#Playbill Video

[bespokeredmayne]

Cabaret’s biggest fan

Eddie Redmayne is masterful at selling the unique aspects of the production of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, opening April 1 on Broadway. We can’t wait to see if they’ve replicated the magic of the London production’s grotty basement entry + 1929 nightclub. (My stillframes from Playbill video)

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[d-criss-news]

Maybe Happy Ending Press Day

[unopenablebox]

saw agnes martin's "the tree" (my pfp) in person for the first time today and started crying lmao

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

New Video!!

Cabaret made Eddie Redmayne want to be an actor. And now he's ready to bring Broadway audiences inside the indulgent world of the kitkatclubnyc.

And we can't wait ......

Source: Playbill on IG

[high-quality-tiktoks]

Jojo was gonna faint?!?

[simonsrileyhusband]

Heyyy!! I'm back!

Okay okay so- I'm a theatre kid, this years fall season I landed a lead role at my school, and I was wondering if either Simon or any of the other 141 men would react to having a significant other (gn, male, female doesn't matter) that is a famous broadway figure?

Always sending videos of their performances to them when they're out on deployment. Whether it be just a simple play or musical they landed a role in.

I'm so excited to see how this plays out.

oh, simon would be so whiped and annoying with a partner thar does theather.

he will show the rest of the 141 pictures and videos of you on stage. sometimes, he even brings the playbill with him to remember the play and picture it in his head.

simon is always down to run lines with you, even if his singing voice or acting skills arent the best, he always tries to help you out in everything he can.

simon is a bit shy around your friends from work, not used to such bubbly and artistic people. so when he brings you lunch or comes over to pick you up he is quieter than usual (if that can even be possible).

he tries to not get jealous when you get a main role and have to kiss your special interest. but he fails, and he gets all pouty for the rest of the night.

[interactyouth]

This #IntersexAwarenessWeek, Broadway actor Desmond Luis Edwards (they/he) dreams of a technicolor world.

"I started writing the song Technicolor after my first pride parade as an out intersex person. I was riding on Playbill's float at NYC pride with a huge intersex flag for everyone to see. An intersex affirming future for me would be authentic intersex representation in the entertainment industry. A future that's technicolor." #IntersexFutures

Video description: Desmond (they/he) stands before the camera in a button up shirt with a retro orange and pink art deco-like design. They have their coiled brown hair pulled back from their face, and he has facial hair covering his jawline. They have a silver septum piercing. They are holding a ukulele, and his fingers have alternating white and pink nail polish. There are captions visible on the screen as they talk and sing.

See more artwork displayed on our Intersex Futures webpage, which we'll continue to update as the week progresses, and we'll be spotlighting each project on our social media!

[momtaku]

Thoughts on the Attack on Titan Musical

tl:dr; It's been two weeks but I am still not over it.

When I posted the photo of myself holding the playbill of the Attack on Titan musical the most common reaction was "WHAT???", so I guess some background might be good to start with.

Yes, the Attack on Musical is a thing. It was first performed in Japan in January 2023 with shows in Osaka and Tokyo. When it was announced that a second run of the musical would include New York City, I pounced on tickets.

See, it's real! This is my video of the closing number. We were allowed to record this.

The New York run was at the New York City Center which seats about 2200 people. There were a total of 4 shows the weekend of Oct 12. I attended the Saturday matinee. The style of this production is known 2.5D, and is incredibly popular in Japan. I did some checking and this is the first time a 2.5D anime adaptation has appeared outside of Asia. Did Attack on Titan work as a musical?

Surprisingly yes, although I think anyone who wandered in off the streets would've been thoroughly confused. The themes that attracted most of us to the series translate wonderfully to the stage, and despite knowing the story well, they managed to make it feel fresh. Carla's death, for instance. When she realized she was trapped and facing certain death, her song to Eren and Mikasa was a children's lullaby about survival. That portion of the manga always hit me hard, but the desperation, horror and love set to a lullaby? Damn it musical, you made me cry.

The original scene of Hange leading a Titan Biology class might be my favorite of the entire show. The actor who played Hange was the perfect amount of unhinged and delightful as they dance across the table while the 104th answered a pop quiz. (And yes to "they" since the playbill specifically mentions that the actor in the role was known for her portrayal of nonbinary characters.) It was genuinely hilarious.

