#I WAS INTO THIS SHIT BEFORE THE PROSHOT EVEN EXISTED

[infizero]

take me back to when i was watching spongebob the musical like 10 times within a few weeks

[elizabethvaughns]

so i've been mulling over this for quite a bit now, so i might as well articulate my thoughts and get them out onto this blog. so i was just thinking: subjectively or objectively, which one is better? the if/then dc preview or the broadway production? long post (1750+ words), so i'm putting a read more break <3

now, objectively at the very least, i know i have to say it's the broadway production. why wouldn't it be? it's a lot more polished, it's...the final draft, of sorts, of the production. we all know the final draft is usually better than the rough draft. but here's the thing. when it comes to an artwork that has several different versions, one tends to gravitate toward the version they saw first and have a certain bias against all the other versions. if you saw the bway version first or the dc version first, you probably like that one more. now i'm not saying this bias is conscious by any means. absolutely not. however, when one falls in love with some media, in my case at least, they take it in over and over and over again. and then they get so used to that one thing that all other versions seem weird. i can pinpoint two non-if/then instances in my life where such a thing happened.

in the summer of 2018, i watched the RENT movie on netflix. now i was fully intending to listen to the obc soundtrack before watching the movie, but i never really got to it. anyways, that movie was like love at first...watch to me. oh man, i loved it so, so much. so i downloaded the soundtrack on my phone and, you guessed it, listened to it over and over and over and over again. one fine day, (about a few weeks after, actually) i realized i never actually had listened to the obc soundtrack. so i did. and it sounded...odd to say the very least. i mean, some of the voices were different, sometimes the lines were changed, all in all, a confusing experience. to say the least, if you asked me back then which version i preferred, i would've readily said the movie version. but now, three years in retrospect, i'm not so sure. the obc version is a lot more...complete, i like the vocals more, and i'm now salty that "christmas bells" as a song was cut. evidently, i like the obc version more(but i still love the movie version hell it's still one of my comfort movies).

in the fall of 2019, i listened to falsettos. i actually listened to both the obc and the 2016 revival cast recordings. i guess that lessened the bias a bit because i was exposed to both versions at about the same time. on the fateful date of 2 october 2019, i watched the falsettos revival proshot. that's when i truly fell in love with this musical. but, even so, my initial exposure was to both recordings so even though i had a slight bias toward the 2016 version, i still loved both of them.

now, back to if/then. i actually find it difficult to pinpoint where exactly my exposure to if/then started. was it the very first time i heard about it in 2018 when i read a very meta RENT fanfic on ff.net where elizabeth made an appearance and i thought "what the fuck"(pun very much intended)"is if/then" (psst if you find the fic could you please drop the link in the replies meta fic isn't really my shit but i want to reread it for nostalgia's sake)? or was it the very first time i listened to the obc recording in 2020? or was it the boot of a broadway production that i first saw on 13 march 2021? whichever one i pick, they all lead to the same conclusion: i naturally gravitated(and sometimes still do) toward the broadway production because it was the first version of if/then that i was exposed to.

now sometime in early april 2021 over my spring break, i watched a recording of the dc production. i knew beforehand that this production is a preview, after which some changes had been made, resulting in the broadway show. since those changes were obviously made to better the production, it would be a logical conclusion that the very presence of those changes entailed a...worse production (not considering the fact that the interpretation and the very liking of art is entirely subjective). one could say i entered the watching experience with an unconscious bias, of sorts.

from the very first note, i was caught off-guard. i didn't know they changed this much. when i watched the bway production, i was just enjoying it for all it was worth. but when i was watching the dc preview, i was comparing it constantly to its broadway counterpart. oh, david's shirt colour is different here. oh, anne's wearing a pantsuit instead of a dress(cute). oh, time for hey kid! oh wait no they put "the moment explodes" right here. also, i was just humming along to the songs, just mouthing along the lyrics(because i have them all memorized), and every now and then and getting thrown way off-track when the tune remained the same but the lyrics changed. most notably, in "walking by a wedding" and "you learn to live without". all in all, i had what one could consider negative opinions about the dc production because of that bias.

