#alvin murphy preference

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 6, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

The Supreme Court was in the news this morning, as Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica explained that for more than twenty years Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has enjoyed the hospitality and funding of Dallas real estate magnate and major Republican donor Harlan Crow. Thomas and his wife Ginni, who was closely involved in challenging the 2020 presidential election, have taken trips in private jets and gone on vacations with Crow worth as much as $500,000.

Thomas did not disclose any of these valuable gifts. Indeed, in a documentary funded in part by Crow, Thomas presented himself as a regular guy. “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” he said. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that—I prefer being around that.”

After the story dropped, David G. Savage of the Los Angeles Times recalled that his newspaper had disclosed the close connections between Thomas and Crow in 2004, noting, for example, that Crow had given Thomas a $19,000 Bible that had belonged to the famous formerly enslaved abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass and a $15,000 bust of Abraham Lincoln. After their story appeared, it seems that Thomas did not stop accepting expensive gifts and travel from the wealthy mogul, but instead stopped disclosing them.

In Crow’s company, Thomas rubbed elbows with his host’s other guests, including senior business executives, major Republican donors, and leaders of right-wing think tanks. Crow has worked hard to move the judiciary and the legal system to the right, and at one of the properties where Thomas vacations, there is a painting of him in conversation with a number of figures, including Leonard Leo, the leader of the Federalist Society who has orchestrated the court’s hard-right turn. Leo is now overseeing Marble Freedom Trust, established to disburse funds from a $1.6 billion bequest to manipulate elections in favor of Republicans.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted: “Important for news media to not simply label this guy as a ‘[Republican] mega donor’. It’s so much worse. Crow has many interests before the Supreme Court. His groups file petitions before the court. It’s the clearest, most brazen violation of judicial ethics you can imagine.”

In Congress today, House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) issued a subpoena in its investigation of the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office after that office indicted former president Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records on Tuesday. Bragg explained: “The trail of money & lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic & fundamental business laws.”

Although Jordan himself refused to respond to a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, he is demanding that Mark Pomerantz, a former county special assistant district attorney who investigated Trump’s finances, show up to testify.

Pomerantz resigned from his role in the investigation out of frustration that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg was not then moving forward with an indictment. The wording of Jordan’s letter indicates he is hoping to use Pomerantz’s words critical of Trump to argue that the district attorney’s office was biased against the former president.

General counsel for the Manhattan district attorney’s office Leslie Dubeck previously rejected the demands of Jordan, House Committee on House Administration chair Bryan Steil (R-WI), and  House Committee on Oversight and Accountability chair James Comer (R-KY) for testimony and documents from Bragg, warning them that their attacks on Bragg and his office were “unlawful political interference.”

Dubeck pointed out: “our Office is legally constrained in how it publicly discusses pending criminal proceedings,… as you well know.” She called their interference “unnecessary and unjustified” and reminded the men that Congress has no jurisdiction over individual criminal investigations. Nor does it have jurisdiction over state investigations. “The Committees’ attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation—and now prosecution—is an unprecedented and illegitimate incursion on New York’s sovereign interests,” she wrote.

Now Jordan is trying a different approach. Bragg responded: “The House [Republicans continue] to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing New York criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation. Repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement actions are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law.”

In the Tennessee statehouse this afternoon, Republican legislators led by House of Representatives speaker Cameron Sexton voted to expel Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two young Black lawmakers who had led young protesters in chants from the floor of the house chamber in favor of gun safety legislation after house Republicans refused to allow debate on such a measure.

The Republicans charged that the three representatives had broken house rules and had engaged in “disorderly behavior” and “knowingly and intentionally” brought “dishonor to the House of Representatives.” The body avoided expelling Gloria Johnson, the white woman who chanted with Jones and Pearson, by one vote. Although the debate showed that a Republican had also broken house rules by recording a video that was then misleadingly edited and shown, that representative was not charged.

The three Democratic representatives joined protesters to call for gun safety legislation after six people, including three 9-year-olds, were killed in yet another school shooting. The Republicans have focused on cultural issues and have opposed taking up gun safety legislation. Indeed, they have worked to loosen gun laws; on the same day as the recent school shooting, a federal judge cleared the way for the Tennessee legislature to lower the age for permitless carry in the state from 21 to 18. Republican governor Bill Lee signed the permitless carry bill for 21 and up in 2021 at a Beretta gun manufacturing plant.

Today, young protesters in the statehouse defended the Tennessee Three, as they have become known, saying: “You ban books, you ban drag—kids are still in body bags!” After the votes to expel, the chants changed to “F*ck you, fascists!”

Republicans in the Tennessee legislature could act as they did because they have a supermajority thanks to their redistricting of the state after the 2020 census. In that redistricting they cracked Democratic-leaning Nashville, dividing it among three districts in which they overwhelmed Democratic voters with Republicans from the suburbs. A new state law has now required Nashville to cut its city council in half. Meanwhile, laws prohibiting people with a past felony conviction from voting cut more than 470,000 people from the voter rolls.

This lock on power has given Tennessee Republicans the ability to do as they please. Today it pleased them to expel two young Black legislators who were trying to force the Republicans to do something about the epidemic of gun violence that is killing their constituents.

The Supreme Court, Congress, and the Tennessee statehouse. What would you say if you saw today’s news coming from another country?

Before he left the chamber, Representative Justin Pearson told his suddenly former colleagues how he saw it.

“You are seeking to expel District 86’s representation from this house, in a country that was built on a protest. IN A COUNTRY THAT WAS BUILT ON A PROTEST. You who celebrate July 4, 1776, pop fireworks and eat hotdogs. You say to protest is wrong because you spoke out of turn, because you spoke up for people who are marginalized. You spoke up for children who won’t ever be able to speak again; you spoke up for parents who don’t want to live in fear; you spoke up for Larry Thorn, who was murdered by gun violence; you spoke up for people that we don’t want to care about. In a country built on people who speak out of turn, who spoke out of turn, who fought out of turn to build a nation.

“I come from a long line of people who have resisted.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[meadowpond-tearoom]

Halloween🎃👻🕯️

...Though we don't celebrate Halloween (October 31st, the eve of the All Saints' Day), I decided to come up with a special post on it now. It's like I will start with a digital celebration here and maybe, we'll throw a pleasantly spooky, real Halloween party next year:)

...Have you seen this movie yet? It's fun and full of Halloween spirit. So I will watch it again:)

"Magic is really very simple, all you've got to do is want something and then let yourself have it." - Aggie Cromwell, "Halloweentown", 1998

...image is via allingforleavesandpumpkins

...image is from fallowingautumn-blog

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." - Eden Phillpots, Victorian novelist, playwright, poet

...image is from virtuallyinsane-autumn.tumblr.com

...HALLOWEENish atmosphere in PAINTINGS

“There’s a little witch in all of us.” - Aunt Jet Owens, a minor character in "Practical magic"

I don’t know what this crazy picture is:)), but I do really like it!  This cool painting is by Philip Grözinger (German, b. 1972)

"Do you believe in destiny? That even the powers of time can be altered for a single purpose? That the luckiest man who walks on this earth is the one who finds ... true love?" - Dracula, 1992

Driftwood by Adam Oehlers …via  witchyteacups

"Just because I cannot see it, doesn't mean I can't believe it!" - Bram Stoker, "Dracula"

...a painting by Adam Burke @nightjarillustration, an artist based in Portland, Oregon.

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” - Stephen King

The Haunted Park by Richard Doyle (English, 1824–1883) .via oldpaintings

📚11 atmospheric books to read during Halloween (not my personal choice, just came across this list somewhere. so let's try it out together:)

The Haunting of Abney Heights: gothic mystery for Halloween by Cat Thomas

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Dark stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe

Drakula by Bram Stooker

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

The Woman in Black and other Ghost stories by Susan Hill

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell

House of Shadows by Mair Unsworth

Blood Lite by Kevin J. Anderson

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

📚...and these are chosen by me:) Havent' read any one of these books yet, but I was attracted by the covers. So now it's my Halloween reading wishlist:

"Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue." - Ichabod Crane, a fictional character in "Sleepy hollow."

...The Ghosts Haunting the Woods by LorelaiArtsiePartsie

I usually prefer horror comedy films and animation to real horror movies. They should be scary yet not containing anything disgusting, and of course, there must be a happy ending...