The musical covers the first 11 chapters of the manga, stopping in the "Struggle for Trost" arc, where the plan for Eren to plug the hole in the wall was conceived but not yet executed. I remember reading that portion of the manga years ago and feeling that same sense of optimism. So the musical ends on a high. Humans finally have a way to win against the titans, It felt like a strange place to end, knowing what ultimately happens in the story, so I wondered if the intention is for a part 2 musical adaptation.

(btw, the staging of "can you plug the hole" had Eren and Levi kneeling closely on the floor together with a manly shoulder clasp looking earnestly at each other. It had me looking at my very ereri friend with raised eyebrows. It was for sure her favorite moment.) What was the performance like?

The short run 2.5D musicals don't have the polish or production budget of a true broadway musical, but it was still wildly entertaining. Since the director is known for breakdance and hiphop, there was plenty of that. The dance numbers were fun. The songs were catchy.

Rather than try to describe it, here's a TikTok review that shows off the 3dmg, the titans, and that two minute head spin that no one could shut up about.

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A post shared by mixed feelings (@mixed.feelings)

Also, the cast could not have been for perfect. I mean LOOK AT THEM!

From this tweet

Who was in attendance?

As I mentioned before, this was a first in many ways so it attracted people from all over the world. While I was opening my blind box items, I met a group older women from Japan who'd travelled to New York from Tokyo and had purchased tickets to every single NY performance. Their English wasn't great, and my Japanese is nonexistent, but what surprised me the most wasn't their dedication to the show, but that they seemed genuinely surprised to see me. I don't know if that was because I too am an older fan like them, or if they weren't expecting equally passionate westerners at the show but I tend to think it was both. I suspect the Japanese fandom has no idea how big this series is outside of Japan, or that it attracts such a diverse audience.

My podcast partner Luna was sitting next to two women who'd flown in from California. They knew nothing about Attack on Titan but were fans of the actor who played Eren. Since it was his first time performing outside of Japan, they came solely to see him.

On my flight home was a 22 year old wearing an Attack on Titan musical t-shirt. We started talking and I learned it was his first time in New York, his first time seeing a broadway musical, and his first time traveling alone. He just loves the series that much.

In general the audience was much younger than what you'd normally see at a broadway show and 100% more excited. Plenty of people were in cosplay or else wearing Attack on Titan clothing. The atmosphere was insane.

My merch haul

The mug and t-shirt sold out before the second show so I was glad I was there early to snag them. The playbill is selling on Mercari for almost $50. Sadly my poster didn't survive the trip home. It cracked in about 50 places.

Did you do anything else in NYC

Aside from hanging out with so many of my favorite people, the Kodansha Popup House was going on. It was incredibly cool.

We met up with James from the Titan Teatime podcast. I think the plan is do a joint podcast in a few weeks to get everyone's thoughts . I'll post more about that if it actually happens.

Final Thoughts

Rumor has it that the show's successful New York run could mean it will branch out further. If it goes to London, nothing will stop me from being there. It was that much fun, and I can't wait to share the experience with my European friends.

[newbtheveryawesomeandkindanewby]

Things that happened before the playbills released:

-Elmo appeared on national news for a Tweet he made.

-Gravity Falls gained a resurgence in relevance after Bill Cipher published a book.

-The general public turned against MrBeast.

-Youtooz revealed they had Skylanders figures in production, the franchise's first new material in six years.

-A Ben 10 comic was announced from Dynamite Entertainment.

-Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, handing the Democrat ticket to current Vice President Kamala Harris.

-The Sonic the Hedgehog twitter account posted a video of Shadow dressed as Batman, which turned out to be a teaser for a five-issue crossover series.

-The first episode of Phineas and Ferb season five was produced.

-A fully CG-animated Transformers movie was released to glowing reviews.

-YouTuber Douglas "DougDoug" Wreden raised over $600,000 in donations to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

-LEGO sets themed after The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing and The Nightmare Before Christmas were released.

-FNAF fans learned the true identity of Phone Guy.

[ingravinoveritas]

As a follow-up to my review of Macbeth, I also wanted to mention another very delightful moment of my trip: I met David!