but then i watched it second time. a third time. a fourth, fifth, sixth time. and over that time, i fell more and more in love with that production. as i've said before, the interpretation of art is wholly subjective–what one may consider a shortcoming of a particular piece, another may consider a strength. let me take the placement of "the moment explodes", for example. in the dc production, it's before "some other me". therefore, the line "every friend i ever knew or thought i did" doesn't hit as hard because we don't know her situation with lucas yet. even so, "some other me" hits twice as hard because lucas is an even bigger asshole now. in comparison, however, "the moment explodes" is after "some other me" in bway as you all know. so the aforementioned line holds a much greater significance when compared to its dc counterpart. however, one could also consider that line (in the dc production) as a sort of foreshadowing for the reveal in "some other me" of the new normal of beth and lucas's friendship (or the lack thereof).

obviously, some changes were most definitely welcome, "this day" to be more specific. of course, there was that little reprising of "what if?" near the end of "this day" in the dc production which i really loved, but all in all, the mood of "this day" was much more fun and enthusiastic in bway as opposed to dc, which in my opinion is an excellent way to start an act. in contrast, some changes were...not as welcome. i don't know about you, but personally, i really enjoyed two cut scenes from "the story of jane"("no more wasted time" dc version). first, the scene where kate brings her kindergarteners to beth. it was fun to see higgs squirm. second, the scene where elena and beth's interaction parallels beth and stephen's in "map of new york". narrative-wise, i think that it is an incredibly important scene as we get to see two sort of boss-employee relationships mirrored to each other, only beth does it well as a boss (if that makes any sense). we see beth as passionate but still sort of hesitant in mony but she grows to be more self-assured by nmwt, and i think the aforementioned scene only cements that notion as beth takes on the role of mentor for elena. also, "the story of jane" was a really fun song and, as much as i love "no more wasted time", i wish it still contained elements of "story of jane". and while i did enjoy the reshuffling of "the moment explodes" such that it became clear when beth and lucas made up in the bway production, they were ultimately still...not talking during "you learn to live without. as a result, we miss that one scene from the dc production where lucas and kate attend beth's awards ceremony and shoo stephen. and need i talk about the lucas/david duet verse("you get that we're connected, / i feel like you get me") in "ain't no man manhattan"? honestly, i feel like dc anmm was, all in all, better than bway anmm–especially that one verse where lucas sings to this other dude about how everyone is connected(no, not the one to stephen, the one after that. the one that ends with "[something something] / who you helped get elected").

also the situations with stephen and with kate/anne in both timelines were relatively clearer in the dc production. even so, the actual distinguishing of the timelines was better in the bway production.

in conclusion, the relative merit of each production(broadway vs. dc) is really up to the interpretation of each viewer. scenes that may seem weak to one may be considered narratively important to another. both productions have their own merits and flaws.

to me, both productions are equally good. my previous assertion/assumption that the final draft is always better than the first is not necessarily true. some things that you think were actually pretty good get lost in the editing process. some other things that should've been cut (ahem ahem, kate's referrals to lucas with "she", ahem ahem, liz's "i don't believe in independents like i don't believe in bisexuals. pick a side" line) get left in there. art is subjective. the editing process is subjective. in the end, though, the only thing that matters is that you enjoy what you're watching and find personal fulfillment in it. and i do! for both of these productions. for both of the productions, i'm smiling all the way up to "here i go". i'm slightly saddened during "you don't need to love me". i'm empowered by "the story of jane"/"no more wasted time". i'm grinning in liz-verse all the way up to "i hate you". i feel like sobbing during "some other me". my throat clogs up when "i hate you" starts. i'm actually sobbing by the time "you learn to live without" ends.