...so, my Must Watch Halloween Movies List looks like this :)

The Little Vampire (anim.)

Monster House (anim.)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Ghostbusters starring Bill Murrey (1984)

The Haunted Mansion starring Eddie Murphy (2003)

Disney’s Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Vampire in Brooklyn starring Eddie Murphy (1995)

A Haunted House (2013)

Hubie Halloween starring Adam Sandler (2020)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

The School For Good And Evil (2022)

...and that's not all yet! How can I wrap up the post without sharing this energizing song from my favourite Gravity Falls series?! ;)

...not yet! Now, even more shivers down your spine!

Now, Happy, Spooky, Scary, Eerie Halloween! Have fun! 🎃👻🕯️

[alyssawritesss]

ALVIN MURPHY: STAY

Fandom: Z Nation Pairing: Alvin Murphy x Reader Prompt: N/A Warnings: N/A Notes: Y/N = Your Name

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TAGS: @sxturn-stars​ (permanent tags) // @lillymueller​ @johnmurphyisbisexual​ @xxstrangegirlxxx​ (z nation tags)

You sat on the back of the truck, your legs dangling off the edge. It had been a long while since you and the rest of the group had stopped anywhere and your legs were as stiff as a board. All you wanted was to be able to get up and walk around, even if it meant dealing with a bunch of Zs. You had never been more ancy in your entire life.

The sound of shuffling behind you filled your ears before you noticed feet fall of the edge of the truck, right beside yours. You looked over and spotted Murphy, now sitting right beside you, looking off into the distance. He was whistling slightly, not loud enough to disturb anyone a few inches away.

“You��re awfully happy today.” You commented.

He glanced at you for a moment, his whistling stopping. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

You leaned back, placing your hands on the ground of the truck’s bed as you closed your eyes. Murphy watched you for a moment, smiling to himself. Since the two of you had met a few months ago, Murphy had been in awe of you, though he was careful not to admit it to anyone. There was just something special about you, something he’d never seen in somebody before. Something he truly felt was too rare not to admire.

The truck soon came to a halt, snapping Murphy out of his thoughts. “What’s going on up there, Warren?” He asked, turning his gaze to the front of the truck.

“Supply stop.” She mumbled in response. “Grab what you can carry, we’re out of here in ten. Alright?”

Everyone nodded in agreement, heading towards the department store across the street. You shuffled down the farthest isle, finding it to be where the snacks were. Grabbing as many boxes of protein and granola bars as you could, you made your way back out to the truck where everyone was waiting - everyone besides Murphy.

“I’m guessing Murphy’s not behind you?” Addy asked, leaning against the truck.

You let out a loud sigh. “No, I’ll go get him…”

Making your way back into the store, you began to check each isle, Murphy nowhere to be found. You folded your arms over your chest, raising an eyebrow.  “Murphy? Come on, we have to go!” You called out. Still nothing. “Murphy?”

A few seconds of you standing in silence passed before a loud, high-pitched screamed filled your ears. Your head yanked in the direction of the sound, your feet darting after it. Running behind a counter at the back of the store, you shoved open an ‘employees only’ door, spotting Murphy standing in the corner, his face pale.

“Hey, are you okay? I heard you screaming.” You spoke, walking closer.

Murphy’s eyes met yours, lingering for a moment before he looked away. Clearing his throat, Murphy stood taller. “Yeah, I’m fine. We should get going…” He replied, his shaking voice not matching his stance.

As you opened your mouth to speak, you noticed a small critter run along the floor and out the door in which you just entered. Murphy winced as he spotted it, stepping back slightly. You looked back at Murphy, who quickly straightened himself out once again.

“A mouse?” You asked, trying -and failing- to keep a straight face. You began to laugh, clutching your stomach.

“This isn’t what it looks like.” Murphy spoke, waving his hands and rolling his eyes.

“Really?” You asked, still laughing. “Because, it looks like you’re scared… of a mouse.”

“I was not.” He responded.

You roll your eyes, a smirk falling across your face. “Come on, admit it. You’re scared of a little, baby mouse.”

Folding his arms across his chest, Murphy walked closer to you. “Well, what if it were a zombie mouse? People can’t be too careful nowadays, I especially can’t be too careful; I am the package, after all.”

You looked at him for a moment before patting him on the shoulder. “Whatever you have to tell yourself. Come on, the others are waiting for us. Did you find anything?”

Murphy turned around and walked behind the desk in the back centre of the room before crouching down. Seconds later he stood up, a box full of supplies in his hand. “I might’ve found a little something.”

Your eyes lit up. “Would you look at that…”

Together, you and Murphy exited the department sore and headed over to the truck. Murphy placed the box down in the bed of the truck before helping you climb up. He soon followed, sitting down next to you. You tapped on the side of the truck, signalling for Warren to start driving.

The rest of the day was spent in the truck, you sitting in silence and staring off into the distance. Murphy would occasionally glance at you, only seeing the back of your head and a mere fraction of the right side of your face, sun illuminating it.

By the time the sun had completely faded away, the moon now being your only source of light, Warren was once again pulling the truck over, this time into a small nook of a forest. Everyone climbed out of the truck, meeting at the back, where you remained seated on the edge of the truck. Warren announced that she thinks it would be a good idea to stay put for the night, each person taking a shift on walk. Everyone else agreed, picking an order for shifts; of course, yours was up first.

You surveyed the area as the others got settled, most of them falling asleep before your first lap around. For the most part, the area was fairly silent aside from a few small animals running about in the bushes. Even though there was no sign of threat anywhere to be found, you could still feel the hairs on the back of your neck standing at attention, goosebumps taking over your body. You hated to be alone at night, especially these days. With everyone trying to sleep, you felt even more exposed; if anything were to sneak up on you, you’d really have no shot at survival.

“You’re really bad at this, you know?”

You quickly spun around, holding your gun up. In front of you stood Murphy, a small smile playing across his face. You rolled your eyes, lowering your gun. “You’re lucky I’m bad at this or you’d have a hole in your head right now.” Taking a deep breath, you leaned against a tree. “What are you doing up?”

“Can’t sleep.” He confessed.

“I wouldn’t worry,” You spoke, smirking. “I don’t think there are any mice out here, so you should be safe.”

Murphy glared at you. “Very funny.”

“I try.” You simply smiled.

Murphy was silent for a moment. “What are you afraid of?”

“What?”

“What are you afraid of?” He asked. “Something small, seemingly insignificant with the dead romancing around; what are you afraid of?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “I don’t know… A lot of things.”

“Like?”

“Not mice.” You responded.

Murphy didn’t respond, letting his eyes capture yours. For a second you just stood there, staring at him. Finally, you let out a long, harsh breath. “I-I… I’m afraid of the dark. I mean, not to the point where I need some source of light to sleep at night. I’m just afraid of being outside in the dark. Even as a kid, I’d go camping with my parents and I just couldn’t sleep. I’d spend the whole weekend, only being able to take a short nap during the day. If only I had known I’d have to be able to deal with darkness a lot as an adult.” It took a moment for your words to seep into your own ears, sending panic through your body. “Shit, that was a little too real, even for me… I’m sorry-”

“Y/N, it’s fine.” He spoke. “I mean, I wouldn’t really consider that a small fear. It makes sense…”

You shook your head, letting a smile come back to your face. You could feel your previously pale cheeks lighten up again. “Can I ask you something?”

“It’s a free country.” He responded. “Or, it was.”

“Why are you so nice to me?”

“I’m nice to you?” He asked, smiling. You nodded. “Everyone else, you treat like shit… No offence.”

“None taken.”

“Yet, for some reason, you don’t treat me like shit. So, I’m curious. Why is that?” You finished.

Murphy shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know… I just don’t.”

“So, it’s that simple?”

“Yeah.”

Without thinking, you moved closer to Murphy, your face inches away from his own. “Are you sure about that?”

Murphy froze for a moment, unsure of what was happening. Usually he was so sure when face-to-face with a women, yet here he was, his thoughts racing a mile per second. Finally gaining back feeling in his body, Murphy slowly moved his face towards you. As his lips were about to touch yours, you smiled, placing your finger against his lips.

As Murphy’s eyes widened, you moved your lips towards his ear. “I really didn’t think you were sure…”

Pulling away, you moved back over to the tree, sitting down on one of the roots poking out from the ground. Murphy stood there, looking from you back to the group a couple of times before finally, his eyes stuck to you.