Following the first previews of this run, I was intrigued and of course happy to learn that David had resumed doing stage door (after not doing so at the Donmar, for very understandable security reasons). After waffling back and forth about it, I decided that since I was already going to be seeing the play, I might as well give it a go.

Having done stage door after other shows in the past, my experiences with seeing fans meet the actors have ranged from the hilarious to the hokey to the flat-out cringey. It's hard to ever know for sure how a stage door experience will go, and so I've found that the optimal course of action is to hope for the best while having no expectations at all.

Still, I wanted to be at least somewhat prepared, and so I had the idea to bring with me a Playbill from a production of Macbeth starring Alan Cumming, because I'd gotten to see it on Broadway ten years ago and I thought David might enjoy knowing that there was another Scottish production. So, current and old Macbeth programs in hand (I placed the Playbill next to David's cast photo, in the same way as the photo above), I made my way to the barricade by the Harold Pinter stage door, and waited.

David soon got to where I was standing, and it was the most surreal thing to have him there in front of me, all long hair and stubble and big, brown eyes. As he went to sign my program, he paused and caught sight of the Playbill, and his eyes lit right up. "Oh, another Macbeth! Another Scottish one," he exclaimed, and as he did, he looked right at me and smiled that gorgeous smile of his. "Yes," I replied, and said that I'd seen it ten years prior.

I mentioned a few other details about the production, and while David had begun to move down to sign other programs, he kept looking back at me as I spoke. Despite everything that was happening, he stayed focused on our exchange, even though it was brief. And when you're talking with him, it's as if you're the only one there. His entire attention is on you. And it is incredible.

I've talked on my blog previously about how I'm more of a Michael fan than a David fan (solely due to the fact that, after finding Good Omens in 2019, it was Michael who I was drawn to first). But seeing David up close and in person--how attractive he is, how delicate and sweet--is like looking at the sun. He looks at you, and your vision is full of only him, and by God I couldn't help but swoon just a little.

I also now completely understand what Michael meant when he said David is very easy to fall in love with. Because there's no possible way I could be around that all the time and not fall in love...

But I think my favorite thing about how things went with David was that it happened so organically. I didn't try to take pictures or video because I didn't want to detract from the experience, and very quickly the celebrity/fan aspect fell away and it just became about a lovely shared moment between two people. He was so kind, and so gracious...and he was just David. And I will always treasure and cherish the memory of meeting him... ❤️

[d-criss-news]

playbill: The stars of @ Maybe Happy Ending the Musical (@ Darren Criss and @ shel ) have arrived on the gala celebration purple carpet! 💜 #mhemusical #maybehappyending #darrencriss #helenjshen #Broadway #MusicalTheatre #TheatreKid #FYP #Belasco

[chaifootsteps]

Vivziepop’s “and much more to come” on her playbill is pretty funny knowing if no other company wants to work for her then I doubt she’ll be able to make even one more show. She lists off her successful projects but:

Hazbin Hotel: easily her most popular show with a ton of praise and a huge community, but is incredibly controversial and seems to be more popular with children which risks aging out of them. Could probably do well now that it’s getting more seasons but losing Bento Box, outsourcing and being unable to afford VAs (plus clear examples of crunch) tells me that unless she gets her shit together and starts acting like an actual business owner, that show may be the only successful thing she has left. Companies love successful stories, but they also like show creators that won’t bleed them dry.

Helluva Boss: was an indie juggernaut but now can no longer catch up to its competition. Last episode hasn’t even hit 10 million views and merch sales have plummeted. Only the Loona and Stolas ones continue to be successful. It’s clearly bleeding money seeing that it switched to outsourcing.

Zoophobia: super messy, had potential but it was basically the early signs of Vivziepop’s inevitable writing downfall. when she animated a short for it, it didn’t do well and it turns out people don’t care unless it’s basically diet gay porn.

And that’s not even getting into how Vivziepop’s abusive behavior is no longer this hush hush secret and is now a pretty common thing online that I’m sure is only going to get worse because she refuses to be a better person. Her fans will eat up everything but it’s clear that a lot of general audiences aren’t as impressed and need indie animation to do more than be flashy music videos

Speaking of Helluva Boss's tanking views...