...you get the gist of it. all in all, both of these productions are phenomenal and i'm grateful for their existence and to have been able to watch them in the year of our lord 2021.

i love this show so much i swear.

i talk a bit more comparing broadway and dc here.

my other ramblings essays:

if/then appreciation

"what if?" vs. "what if?(reprise)"

character analysis of lucas

[margridarnauds]

1) How'd you get into Japanese Musicals?, 2) Favorite Celtic Myth?, 3) Favorite POTO Cast (Real Trio that existed together + make a trio of anyone you want)?

(1) I feel like this is a fairly common origin story for the international fandom of Japanese musicals, but I got in, primarily, through German musicals that had been given Japanese productions. I had the...luck (?) of falling into Frank Wildhorn musicals around 2011-2012, which was perfect because it was timed EXACTLY so that I was there when the very first Japanese production of Dracula happened, and so I watched the proshot of that. I thought it was okay, not my FAVORITE (that went, at the time, to the German, though now I’m firmly #TeamKorea), but it was good! And it was a good introduction. 

Because of the German production of Dracula, I fell into Elisabeth (aka “The Reason I took up German in the first place) and, like a ton of people, fell into the Takarazuka production of Elisabeth (and The Scarlet Pimpernel, because Wildhorn) because of that, though it still wasn’t a great, overwhelming love for me. It was okay, it was pretty, but not an OVERWHELMING love. 

I was interested in Lady Bess...fairly early on, I want to say 2014-2015, not long after its premiere, because I was like “Oh, Kunze and Levay are doing a musical on Elizabeth I? PRETTY COSTUMES?” I think I actually was there to see the very early press releases, ft. the English demos, as they were released. But, of course, Lady Bess was a bit of a white whale. There was NOTHING on it, the cast album was phenomenal, but that was ALL, really. Very little in the way of video, very little in the way of pictures (now I could probably find them, but back then I was a bit on my own), nothing in the way of plot. So, I basically gave it up for lost, though I retained hope that, one day, SOMETHING would surface on it. 

Then, 1789. Attending the European Musicals Streamathon in....around 2017. Seeing the Takarazuka 1789. It was like LIGHTNING. I’d loved the French production, though I fell out of it due to the general disdain for it that I felt in the French Musicals fandom at the time, but, if I’d loved it before, the Zuka made me fall in love with it x10. I wrote fanfic, for the first time in my fandom life (or, at least, fanfic that saw the light of day), I got involved in the world of Takarazuka (I’m not as much there as I am with Toho, and I know some people probably think I actively dislike it, but it IS where my roots are, and I retain a ton of affection for it), attended streams, etc. It got me into the rabbit hole of Japanese musical theatre, really, though Toho would have to come a little later. 

Then, in 2018: The announcement that Lady Bess was coming back. I don’t know how, but even then, I had the sense of “What if they do a proshot, like they did for Elisabeth and Mozart? What if we get that?” And then, shortly afterwards. The announcement. It was a “HOLY SHIT” moment, because I’d been waiting for FOUR YEARS and there it was. And it was expensive, especially for a family that. Well, no nice way of putting it, we’re well below poverty level. 

It was also...perfectly if also morbidly timed as well, because 2018 is on the record as being one of my most difficult years, even next to 2020. In 2018, I was a senior, just wrapping up my undergrad, I was overworked, exhausted, terrified of not getting my capstone in, and my uncle had just died in the last month or so of my program (along with my paternal grandfather), with my mom, who’s generally my #1 supporter, not able to be there for me at home because she was often over at his place, taking care of him.

 I was, frankly, absolutely miserable. 

But my mom told me that, as a present for dealing with....everything, I could get any Japanese musical that I wanted. And I chose Lady Bess. 

I remember taking it back from the post office, SO excited because it was actually REAL and I could hold it after all that time, and then getting my mom and aunt to play it in the front room so that I could finally see it. And then, with that first shot of the night sky as the overture plays, as Ascham takes the stage, I was totally in love and, more than that, my family was, too. 

