautiful to watch, accompanied by magnificent compositions and abstract ideas, it was so engrossing that for a second you bought-in to the idea that this was the real ending. They had figured it out, they had stayed together, they had got married and had kids... right? Wrong.

That earth-shattering moment when the camera pans back to Seb's and Mia walks out of the club reminds you that sometimes you really do have to choose between who and what you love. And it's okay to put yourself first. It sums up the entire film, forces you to look back at Mia's rejections, Sebastian's failures, and see how far they have come, because they didn't give up on their dreams. The final realisation being that this is not a cheesy Hollywood romance, but life. They couldn't have made it to where they are now without letting go of each other. That sometimes, you dream isn't how you first imagined it, but that doesn't make the reality any less wonderful.

In the final scenes of La La Land, I felt tears streaming down my face. Not only for the emotions that the film provoked, or how relatable it was, or that it forced me to look at my own life and make similar realisations, but also for the sheer beauty of it. For the rest of the journey home, when I thought about how visually stunning the montage was, and how perfectly the music accompanied it, capturing every moment of this emotional rollercoaster, I continued to cry. This film was outstanding, and I will be going to see it again at every available opportunity. For anyone who works in or studies the arts, you need to see this film. For anyone that has a dream, you need to see this film. It is full of the soul and obscurities of Breakfast at Tiffany's, with the dynamic, jazz-hands and theatricality of Hairspray or Fame.