"And much more to come" my ass.

[koolaidoverliving]

what the pastas would post if they were popular on tiktok (/NSRS)

Jeff: emo ass videos with that twilight filter. his fucking username would be MCR lyrics

Masky: CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Hoodie: cool edited shots and pictures. actually awesome looking shit.

Toby: RANDOM VIDEOS FROM THE MANSION... OR LIKE STORIES OF HIS FOOD (LEARNT FROM NINA)

Nina: its her personal blog where she can talk about whatever while doing makeup. she posts cute vlogs too

Jane and Clockwork: have those couple tiktok accounts where they post each other

Lulu: cooking videos ft sally and lazari

Jack: just him trying various tiktok filter games out of boredom

Ben: gaming videos. prank videos. or videos of jeff waking up and yelling at him.

Zero: would get banned for violating the tos

Laughing Jack: CLOWN TRICKS AND TELLING CHILDREN TO MEET HIM SOMEWHERE FOR FREE CANDY AND HUGS!!!

Candy Pop: thirst traps

The Puppeteer: posts about musicals and plays. makes sure to always include his 5,000 playbills in the videos

Kagekao: wine taste testing

Liu: making poems out of random shit like roblox screenshots

Nurse Ann: cosplay requests

Judge Angels: cute vlogs with lucy and helen.

Sadie: talking about random life events while eating food. viewers are concerned for her

Helen: painting! but... with a lot of red... his account gets reported.

Jason: advertising his toys but his drafts are filled with thirst traps too

Nathan: grwm makeup videos where he rants about anything. has beef with other tiktokers and gets canceled

Cody: showing off his experiments, or videos of his rats

Kate: mukbangs ft nina and toby except kate eats raw meat while nina and toby look at her in horror

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for being condescending towards an asexual kid in GSA?

🙃🏳️‍🌈 to find later

Long post so buckle up.

I (17, they/it/he) am one of three co-leaders of my school’s GSA, along with R (18, she/her) and N (17, he/him). All three of us are openly bi, and I’m also openly trans and (most importantly) very loudly aromantic. We’re all in 12th grade now but we were leaders last year (in 11th grade) too. The school/GSA is small enough that all four grades (9–12, so around 13–18 years old) are in the same GSA, there’s no separate upper grade and lower grade groups. We also have two advisors, both cis queer teachers; and some younger queer faculty members also join sometimes for formal events. We take turns running events during club time, such as fun crafts or watching music videos. Sometimes we also do educational stuff or documentaries, including having teachers come in to facilitate discussions.

I’ve been planning (since early December) to run a two part series of discussions about asexuality and aromanticism (separate discussions of each). I really just wanted to do one day about aromanticism, but R said that if I did that, people would derail it and just talk about asexuality anyways, which both N and our advisors also agreed made sense. So, it’s two days, and the asexuality one is first so that the aromanticism one can be closer to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (ASAW).

There’s a girl in GSA, let’s call her A (16, she/her), who’s in 11th grade. She’s very socially awkward and if someone points out that she’s accidentally said something rude or offensive she’ll make a big deal out of not knowing and generally derail the conversation. Also, two years ago A made a ton of “jokes” about me and my little sibling (16MtF) being “secretly dating.” When I asked her (politely at first) to stop, she said she was just joking around, and kept doing it. I asked her again and also asked the theatre teacher and school counselor for help, and eventually she did stop. But A kept following me around and trying to be friends with me, and I was super uncomfortable to the point that I asked the school counselor to facilitate a conversation between A and I so that I could ask her to fucking stop. It somewhat worked. Now she still keeps trying to start conversations with me in the hallways and such, but I just brush her off or ignore her.

The one place I can’t do that is during GSA. Since I’m a leader, I have to be civil to everyone and actually talk to people (R, N, and I set norms at the start of the year during our planning meetings). A is asexual but not aromantic, and today she showed up like 5 minutes into lunch (cafeteria lines are annoying) and loudly asked if she was late. We weren’t doing anything in GSA today, just chilling. At some point during the meeting I announced casually that next week we’d be discussing asexuality, and then the week after that we’d talk about aromanticism, which leads nicely into ASAW during February break. When I said this, A immediately said that she would be extra ace that week [during ASAW]. I was like, “during aromantic spectrum awareness week?!?!” in the same tone of that “during pride month?!?!” meme. She looked like someone had just given her an F on the most important test of the year and said she hadn’t known.