Then the announcement that 1789 was going to re-run. As soon as I saw it, I thought of Lady Bess, and I was like “....are they....?” And then the resulting announcement shortly afterwards, which had me conflicted because, on one hand. It was *1789*. Arguably the single greatest musical love of my life, the musical that got me to write and publish fanfiction. And it was the TOHO one, the one that the entire fandom had been curious about since 2016. But also. My family had just spent the money on Lady Bess. It was hard to justify pre-ordering 1789, no matter how in love they were with Lady Bess. 

But, as it was, I had a streak of luck - I’d been given some money as a  graduation present by a close friend of the family (which was given under the STRICT order that I buy something “frivolous”), and so, with nothing else really frivolous to spend it on...I was basically vibrating around six months later, when the proshot arrived in the mail, and got to put it in the DVD player. 

If my family fell in insta-love with Lady Bess, they REALLY fell in love with the energy of 1789. To the point where we watched either it or Lady Bess once a night. And, from there...I was sold. No real going back for me. The last year, I’ve not been able to keep up with the new releases (I know when they happen, but I can’t buy them), but I’m still very much IN, and it’s me the chance to know some very, very awesome people. It was a long road, but definitely worth it, in my opinion. 

(2) Cath Maige Tuired! My actual baby, my child, the love of my life, the one that really got me into it in the first place. (Read the Elizabeth Gray translation, skip the Stokes.) It was reading John Carey’s article on “Myth and Mythography in Cath Maige Tuired” that I realized that people could study this stuff AS A FIELD and, not only that, but Americans could do it to, and since that point...I never really wanted anything else, besides the odd break. It is funny because, when I was doing aforementioned Capstone, my mom wanted to read up on it, since it was a major part of my work and she wanted to get involved. And I was like “Sure, here!” 

...since I’d been reading CMT since I was 14. I had forgotten that it contains one of the single most explicit sex scenes in medieval Irish literature. 

Coming from a fantasy background, it’s probably the closest you can get to a fantasy novel, in terms of scope and characterization - you have this vast variety of characters who, even though we don’t get INTERIORITY into them as such, do have quite a bit of depth to them once you pick below the surface, and it has a hundred different angles. I think that the best description was by Mark Williams, who described it as being “like shards of mirror stuck into the ground at angles to one another”, because that really is it. You have a hundred things going on, a hundred characters reflecting and refracting against one another, a hundred different social contexts, and the result is a work that, while seemingly a very simple tale about kingship and power and good and evil, is very complex. 

(3) I can’t speak as much about acting since, in all honesty....I haven’t. Really. Watched any POTO bootlegs. All the way through. (I’M A FAKE FAN, I KNOW. I KNOW.) 

That being said, I THINK that, as far as trios that have played, Kim So Hyun, Hong Kwang Ho, and Son Jun Ho have my entire heart. Kim So Hyun has a BRILLIANT voice, and a very distinctive porcelain doll-esque appearance that fits her very well, Hong Kwang Ho has a magnificent voice (first fell in love with him in Death Note), and Son Jun Ho....you can tell that he’s married to Kim So Hyun in real life because there’s such a tenderness to their performance - It really sells R/C. 

Honorable mentions include Claire Moore’s Christine, who’s had my heart from the first time I heard her very distinctive, haunting “oo” cadenza, Ivan Ozhogin, Celia Hottenstein (got to see her live so I’ve had a soft spot for her Christine ever since), Jeremy Hays, Hugh Panaro (who was once kind enough to deal with a teenaged fan at stage door for a concert of his and take a picture, as well as sign my playbill) and....there are definitely others. 

[hannahlovestheatre]

A RANT ABOUT RENT LIVE AND HOW GOOD IT WAS

Okay so I need to stand on a soap box real quick to make a point. Please read the whole thing. I feel like Rent Live not only needs to be reviewed but is the perfect example for what I am about to say. If you have a problem with this, thank u next.

Let me ask you a question. How many people do you know named or are probably named Sarah? How about Taylor? Maybe Alex? Okay, now that you have a number in your head think about this: are they all exactly the same? Same hair color? Eye color? Body type? Do they all play soccer? Do they all love the same kind of music? Are they all the same race? Same sexual orientation? Is your answer no? It should be. They are all different yet special in their way.