You looked up at him, your eyes sparkling. “Murphy?”

He nodded.

“Stay with me?” You asked.

Murphy made his way to you, sitting down next to you on the root of the tree. You nuzzled your head into the crook of his neck, prompting him to put his arm around you. The two of you stayed like that most of the night, not noticing you hadn’t switched shifts with anyone until the sun came up. You just stayed there, in bliss.

~~~~~~~~~~

More Murphy from the old blog... I hope you all like it!! I am currently ONLY accepting Christmas-y requests! You can send those HERE if you’d like. Please remember to note and/or reblog if you enjoyed!!

[fandomfourever]

In Defense of Alvin Murphy

I’ve been having thoughts ever since watching Z Nation. Twice. And I had to get this all off my chest. But, I’m just gonna put this under a read more because this will probably be super long.

So, as I said above, this is mostly just something I needed to post about so I can finally think about something else, lol. Most of what I’m writing is based on canon, while some sections (which I’ll try to make obvious) are educated guesses based on what we do know, and what makes sense (to me anyway). I’m going to try and keep it in some kind of order, but it might get a bit ramble-y.

While it obviously isn’t everyone, there are a lot of people who just really hate Murphy. And while everyone’s entitled to their opinions, sometimes I feel it’s a little unjustified. Not only that, he gets a lot of hate in the show from various characters. Now, I’m not going to claim Murphy is a saint who can do no wrong—he’s done plenty wrong. But this post is basically about putting things in perspective. If this interests you, please continue reading. Otherwise, move on I guess?

Sometimes it feels as though people seem to forget that Murphy has some major PTSD. Many of the characters do, but here’s the thing: those characters are often treated with sympathy, where Murphy is not. Example: Murphy panics in the elevator when they’re looking for McCandles, and Warren smacks him and tells him to stop (paraphrasing), but when Warren has a panic attack in the box in the labyrinth, Sarge helps her out and people are sympathetic. Not that they shouldn’t, but it’s a stark difference between similar moments.

Let’s not forget that Murphy was in prison for Postal Fraud. Not murder. Not rape. Not terrorism. Not drugs. Postal Fraud. And he was sentenced to 3 years, when the maximum can be up to 20 years with a $250,000 fine, unless it involves a “presidentially declared major disaster or emergency” which can land you 30 years and $1 million dollar fine. AKA, whatever Murphy did, it was really minor. (You can find info and the quote if you google Postal Fraud)

In the flashback we see of him in season 2, Murphy sees his first zombie; a dude shanked by another dude. Chronologically, Murphy is then given the vaccine during Black Summer. When we see Murphy in the pilot, he’s got a full beard, meaning some time has passed between seeing his first Z and being vaccinated.

Here’s where a bit of educated guessing comes in: we don’t see what happens to him between those two times. It would make sense to me that, if there’s been a zombie outbreak and food/water is going to run out, prisoners would be kept in their cells indefinitely (or almost so). Which would then give a pretty good explanation to Murphy’s claustrophobia. Whether he was in the cell alone or not, that’s a tiny space, and can you imagine the kind of terror that would come with that? Probably hearing other prisoners turn? All it would take is one guard getting bitten by mistake and the whole place would descend into chaos.

Back to what we know for sure. At some point after seeing his first zombie, he is then forcibly taken to the prison lab to be experimented on. Murphy, strapped to a table, has to watch two other prisoners die after being injected—one of which seized so hard he broke his own neck. Then he’s injected, and left behind, where he’s mauled by zombies and is awake and experiences them tearing into his body.

Then, to add insult to injury, Murphy is led around for a year by Hammond—you know, one of the people who abandoned him to be bitten—to try and bring him to California where he will be, once again, experimented on. We see how Hammond treats people, especially Murphy. He yanks and shoves him around, and we see he even treats people he views as human kind of like crap; Murphy is just a “package” to him. In fact, Murphy is called “the package” by just about everyone.

(remember that Hammond hauled Murphy from the truck and demanded he show Warren and Garnette the bites. Against his will.)

So, Murphy’s been traumatized, experimented on, and treated as less than human by the military, and then he’s taken in by people who also view him as less than human. Is it really any wonder he acts like an asshole? I doubt any normal person would be nice and friendly after all that.

The first person that actually tries to ask about what happened is Doc, but Murphy has no reason to trust him and lies about having volunteered to do it (I doubt Doc believes it, but he doesn’t ask further about it either). So yes, Murphy could have told Delta X-ray Delta exactly what happened, and maybe that would have gotten him the sympathy he deserved. However, they all know he was bitten eight times, so you’d think that alone would be enough to be treated with some kindness. But nah, they all are happy to push him around and tell him to shut up and again continue referring to him as “the package”.

It only gets worse as Murphy starts to turn blue. Not only does Murphy have to deal with the fact he’s being dragged across America to be experimented on by Dr. Mercy again, he then has to deal with the fact he’s, literally, falling apart.

Yes, Murphy takes water from that family and lets the husband inside. Yes, that was an awful thing to do. But, Murphy’s natural inclination is not to be a murderer (if they actually died). So I was thinking about the situation from Murphy’s perspective. The mother and daughter were hiding out in a building waiting for the husband to return. When he took the water, neither fought back, which can get you killed in the apocalypse. Even if he hadn’t taken the water, how long would they have lasted? Especially if they waited there for the husband to come back and he never did? They likely would have starved or died of dehydration. As Murphy leaves, he stops, thinks, then lets the zombiefied husband inside. I think it’s entirely possible that, from his prospective, he was helping in a way. The mother and daughter wouldn’t die wondering what happened to him, and could be viewed as a twisted sort of mercy. Again, not a good thing to do, and I’m not excusing him. But it’s a point to ponder.

Next I wanted to talk about Cassandra. Well, when Murphy bit her. Like with 10K, we never actually see the bite happen. What we see is Murphy going past everyone who’s devastated by Cassandra dying, and then entering the room and looking at her. Now, up to that point, Murphy had only bitten/infected four people, and controlled three of them sort of. The first person he bit, that guy at the Fu-Bar, died and didn’t turn. Now, based on the fact that even Murphy seemed surprised by Cassandra’s return, and her strange behavior, my guess is that he bit her to keep her from becoming a Z. He knew she meant a lot to the others, and despite his outward behavior, I think it’s safe to say Murphy does care about them at this point. So it would make sense to me that he would assume seeing her turn into a zombie would be heartbreaking to everyone else, and therefore bit her to prevent that, not knowing she would become a Blend and come after him.

In the final episode of season 1, Murphy sees what became of Patient Zero. He sees a man melted to a table, still alive, and begging for death, and knows he could become him. Then he learns Dr. Kurian isn’t who he says he is and could be wanting to kill or torture him (like the other experiments in the lab). (An aside: Dr. Merch worked in that lab, meaning she had a hand in those experiments.)

So again, I don’t find it unreasonable that Murphy, triggered by his trauma and impending kidnapping, fled. Flight or Fight, and we know Murphy prefers not to fight. So he ran. Someone in that kind of head-space is not going to be thinking of other people, and it would be unreasonable to expect that.

Then the beginning of season 2 is marked by people hunting Murphy down. People who are completely willing to break his legs to get the bounty. Again, he was being treated as less than human. The only bright spot in his life was Lucy, who he felt like he had to give up because he believed the group would hurt her. Considering the way they talked about him and her, and the fact they’re totally okay with allowing a baby to be experimented on, he wasn’t wrong to be worried.

Then we get the lovely episode The Collector. You know, the episode where Murphy was electrocuted multiple times. If you take a look at ScriptTorture like I have—specifically their electrical torture tag—you’ll see just how bad even one shock can be, let alone however many he got there. Being shocked with electricity can cause: heart attacks, muscle spasms enough to break bones, someone biting their own tongue off by mistake, death from falling because of muscle failure, burns, and bruising. While we know Murphy didn’t experience those (luckily) it’s still torture, and still incredibly painful for him. And let’s not forget he got shocked with a cattle prod back in the first episode of the season, and that he later gets repeatedly shocked in that episode with the Zuggalos.

The end of the episode leaves us with Murphy asking Warren to promise him she won’t let him be alone when they get to the CDC. And she does. Until a few episodes later, anyway. During the flashback episode, we get a scene where Murphy tells Warren he’s scared and that if she was his friend,  she wouldn’t leave him alone at the CDC. What’s Warren’s response to this? “I’m not your friend” and “There are some things we have to do alone, even if it hurts.” Like, wow, nice, so glad you don’t care you’re breaking Murphy down further.

And then to find out Dr. Merch and the others on the sub weren’t even going to save humanity, just the rich people on Zona? To know he’d been subjected to all that shit for nothing? Yeah, Murphy had every right to be upset and to try and take matters into his own hands. A persona can only take so much before they snap, after all.