I also made a comment about how there’s way more openly aspec people at our school than at most schools, and N said that maybe the presence of role models is part of that (clear subtext: he was referring to me). I said pretty loudly (more people could hear) that it was kinda funny that I’m the “ace role model” when I’m literally not asexual. A looked super lost and confused at this, and I think she might’ve thought I was ace, even though I’m super open about not being ace, and have told her directly more than once.

Here’s where the potential assholery comes into play. There’s an ad for PrEP that was fairly common on the back covers of theatre playbills in the past year. The ad shows a Black man dressed in ripped leggings with fishnets, shiny knee-length heeled leather boots, and some sort of white leather harness, doing a bridge pose with one leg extended upwards so that the “r” in PrEP is resting on the sole of the boot. The ad has a bright red background and text that says “you cast of PrEP options is changing” along with a small QR code and website link. The pose is somewhat provocative, but not out of place on a playbill for an all-ages show.

During GSA, A was saying that she thought the ad was bad, because of the leather being “fetish gear” and “weird” (basically the same arguments people use to say that gay people shouldn’t be allowed in public). I told A that there’s nothing wrong with someone wearing leather, and she said that “it’s fetish gear and that’s disgusting and degenerate and just bad advertising!”

I explained calmly, like I would to a child (although I probably wouldn’t talk about this topic with a child), that PrEP is a medicine that people take if they anticipate having sex with someone who’s HIV-positive, so it’s okay that the ad is somewhat suggestive. She seemed to accept that, but still said that the leather was weird, and the ad should’ve shown “a diverse group of people getting pills at a pharmacy” instead, because “fetish gear” was too much.

I asked if she thought that all leather clothing was inherently fetishistic, to which A said yes, and then I asked, “do you know that people can’t just choose fetishes?”

She hadn’t known that, but she still said the ad was too sexual. I pointed out that it was a fairly well-targeted advertisement, using theatre references, but maybe A was not part of the target demographic. I also said that sometimes outfits are just hot without there needing to be any fetishes involved, which she didn’t refute, and that even if it was a fetish, that wouldn’t make it inherently “bad” or “degenerate” at all.

A said that she still didn’t like it, and I told her that she was entitled to have whatever feelings she wanted to have, but that doesn’t mean the advertisement itself is a problem.

Another person (17, he/him) called out “[OP], what do you think about kink at pride?” in a sort of nonchalant way, so I walked over while saying “i’m pro–kink at pride.” The conversation eventually moved in other directions, and then club ended and we had to go to our next classes.

TL;DR: given my position of power and responsibility as a GSA leader, AITA for being kinda condescending towards an ace person who’s 2 years younger than me because she was being very sex-negative about an ad for PrEP?

What are these acronyms?

[wolfdog-weatherman]

‼️LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS TUMBLR, I NEED YOU‼️

So, I recently went to see a Little Shop production done by the school my sister teaches at. It was really good ! But one thing caught me off guard…

Arthur Denton…having a whole SONG?!!? And it looks like it was meant to take place a few songs after Orin died…

Sadly, though, the song was never performed (and Arthur never even appeared in the production) despite this being in the playbill. I was a bit disappointed, but thought “surely this is on the internet, at the very least there’s a reddit post about it or something, right?”

Nope!

Absolutely nothing!!! I couldn’t find any videos or posts that had anything to do with this song.

If any of you out there know ANYTHING about this, please tell! Until then…this shall remain a mystery…

[the-nation-of-today]

BVB Discography // Bleeders Bleeders is the band's fourth EP and most recent release, as well as their first release under new label Spinefarm Records. Released on June 21st, 2024, starting with the single “Bleeders”, the EP ushered in a brand new era for the band. The titular song and corresponding music video were heavily inspired by frontman Andy Biersack’s own love of the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, even going so far as to feature Biersack as the iconic character. Building on this is the cover of “My Friends”, the music video for which was originally released exclusively to Playbill.