Now let's look at Rent. We have Rent, the Broadway musical (which is actually a reincarnation La Boheme, an opera with a lot of other versions as well!!! It all comes full circle) ; Rent, the movie; and Rent Live. All share a name but none of them are the same. They are all special in their own way.

Rent, the Broadway musical, is one of if not the most revolutionary musical to hit the Great White Way. Without it, Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen and The Prom and The Band's Visit and Fun Home probably wouldn't exist. It inspired artists to cross the borderlines and expressed the true meaning if love and being a part of a community, a family. It inspired composers like Lin Manuel-Miranda do even make musicals. It swept the Tonys, it won the Pulitzer prize, it ran for a very long time. It was so important that they filmed a pro shot of the final performance. However, that proshot was not a one take deal. They pre filmed some stuff to get those epic close ups, like the beginning of Out Tonight. Again, it was crucial to the world of theatre.

Next we have Rent, the movie. It was filmed as an independent film, kinda like how The Last Five Years was. They got most of the original cast to reprise their roles. Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson swept in to save the day. They are honestly the best Joanne and Mimi that I've seen. Tracie has played Joanne literally everywhere: in the movie, on Broadway, and at the Hollywood Bowl. And it was also a good thing for Rosario to put on her resume. The actual movie itself cut and rearranged the order of songs from the musical and doesn't focus much on being in the 90s but the present day. There's nothing wrong with that, but the creative team wanted this Rent to be it's individual being. People that see the movie might have only seem the movie and not the Broadway musical. When they see it's mostly the same cast, they got excited and were looking forward to seeing the other Rent. It's not the same Rent, but it's called Rent and is similar to that other Rent, but it's not that Rent. It's like Rent the II.

And as of yesterday we have Rent III, Rent Live. Now I get it. Technically this wasn't live as in broadcast live and everything you saw was happening in real time and that sucks but also thank God they filmed that final dress or it probably wouldn't have happened at all or at least not in the way they planned. The whole concert version they released clips of would have been what we saw for those 3 hours instead of the full out production that we deserved to see. People would have stopped watching right away if they only got to see poor Brennin in a wheelchair and the cast just sitting there in the same spot watching with the live audience they have in front of them. But ya know what? It was still live. They did'nt lip sync or animate themselves to be CGI dancers. They sang live, they moved live, they had a live audience. That's why it's called LIVE THEATRE. It is happening in front of a group of people. This was also the first live musical that had an issue that prevented them from putting on the production as is. Grease Live had some weather and audio issues but guess what? They added pre filmed video and audio to fix that!!!! Tbh, I would not be surprised if they stop broadcasting it live and make it live meaning LIVE theatre in front of a LIVE audience that you prerecorded and show the world on whatever night.

The cast was unlike the other two in the sense that it was part Broadway performers, part music artists, part actors and dancers that can sing, and one phenomenal drag queen. If you want my opinion, Valentina is tied with Wilson Jermaine-Heredia as the best Angel. For someone who has never done anything like this, she did a hell of a job and was literally perfect in the role. Vanessa Hudgens, again in my opinion is probably the best Maureen. Her Over the Moon soars over any other one I have seen from the costume to her comedic timing to her commitment to the whole damn thing. She killed it. We also got see Jordan Fisher live his lifelong dream of being the first POC Mark and he did the role justice. The way they wrote Mark's monologues and made him feel as isolated from his group as friends as we've seen him was BRILLIANT. Especially at the top of Act 2 where they incorporated Seasons of Love into the plot, something that was not done in the other Rents which was literally genius. It was where I shed my first tear. Then we have Brandon Victor Dixon who did the best I'll Cover You Reprise EVER. I thought Michael McElroy was the best before last night. I was a wreck when Brandon did it. He is definitely one of the knots that binds these things together. And then we have Tinashe, Mario, and Kiersey Clemons. These three did their roles justice as well. I think Tinashe was up to par with Rosario's Mimi but her Mimi was definitely the most believable because she played it so young, she is supposed to be 19 but also a little coy and super sexy, which she did. Mario's vocals popped off and he definitely showed how much of a jerk Benny is. And Kiersey had a rocky start in my opinion but still played a great Joanne that had the perfect amount of spunk, sass, poise, and intelligence. Oh and don't get me started on Keala Settle. That woman took me to theatre church to bless the lord of blessing us with her talent. They rewrote Paul to be a woman named Cy which to me felt so raw.