You know what’s ridiculous? That Warren & Co (minus 10k) were totally fine with Hector/Escorpion hanging out with them despite, you know, torturing Vasquez, killing multiple people even before the apocalypse, trying to kill 10k (the ep where he was with Sketchy and Skeezy), being part of a Cartel… But Murphy being snarky and occasionally an asshole is just so much worse, I guess.

Now I want to address Murphy biting 10k. Like with Cassandra, we don’t see what happens, just the before and after. But let’s think back on some things. Murphy bit Cassandra because she was dying. Murphy did NOT bite 10k when the Collector ordered him to because there was another way out. Murphy did NOT inject Warren & Co when they were with The Zeros, when he had the opportunity and even motive to. So then we have 10k on the sub, shot in the stomach. We last see 10k (pre-bite) stumbling off the table in the sub. Despite being bandaged, he didn’t look like he was doing too well. When we see 10k later, he has no memory of the bite happening. Murphy can do a lot, but we’ve never seen him erase someone’s memories. Now, looking at Murphy’s past actions, and what we see going on with 10k, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that, perhaps, 10k fainted or was knocked out. Falling to the floor or against a wall could have very easily re-opened his stitches, causing him to bleed again. Now if Murphy saw this, he could have easily thought that 10k was dying and bitten him.

All that isn’t to say Murphy wasn’t in the wrong for trying to control 10k, because he was, but I find it hard, if not impossible, to believe it was a lie when Will said that Murphy cared about him and didn’t want to hurt him.

Honestly, season 3 feels kind of like a mess when it comes to vilifying Murphy and trying to make it seem like Warren is in the right. I’m honestly glad when Murphy calls out her hypocrisy, because Warren keeps saying freedom is important, and free will is important. But apparently when the people go to Murphy of their own free will to get his cure, that doesn’t count. Warren was totally okay with slaughtering a bunch of people (with the help of the Red Hand who are also a bunch of murderers), because they felt safe with Murphy. And why wouldn’t they? He made them immune to Zs, got them fresh water, functioning electricity, and food.

Which brings me to another point I want to make. People love to call Murphy a narcissist. While he does act arrogantly, he’s not a narcissist. To be classified as a narcissist, a person must exhibit 5 or more of the following symptoms:

A grandiose sense of self-importance

Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

Belief that one is special and can only be understood by or associate with special people or institutions

A need for excessive admiration

A sense of entitlement (to special treatment)

Exploitation of others

A lack of empathy

Envy of others or the belief that one is the object of envy

Arrogant, haughty behavior or attitudes

A grandiose sense of self-importance: Nope. Murphy frequently said he didn’t want to be The Savior, that he wanted to be normal and die like everyone else. When he does refer to himself as The Savior, it’s highly sarcastic or to stay alive.

Preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, etc.: Again, no. The closest he gets is saying he could have been an action news anchor if he’d applied himself.

Only associating with special people and institutions: No. Murphy associates with everyone. Does he get a little close to this with Zona in season 4? Yeah, but since it isn’t exclusive it doesn’t count as this.

A need for excessive admiration: Nah. You can see him get visibly uncomfortable when his Blends act overly obsessed with him. And guess what? Murphy gives them all credit for getting the power working. Not once does he claim that all the good things they have is because of him and him alone.

A sense of entitlement: Sometimes. But I’d say considering the shit he’s been through, it’s not unreasonable.

Exploitation of others: Yeah, he does do this.

Lack of empathy: Whoo boy, you’d have to have not been watching the show to think this. Murphy, despite his outward behavior, gets attached to people so fast. It only took one card game with Doc for Murphy to call him his friend, and to feel devastated when he thought Doc had been blown up. He has full empathy for Zs, and just because they’re dead doesn’t mean it doesn’t count. Especially when we know from both Murphy and Lucy that they do still feel things. Murphy and Lucy’s storyline as a whole disproves this one.

Envy of others/Thinking one is envied: No, we don’t see any evidence of this.

Arrogant and haughty behavior: Yeah, he does this too.

So, 2 out of 9 symptoms. Murphy’s not a narcissist. Case closed on that one.

Now, back to my main points. So we have Murphy creating a beautiful room for Lucy, intending to find her and bring her back to raise her properly. Warren tells Doc and Addy to get to Lucy first, so she can be the new cure. Because it’s totally fine to experiment on babies. And yeah, we know now that Sun Mei would have likely only taken a little bit of blood, but we didn’t then, and neither did Warren & Co. And even still, it’s experimenting on a baby. Truly, Warren was the hero of season 3 and Murphy was pure evil.

Luckily in seasons 4 and 5, Murphy is treated a lot better. Well, mostly the end of season 4 and season 5 in general. The way things are framed, it seems like Murphy doesn’t care about anyone not on Zona, but it’s crucial to remember that 1) He was told everyone was dead and 2) it’s been 2 years for him. And then when he’s reunited with Lucy she snubs him and hangs around with Warren, who acts all pleased about it. It’s not like Murphy loved Lucy more than anyone, even himself, and had tried so hard to get her back, thought she was dead, and just wants a chance to be a dad. And, because Murphy hasn’t suffered enough, Warren’s sense of self-importance about her mission to “stop” Black Rainbow got Lucy killed. Just saying, if they’d just gone to Newmerica, Lucy might have lived.

Also, how can your heart not break even a little when, at the camp, Doc gives Murphy a hug and Murphy says “At least there’s one person who’s happy to see me”? Like?

The last time we get Murphy being treated super unfairly is by Addy in season 5. Like, yes, Addy traveled with Lucy and cared about her, but Murphy was her father and might have been able to raise her if Doc and Addy hadn’t gone to kidnap her first. But she just has to get in a dig at Murphy not being around for Lucy. Like he totally would have had he not been abducted by Zona.

As long as this post is, I hope those that read it can see my point. Murphy is not perfect, but the way he’s treated is vastly out of proportion to what he’s done. He definitely deserves more sympathy than he’s given. If we’re ever given a season 6, I hope he’s treated a lot better.

If people would like to talk about this, whether you agree or not, please do. But also please be nice about it. I’m all for respectful discussions.

[wecouldbelongtogether]

Just a Kiss

Pairing: Roberta Warren/Alvin Murphy

Genre: Fluff

He thought he didn’t like Garnett before because he was so desperate to take him to California but it wasn’t just that, he actually hated him because he was able to be that close to Roberta.

His eyes wandered from her face, her lips and her bare shoulder. Her plump chest flashed next to his eyes as she wore a tank top as she sleeps. Her figure just looks so fine. He swallowed a lump on his throat as he saw her smooth legs flash next to his eyes with her skirt slightly raked up.

He slowly attempted to pull it down a bit to cover her up but as soon as he held the fabric of her skirt, she immediately held his hand tightly, he gasped. “What are you doing?” She asked stunning him. He withdrew his hand swiftly from her grip, looked away in humiliation as he thought she might be thinking that he is taking advantage of her as she sleeps.

“Nothing, I’m doing nothing.” He stuttered, she just stared at him trying to figure out why he did that. He tried to look back at her, “How long have you been awake?” He asked. “Since you started staring at me? About twenty minutes.” She raised her eyebrow trying to annoy him more.

He looked away and frowned. “Warren, big problem!” Doc barged inside the room.

They rushed at the front of the house, she peeked into the telescope to see what’s a coming — a horde of zombies coming. “What’s the plan?” Doc asked.

“We’re gonna have to leave split up.” She uttered. “You all head west.” She followed. “And you?” Addy asked. “I’ll head east. We meet at the center in two hours.” Warren replied.

“Wait, just you alone?” Murphy asked stopping them from proceeding. “Obviously. Someone has to lure these Zs off the other direction.” Warren replied. “I’ll go with you.”

“What are you doing—“

“Zs are coming, Warren. No time to argue. I can control them, I can help.” He interjects. Despite that she didn’t like the idea, she had no more time to argue as the Zs began to approach their area.

Murphy and Warren ran towards the woods to have barks to hide to as the horde of Zs swarmed the place. The place felt dim as the sun settled down, the surroundings felt even more dim as the flock of undead passed through them. “Warren!” Murphy yelled as he saw a Z behind her, she swiftly gave it mercy and pulled him with her as she ran farther from the line of the undead.

In panic, they failed to see the steep area in the forest causing them to rollover down the hill and land on a heavy stock of hay. Murphy was stunned as he realized he landed on top of Warren — with their faces so close from each other. His chest felt tight and his throat felt dry.

His gaze felt strange, she saw something else in his eyes as he looked at her but she was uncertain of what it really meant. “We gotta get moving.” She told him but he remained calm. He felt glued making him realize how being close to her makes him feel at ease. “A part of me tell me I can’t.” He uttered.

“What?” She retorted and pointed her gun at the Z approaching them but before she gives it mercy, he stopped it from even coming close to them. He looked at her again, “we have to go.” She insisted and started to worry as she saw a few more Zs coming.

He would rather use his energy to stop them and stay that close to his Warren than to run away. “Murphy, go—“ she tried to push him away but he pinned her down the ground. “No!” He refuted.

“Murphy!”

“Let go!” She slammed him in the face and stood up.

He moved his jaws and held his own face. She walked towards him and reached for his hand. “Move.” She stipulated but he preferred being there close to her.

She pulled him up and looked at him in the eye. “You better stop being a pain the àss now Murphy.” She taunted him but she still felt how he didn’t want to move.

They looked at a distance and saw a more dreadful horde coming. She tried to pull him to run but he resisted and pulled her close to him instead. She finally figured out what he wants. She glared at him before she crushed her lips against his, he finally had what he wanted. He cupped her hips and pulled her even closer.

God knows how much I want to kiss Warren. A thought bloomed in his head.

He moved and pinned her to the tree to kiss her harder. At that point, she felt like sinking into his lips but she knew can’t.

He lifted her thigh and stroked her legs. She swiftly withdrew from the kiss before Murphy becomes uncontrollable. “You’re not getting more of that if you don’t move.” She demanded, he remained torn. “Now.” She stipulated.

He finally followed and ran with her.

[iwontdancenetwork]

Check Out The 10 Best Colleges For Dance Performance In the US 

by: Jackson Summer

One of the most physically intensive majors out of any of college degree program is dance performance – likely, it is easy to understand why. Dance majors are often up as early as 5am on a daily basis, attending rehearsals, ballet class, auditions, and choreographing for the big stage for a number of campus auditions. I have myself dated a dancer before, and I can tell you that she was regularly out of the house by 6am and didn’t even get back until 9pm, with her whole day dedicated to dancing. Yikes!

There are a number of excellent colleges available to dance performance majors in the US, however, a few of them stand out among others. One strong preference for a number of aspiring professional dancers is location: if you choose to attend a dance program in NYC, you not only receive the opportunity to network with a number of the most important troupes, choreographers, and professors, but also the chance to participate in a number of activities outside of your school. Other strong considerations include whether your program of choice has a strong ballet element, a strong contemporary dance element, a strong jazz element, a strong tap element, or even all four.

Having looked at a number of critical factors, including location, strength of the department faculty (most important), what recent alumni have accomplished, and opportunities available to students in and out of the institution, we present to you our top ten schools for dance performance in the US.

10. Boston Conservatory

Location: Boston, MA

Under the direction of the esteemed dancer and pedagogue Cathy Young, who has taught classes at over 30 colleges throughout the entire US, the Boston Conservatory is among the finest schools for dance performance in the US. Equally at home in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and ethnic dance styles, students at the Boston Conservatory are offered unparalleled opportunity to study a variety of dance methods and traditions. Additionally, the college is located in a cultural epicenter of America: from the Boston Ballet to the Luminarium Dance Company to Urbanity Dance and so many more, a number of prominent choreographers and dancers are available for career networking opportunities throughout the city outside of the conservatory.

9. Oklahoma City University School of American Dance and Arts Management

Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

An excellent college that is known for having a triple strength in three prominent dance forms, ballet, tap, and jazz, Oklahoma City University’s dance program is much more than just about training dancers to be excellent purveyors of classical and traditional styles. The school places a large focus on giving its students a chance at making a successful career in the arts. One of the greatest strengths of this program is providing dance training to be successful in a musical theatre context: indeed, dozens of their alumni are currently performing regularly on Broadway to the tune of a successful, well-paid commercial careers.

8. University of North Carolina School of the Arts

Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Boasting impressive alumni who have gone onto impressive careers in dance performance, including former principal of the American Ballet Theatre Patrick Bissell, a current principal in Gillian Murphy, as well as the entrepreneurial choreographer Trey McIntyre, the North Carolina School of the Arts is one of the very best colleges for dance in America that consistently produces top alumni. The NC School of the Arts is primarily known for its classical and modern ballet programs. Located in Winston-Salem, this school is attached to the University of North Carolina, allowing students the freedom to pursue a double major with the university in conjunction with their dance degree.

7. Dominican University of California

Location: San Rafael, CA

Some dance traditionalists may see this as an odd choice for this list, however, make no mistake about it, this school is one of the top colleges for dance performance in the US. The college has a partnership with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet, one of the premiere contemporary ballet companies in the entire US. With access to all of the resources available in San Francisco, this school has become a hotspot for aspiring dancers throughout the globe, which combines the academic prestige of one of California’s oldest universities with the hands-on approach of working with a professional company. Like Fordham University’s partnership with Alvin Ailey’s School, a college that is able to provide its students professional training with a well-recognized company gives them an edge over the competition when applying for positions outside of college.

6. Southern Methodist University

Location: Dallas, TX

For unparalleled quality in instruction, look no further than Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. A top quality, selective college for dance performance, Southern Methodist University is a premiere college for aspiring performers throughout the globe. In addition to a strong academic program, SMU’s dance program is widely known for being excellent in ballet and jazz disciplines. Perhaps those seeking instruction in contemporary dance may not fit into this excellent school, however, for unparalleled training in traditional technique and performance, look no further than one of Texas’ finest schools for dance.

5. Butler University

Location: Indianapolis, IN

A nationally renowned ballet program located in the heart of the midwest, Butler University offers to its students the benefit of a liberal arts education as well as an intensive dance performance education. Their strength lies within classical traditions, as they regularly host productions of many classical ballets, including The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty in recent years. They do also choreograph modern ballets as well, allowing students ample experience working with the choreography of past masters and modern greats. If you don’t believe that Butler University has graduated students to the top ranks of dance performance, think again: here is a list of the organizations and companies their graduates have become affiliated with over the years.

4. University of Arizona

Location: Tucson, AZ

An excellent contemporary dance program that turns out many fine young artists and teachers of modern traditions, University of Arizona is also known for having a strong basis in classical ballet and jazz performance. Having the edge of classical training as a contemporary dancer is only a plus, and the students of this school have benefitted from this powerful combination: their dancers have advanced to major companies throughout the entire world. In addition, their facilities are unrivaled: all dance majors are given the opportunity to perform in a 30,000 square foot theatre, known as the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre. Although this program may not be for someone who wants an education in a big city, Tucson is certainly bustling with enough culture to keep a young student entertained for a four year degree. A remarkable school that has been consistently ranked by many publications as a top ten dance school, University of Arizona should be on the top of any young dance artist’s list of applications.

3. New York University Tisch School of the Arts

Location: New York, NY

Long considered to be one of the foremost colleges for dance performance, along with the Juilliard School, NYU Tisch offers a nearly unrivaled experience as a performer on the stage of contemporary dance in New York City. Graduates of NYU Tisch have advanced to virtually every single position a modern dance artist could hope to achieve, including spots in top dance companies, professorships at top universities, and soloist honors for a variety of important productions in New York City and abroad. The location is also undeniably unbeatable, as the university is located in the premiere city for dancers.

2. Fordham University

Location: New York, NY

Located in the dance epicenter of the US, Fordham University, like the number 3 and number 1 school on this list, allows its students the benefit of networking and thriving within one of the most culturally diverse cities in the entire world. But Fordham has much more to offer than just location: it also offers a partnership with one of the premiere dance institutions in the entire nation, the Ailey School. Founded by Alvin Ailey, one of the most popular modern dance artists of all time, the Ailey School has become a legendary institution which hosts a 30-member contemporary ballet as well as students in the Fordham/Ailey program. A program designed for contemporary dance specialties, students are expected to dance 4-6 hours a day as well as stay on top of their academic studies. It is intensive, yet rewarding, to those who succeed in the program.

1. Juilliard School

Location: New York, NY