And now the censorship thing. Idk what everyone else saw but I saw the same risque and edgy components of Rent that the Rent I and Rent II. The lyric changes were obvious ONLY TO THOSE THAT KNOW OF THE OTHER RENTS IN THE FIRST PLACE. And the changes they did make were seamless. On these main broadcasting networks, you cannot say shit, fuck, dildos, expose bare asses, be overtly sexual, etc. etc. unless that creative team anticipates a lofty fee and a potential lawsuit. They were only able to cross a certain amount of lines before it got out of control. The final line was clearly mucho masturbation. They had things taken away from them and saw it as the perfect opportunity to really make this Rent the 2019 Rent that is different from the other 2 but doesn't try to be the most superior of the three we know of.

Do you see what I mean though? All of these things are called Rent but none of them are the same or trying to replace the other creations. Sarah A isn't trying be better than Sarah B who isn't trying to beat Sara, the one without an H at the end of her name and the same applies to any new adaptation of a book or movie or musical. Every time this happens, that same story is trying to be expressed to an audience that needs to hear it. This messed up world we live in now needs to see a place where people are loved and accepted and are a part of a tight knit community. Rent does exactly that.

So the next time you see that ______ Live is happening or _______ the Musical is happening or a certain musical is getting a film adaptation, don't compare the two as one entity. Call it _____ II or the Sara without an H at the end.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[charlicpace]

8, 16, 31, 33 - for the musical ask thing

ASK MEME | accepting !thank you very much !

8. heathers off broadway or west end?

i have some very unpopular opinions about heathers, i’m gonna be honest. can i cheat and say heathers off west end? at the other palace? because, genuinely, i think it was better in a smaller venue and for the original limited run. the west end transfer brought on a lot of the issues that i had/have with the show, and i just don’t think it belonged in the west end (same as i think it doesn’t belong on broadway, either) but when it comes to it, i do love both, and i loved the off-broadway production before i even saw it irl, but i’d say west end if i have to pick between the two. 

16. best movie musical?

unpopular onion again: i tend to hate movie musicals! and i am of the Theory that the reason most people “hate musicals” is because they’ve only seen movie ones, and i don’t think musicals and movies were destined to overlap. i do, however, love that it makes them more accessible. obviously, there are exceptions to me disliking movie musicals, and i legit do think that the grease, hairspray, and mamma mia movies slap (first one for the latter; i didn’t like the sequel much!) and might even be,,,, better as movies? sent with invisible ink?

31. is there a tv show you’d like turned into a musical? talk about it.

having said all of the above, i’ve been trying to come up with the perfect dream cast for a lost musical for ages. i’m actual garbage. and i’m rewatching oitnb rn (seasons one through to the middle of four, i am Not dealing with the rest) and it’s got me thinking about the cast for an oitnb musical (danielle brooks and kimiko glenn are obviously reprising their roles in my head) but do i think they should actually exist? nah, probably not. but i think something that was short/limited could quite successfully and cleverly be turned into a musical quite easily? like something from the beeb. but also… a killing eve musical is a Concept. or even a play? just killing eve on the stage,, that could be Something. 

33. is there a musical you want turned into a movie? talk about it.

y’know what, the in the heights movie looks like it’s gonna be good! i will say that! i am absolutely dreading the bare movie, if that ever happens, and the wicked movie has potential to be great but it depends on, like… everything (casting, director, special effects, all that shit) but i think shows that are adapted from movies being turned into movie musicals is always, like, fair. and could be a good idea. but at the end of the day… can we not just release the proshots? please?