Without much question, Juilliard is, and has been for decades, the very top school for dance performance in the entire world, as well as for acting and for musical studies. The program is known throughout the industry as being the gold standard for contemporary dancing. However, the college is also strongly tied to the traditions of ballet and other forms as well – there is even a faculty member who is renowned for ballroom dancing. Whether you choose Juilliard for the prestige, the location, the opportunities, the networking, or all four of those reasons and more, you possibly cannot choose a better college for dance. That said, the acceptance rate into Juilliard is around 8%, making it the most selective school on this list.

www.iwontdance.com

[placetobenation]

Beauty and the Beast

Release Date: November 22nd, 1991

Inspiration: “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

Budget: $25 million

Domestic Gross: $219 million

Worldwide Gross: $440 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

IMDB Score: 8.0/10

Storyline (per IMDB): Having lived a life in selfishness, young Prince Adam is cursed by a mysterious enchantress to having the appearance of a monstrous beast. His only hope is to learn to love a young woman and earn her love in return in order to redeem himself. Ten years later, his chance shows itself when a young maiden named Belle (Paige O’Hara) offers to take her ill father Maurice’s (Rex Everhart’s) place as his prisoner. With help from the castle’s enchanted staff, Belle learns to appreciate her captor and immediately falls in love with him. Back in the village however, unscrupulous hunter Gaston (Richard White) has his own plans for Belle.

Pre-Watching Thoughts: We continue on through the Disney animated films with the historic 30th film in the canon and in many people’s opinion, arguably the greatest film in the canon and possibly one of the greatest films of all time. There is something that has to be said for the fact that this was the first animated film in history to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and to this day only a handful of animated films have been nominated for that award. This was another film that was also one of my personal favorites and I was also a fan of the live-action remake from a few years ago, but again it is all about the animated film and something tells me that this film will hold up very well.

Voice Cast: So as I mentioned, we are right in the middle of a trend where the majority of the cast for these films are mainly different actors for each film, but there are some that are in multiple films though they are mainly smaller roles and not major ones. As such, we do have a few returning actors as we have Hal Smith who voices Philippe the horse in what would be his final film role as he would sadly pass away a year later, and then we have Kimmy Robertson and Frank Welker who play the Featherduster and Sultan the footstool respectively in minor roles. We now move onto the new actors as we start with Paige O’Hara who voices Belle in what would be the role that defines her career, and then we have Roddy Benson who voices the Beast in what ends up being his defining role as well. Next, we have Richard White who voices Gaston in his biggest role as he would become more known for his Broadway career, and then we have Jerry Orbach who voices Lumiere in perhaps his most memorable role amidst a long career. We then have David Ogden Stiers who voices Cogsworth and he also provides the opening narration as he would become a mainstay over the next few years, and then we have the legendary Angela Lansbury who voices Mrs. Potts in her first big role with a Disney film following Bedknobs and Broomsticks. We then have Bradley Pierce who voices Chip in one of his first roles as he was starting to make a name for himself, and then we have Rex Everhart who voices Maurice as this would end up being his final film role. Next, we have Jesse Corti who voices LeFou as he was starting off his career as well and he would make more appearances over a decade later, and then we have Jo Anne Worley who voices the Wardrobe as she was at the height of her career by this point. We then have the pair of Mary Kay Bergman and Kath Soucie who voice the trio of ladies who fawn after Gaston and they were just getting their careers started, and then we have Brian Cummings who voices the Stove as he was in the midst of his career in terms of film and TV. Next, we have Alvin Epstein who voices the Bookseller in a minor role and Alec Murphy who voices the Baker in another minor role, and finally we have Tony Jay who voices Monsieur D’Arque though he would become better known for another role later in the decade. It was interesting that you had a solid mixture of known voice actors and those that made their name on Broadway and in theater which would come into play in terms of the musical numbers, and it made for a solid mix of talent and they all made these characters memorable.

Hero/Prince: Prior to this film, the hero or prince of each film are firmly established from the start and we know that they are going to be the hero or prince of the film, but here we flip the script a bit as our prince of the film, the Beast is not that when we first meet him. He is an arrogant, selfish, cruel prince who turns away a beggar woman looking for shelter, but she reveals herself to be an enchantress and she turns him into a Beast to punish him for his selfishness. She then transforms the castle’s inhabitants into various objects and enchants her rose that will bloom on his 21st birthday, and if he can learn to love another and receive their love back the spell will break otherwise he will remain a Beast for the rest of his life. Resigned to his fate, he keeps in his castle until Maurice inadvertently shows up and he throws him into his dungeon, and then Belle comes and asks to take her father’s place which Beast agrees to. He is initially cold to Belle and chastises her when she tries to touch the rose as she attempts to leave, but she is attacked by wolves until Beast makes the save and he takes her back in as they warm up to each other. Eventually, he falls in love with her but decides to let her leave so she can be with her father and he once again resigns to his fate, but then Gaston and the townspeople show up to kill him and he fights with Gaston as he nearly kills him until Belle returns. Beast turns back to her and Gaston stabs him in the back only to fall to his death and Beast dies from his wound, and Belle expresses her love for Beast just as the last rose petal falls and he is brought back to life in his human form as is everyone else in the castle and he marries Belle. Beast is an interesting case study of someone who has been blessed with everything he could want and instead of being grateful, he is selfish and cold towards others as he believes he is above the common man. Having him transformed into a beast makes sense as it is a physical representation of his personality, but you can see he still has some humanity still in him which starts to come out when he saves Belle from the wolves and she begins to trust him. Seeing him slowly transform from this beastly figure back to a humble man while still as a beast is very impressive, and thus when he finally is transformed back into a human it is the final piece of his humanity completely restored. It is pretty refreshing seeing Beast have this storyline where he redeems himself as opposed to the previous princes who don’t have the same arc that he has, and as a result Beast is still one of the best heroes in Disney’s history and may well be the best when we get there.

Princess: For the first time since Cinderella, we have a princess that doesn’t start off as a princess and is instead just a normal girl living a normal life and that is of course Belle. She is the daughter of inventor Maurice and is considered odd by the townsfolk as she is seemingly unaware of her beauty and she prefers to read unlike most girls in the village. She is the desire of Gaston who tries to convince her to be his wife though she refuses, and when she learns her father has disappeared she rides out to the castle where he was last seen. She encounters the Beast who is keeping him as a prisoner and she offers to take his place which Beast accepts, and she meets the servants of the castle who have been turned into various objects due to a curse on the castle. She finds the enchanted rose and nearly touches it only for Beast to stop her and he scares her out of the castle, and she encounters various wolves in the forest only for Beast to save her and he brings her back where she nurses him to health. They eventually become close and start to fall in love though Beast lets her leave so she can care for her father, and when Gaston and the townspeople try to have Maurice committed she reveals the Beast is real and Gaston vows to kill him as he knows Belle loves him. She returns to the castle just as Beast is about to kill Gaston though he eventually allows him to leave, but Gaston turns around and stabs Beast in the back though it proves fatal as he falls to his death. Beast dies in Belle’s arms and Belle professes her love just as the last rose petal falls, and Beast is restored to his human form and the curse is broken on the castle as Belle becomes his wife and they live happily ever after. One of the knocks on the Disney princesses is that they are too cookie cutter and rely too heavily on having a strong male counterpart, but Belle shatters that stereotype as she is clearly a headstrong character and more independent than previous princesses. She values more than outward appearances hence her utter disdain for Gaston and she sees more to Beast besides his appearance, but there have been some who feel she is more of a victim of Stockholm Syndrome as she falls in love for Beast who is considered her captor though one could argue that he treats her like an equal as they start to become closer. She is widely considered one of the greatest feminist characters in history and set a new standard for the Disney princesses, and she is often considered the greatest Disney princess though I will be my own judge of that when I rank her against the other princesses.

Villain: We talked about a memorable hero in Beast and we talked about a memorable princess in Belle, and now we have probably one of the most memorable villains in history in the man known as Gaston. He is a hunter that believes he is the best man in the entire village and as such, he should marry the best girl in the village which he believes to be Belle simply based on her beauty as he could care less about her other attributes. He even goes as far as to set up a full wedding ceremony though she adamantly refuses his advances and leaves him embarrassed, and when Maurice tries to convince everyone that the Beast is real Gaston devises a plan to have Maurice locked up in an asylum and will release him when Belle marries him. She again refuses and proves that the Beast is real as Gaston realizes that Belle is in love with Beast, and he rallies the townspeople together as they storm the castle to kill the Beast. The castle’s occupants beat the townspeople out though Gaston manages to reach Beast and attacks him as Beast is unwilling to fight back, but when Belle returns Beast fires up and nearly kills Gaston though he ultimately decides to spare him. Beast and Belle reunite only for Gaston to stab Beast in the back with a knife though he ends up losing his footing and falls off the castle to his death. Gaston is an interesting villain in that he is not completely evil to start and he is simply narcissistic and conceited, and he is of the belief that Belle is the one for him simply because she is the most beautiful girl in town though she sees through him. Despite his characteristics, he also has a lot of charisma and is viewed very highly by the townspeople to the point that they blindly follow him when he goes to kill the Beast. Once he learns that Belle will never marry him as she is in love with Beast, that’s when the switch flips on him and he transitions into a true villain which is showcased when Beast allows him to live only for Gaston to turn around and stab him in the back though it ultimately leads to his demise. Gaston is another one of those villains that you can’t help but like at certain times and he is still one of the most iconic villains of all time.

Other Characters: This is an interesting film because we seem to have a lot of characters in the film, but the majority of them are mainly background scenery whether it be the townspeople or the other inhabitants of the castle. We start off with the more important characters that live in the castle and first up in Lumiere the candelabra who is the most outgoing of the group and truly believes that they will be human again, and then we have Cogsworth the clock who is a bit more pessimistic than Lumiere as he is more loyal to Beast though he does consider Lumiere his best friend. We then have Mrs. Potts the teapot who serves almost as a mediator to the group and serves as a mother figure to Belle while she is there, and then we have her son Chip the teacup who immediately latches onto Belle when she first arrives. We also have other secondary characters such as the Wardrobe and the Stove that make a few appearances, but for the most part are there as mentioned as background characters. We then have Belle’s father Maurice who is an inventor and is ready to take his newest invention to a fair, but he gets lost and ends up in the castle where he is captured by Beast and held prisoner until Belle agrees to take his place. Maurice tries to get help to rescue her though no one believes him and Gaston threatens to have him placed in an insane asylum until Belle saves him, and he is by her side when she becomes Beast’s new wife. We then have Gaston’s sidekick LeFou who is loyal to a fault to Gaston and constantly sings his praises, and he stays by Gaston’s side despite Gaston constantly belittling him and he joins Gaston when he invades the castle though he is scared off along with the other townspeople. We finally have the other townspeople that Belle interacts with like the Baker and the Bookkeeper, and we also have the three ladies who continuously fawn over Gaston though he repeatedly ignores them as all he cares about is Belle. While there is a pretty large group of characters in this film, a lot of the focus went on a handful of them as they helped further the plot along and played a vital part of the film.

Songs: I had mentioned back in my review of the Little Mermaid that Disney seemed to be making these films more like Broadway musicals, and that is on complete showcase here as this film feels like a stage show that was animated. They even made it a point to cast people that had good singing voices which is why most of the actors in this film were Broadway stars and had appeared on stage before which certainly helps considering the songs in this film are some of the most memorable in Disney history. The film kicks off with the song “Belle” sung by Belle and the townspeople as she laments on her life while the townspeople sing about how strange Belle is, and then we have “Gaston” that LeFou and the townspeople perform as they sing the praises of Gaston in a fun number. We then have one of the centerpiece songs of the film which is “Be Our Guest” which is still one of the most memorable songs in history, and then we have “Something There” as Beast, Belle, and the servants sing about the budding relationship with Beast and Belle. Next, we have the other centerpiece song of the film which is “Beauty and the Beast” and it is still considered one of the greatest love ballads in history, and finally we have “The Mob Song” that Gaston and the townspeople sing as they prepare to attack Beast and the castle and you feel the tension throughout the song. I would like to mention the song “Human Again” which was cut from the original and added in the re-release while also being added when the film was turned into a Broadway show, and that is also a solid song but it is not a major loss when it was cut. I would also like to briefly acknowledge the lyricist of these songs Howard Ashman who also worked on the Little Mermaid and briefly on Aladdin, and he also served as executive producer though he would tragically pass away from AIDS just 6 months prior to this film’s release. Even though he was only involved in 3 films, he was very instrumental in the songs for those films as they are still very highly regarded to this day and you do wonder what he would’ve done for Disney going forward had he lived and I felt it important to pay him his due as the film was dedicated to him and he was honored as a Disney Legend.

Plot: After going for so long without a fairy tale being adapted into a film, Disney broke the trend with the Little Mermaid and now that continues here as this film is based off a fairy tale from French folklore. Reading up on the original story, it is vastly different from the film though you can see the similarities and that they took parts of the fairy tale while adding a bit of a different spin on it. In this film, we meet the prince of an unknown castle somewhere in France and he is selfish and heartless, and a beggar woman comes and asks to stay as she offers a single rose in exchange though he refuses. The woman turns into an enchantress and transforms the prince into a Beast while placing a curse on the castle and she leaves him the rose which is enchanted, and she tells him if he can love another and receive love in return before the last petal falls the curse will break though he will remain a Beast if he fails. Years later, an inventor named Maurice happens upon the castle and the Beast takes him prisoner, and his daughter Belle finds him and offers to take his place which Beast agrees to. She is welcomed by the servants of the castle who have been transformed into various objects, but when she nearly touches the rose the Beast scares her out of the castle though he ends up saving her from a pack of wolves. She nurses him to health and they begin to warm to each other, eventually with the Beast falling in love with her though he lets her leave to take care of her father. When the townspeople led by Gaston try to have Maurice committed to an insane asylum, she reveals the Beast to them and Gaston then leads them to the castle to kill the Beast. He fights the Beast who is about to kill him though he lets him walk away and he reunites with Belle only for Gaston to stab him in the back though he ultimately falls to his death, and Beast dies in Belle’s arms and she professes her love as the last rose petal falls. Beast is then transformed back into a human and the curse is lifted as the servants also return to their human forms, and Belle and the Prince marry and live happily ever after. It’s funny because when you look at certain aspects of this film and the fairy tale, there are parts that seem like it would be too dark and scary to turn into an animated film directed mostly at kids. But as Disney seems to do nearly flawlessly, they make a film that is very light-hearted for kids though keep it just dark enough to entertain adults as well and that balance is on perfect display with this film.

Random Watching Thoughts: Instead of a storybook beginning, we have the prologue told via stained glass pictures; I wonder what the enchantress would’ve done if the prince brought her in and not rejected her while in her old woman form; Only when she turns into an enchantress is the prince remorseful for his action; I understand wanting to punish the prince for his actions, but I feel the servants got a bad rap being transformed into objects when they had nothing to do with the prince rejecting the enchantress; If the rose was in bloom until his 21st year, how old was he when the enchantress came to the castle?; It was such a nice day that even the man in the stocks was in a good mood; So basically Belle was reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk; That barber must’ve had his head in the clouds if he cut off half of that poor customer’s mustache; I wonder how many listening to this song felt the woman asking about the eggs was trying to pay when the other guy mentioned something was expensive; She was focused on that book yet had enough sense to push the sign up to prevent from getting wet; A bit of foreshadowing as she describes the book to the sheep not knowing the same thing would happen to her; Poor LeFou really wanted to bag that bird only to miss it; Right off the bat, you can tell what kind of man Gaston is that he wants to marry Belle simply because she is the most beautiful girl in town; Just from this opening number you can believe that this belongs on a Broadway stage which would end up happening in 1994; The townspeople were singing at the top of their lungs and it’s only at the end of the song that Belle believes they are singing about her; Of course Gaston would complain about a book not having any pictures; Belle calls Gaston primeval as an insult and he takes it as a compliment; Not a good sign when Belle calls her father a genius and then an explosion happens in their basement; Interesting that Belle acknowledges that Gaston is handsome, but also that he is rude and conceited; Was Maurice that tired of chopping wood by hand that he had to make this insane invention?; Maurice waits until he is lost to finally console the map to try and find his way; Philippe had the right idea not wanting to go down the dark path; Some shortcut, it led them to a cliff and near death; It’s a good thing he happened to stumble upon the castle and could keep the wolves at bay with the gate; You wonder what Maurice has seen in his life because he has just seen a talking candelabra and a talking clock, yet he is not frightened and more curious about them; Considering that no one has ever visited them since they were cursed, they were all too excited to serve Maurice even though he was a stranger; How long did it take Gaston and the townspeople to set up this wedding and how did Belle not realize what was going on since it was right outside her house?; That’s quite the invention Maurice made to see who is at the front door; Just like Gaston to make himself at home and kick his boots off while putting his feet on both the table and Belle’s book; Gaston is really asking a lot if he says they will have 6 or 7 boys; Gaston got basically thrown out of the house and into the pond, yet LeFou still wants to know how things went; As quickly as it was set up, the marriage party is dismantled just as fast; This scene where Belle sings on the hilltop feels very reminiscent of the Sound of Music; We saw Philippe run away and never go near the castle yet somehow he knew how to get there when Belle asked him to take her to Maurice; Mrs. Potts doesn’t believe Chip when he mentions Belle in the castle, but then she believes it when the featherduster says it; So a personal anecdote, my high school has done Beauty and the Beast as their musical twice to my knowledge and one of them was directed by one of my fellow classmates who was also a close friend of mine; That’s the scariest carriage I have ever seen; Lumiere suggest to Beast he give Belle a better room and he scoffs at that suggestion, but then when he sees her crying he decides to give her the better room; Such a waste of good beer that Gaston throws into the fire; Even though Gaston is supposed to be the villain, you can’t help but love him when you hear LeFou heap such praise on him through song; They say they are giving Gaston 10 points for that hit yet one of them gave him 9.8; Nice attention to detail by having the candle go out when Maurice knocked it down on the table; I don’t think Maurice should’ve been out in a short sleeved shirt given that it was snowing pretty heavily; The moment that the page turns for Gaston as he goes from likeable douchebag to evil villain; Much like Maurice, Belle sees inanimate objects moving around and talking yet she is not horrified; It’s been a long time that the wardrobe has opened up if all those moths came flying out; That is quite the spread for just two people; If Beast is aware that Belle could help break the spell, you’d think he would do a lot better at being nicer to her; Beast is saying that Belle’s being difficult, but you can’t really blame her at this point; Such a waste of food; It’s a good thing that rose has so many petals or Beast would be screwed; Lumiere picked the wrong time to get some loving from the featherduster since it let Belle leave the room; How many children does Mrs. Potts have?; I know Cogsworth is trying to follow orders, but giving Belle a glass of water and crusts of bread is pretty harsh; They are really going all out to make Belle comfortable if they are giving her in essence dinner and a show when they sing “Be Our Guest”; It is never officially stated when this film is set, but it would have to be in the early 1900s since the plates and silverware created the Eiffel Tower which was built between 1887 and 1889; Even though there have been great musical numbers prior to this film, I think it is safe to say that “Be Our Guest” is the standard bearer for musical numbers in Disney films; Cogsworth was so against them singing, but he gets into it at the end and is proud of them; Belle mentions the castle being enchanted while Lumiere and Cogsworth try to play dumb not thinking that she is smart enough to figure it out; To quote Cogsworth, “If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it”, ahh…puns for the win; You can tell that she didn’t believe them when they said they had a library; I was reading up on the making of the film and it was said that Belle’s appearance was partially based on Judy Garland, and now that I look closer it does look like Belle’s blue dress has a similar look to Garland’s dress in “The Wizard of Oz” just not plaid; I always wonder what would’ve happened if Belle touched the rose; That moment of realization from Beast when he knew that he royally screwed up; Philippe was able to survive falling into the lake yet that one wolf couldn’t make it; Was there a den nearby that so many wolves appeared?; How strong is Belle that she was able to lift Beast up and put him on Philippe by herself?; What does Gaston actually do for a living that he was able to give that much gold to the asylum warden?; Talk about bad timing that Maurice would leave to find Belle just as Gaston shows up to have him taken away; Really Cogsworth, promises you don’t intend to keep?; Beast was so giddy to show Belle the library, but honestly when was the last time he was even in that library?; Poor Chip, so naïve; I also wondered that if Beast didn’t find love in time and he remained a beast, would he maintain his humanity or would he become a full beast?; They say that it may only take a few days, but what if the rose loses all its petals before then?; What was that hatstand thinking when he did Beast up that way?; I read that Angela Lansbury wasn’t sure if she could pull off singing “Beauty and the Beast”, but thankfully she went through with it and she made it memorable; Another pretty iconic scene here with the camera shot descending into the ballroom while Beast and Belle dance; It is a bit weird that Beast still called her his prisoner even though they were clearly falling for each other; LeFou was there for so long that he became a snowman; Considering how blue he was, it’s a wonder that LeFou didn’t have pneumonia; Gaston must really have the village under his thumb if they were all by his side when they tried to commit Maurice and then when he rallied them against the Beast; Again, it’s amazing that they knew where the castle was when they didn’t even know it existed until Belle showed the Beast in the mirror; 50 Frenchman can’t be wrong, huh?; I know how today most people are scared about robots and technology taking over, and if these villagers can’t beat a bunch of inanimate objects brought to life then us modern populace don’t stand a chance against the machines; I know Chip used the invention to free Belle and Maurice, but you do feel bad for Maurice given how hard he worked on that invention; Animation snafu of the film: LeFou is missing his shoe because Sultan took it from him, but when he and the other villagers enter the kitchen he is wearing both shoes and then when they run out of the castle, he is missing the shoe again; Gaston shot an arrow into Beast and after he knocks him onto the ledges, the arrow has disappeared; Beast was ready to die until Belle returned; When the lightning hit the spirals, I wonder if people thought the castle would be set on fire; Gaston still believes that Belle wants him despite all the evidence to the contrary; Gaston was so confident until Beast held him over the edge and then he begs for his life which Beast gives him; If there is one thing about this film that I wish was better, I feel like Gaston falling to his death was slightly anticlimactic; I do wonder what would’ve happened if the last petal fell before Belle expressed her love, and also does the spell still hold if Beast is killed because he clearly dies here?; It was a nice subtle touch to have Beast wrapped up in the cape like a cocoon since he is being transformed back into a human; She just saw him transform from the beast back into a human, so why is Belle suspicious that he’s not the same?; Cogsworth and Lumiere try to be friends again yet they can’t help getting into another argument; Even though he is a human again, Chip had to ask if he still has to sleep in the cupboard; Much like the storybook beginnings and endings, we started the film with a stained glass picture and we end with one; I believe this is the first time that a song from the film is given a pop version for the soundtrack as we have “Beauty and the Beast” sung by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson; “To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul. We will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950-1991”.

Overall Thoughts: Overall, there is no question that this is one of the greatest films in Disney history and also perhaps in all of cinema as well. We have had 29 previous films to this point and only one has received a perfect score from me, and that one was more unexpected while this was I fully expected to give the perfect score too and it would’ve been a disappointment if I didn’t. This film is about as perfect as you can get and while there are some things that you can nitpick at, for the most part it is very memorable between the songs, the visuals, and the overall package which is why it deserved being nominated for Best Picture. It was fantastic when it came out in 1991 and almost 30 years later, it still holds up and it would be the first of arguably the greatest 3-film stretch in Disney history. In the end, this film is still one of the best of all time and right now has a great chance of being ranked as the best though we still have some that might challenge it.

Final Grade: 10/10

[newyorktheater]

Below is a selection from an Off-Broadway season full of starry faces like Daveed Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal, Isabelle Huppert, Uzo Adubi et al,  in plays by Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Martyna Majok, Anna Deavere Smith,  Lydia Diamond, Enda Walsh, Donald Margulies, Halley Feiffer, Luis Alfaro, John Guare, Florian Zeller et al; and musicals by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.) It can feel overwhelming

Daveed Diggs in White Noise

Jake Gyllenhaal in Seawall/A Life

Isabelle Huppert in The Mother

Uzo Aduba in Toni Stone

Chris Noth in The Mother

Justice Smith in The Mother

Composer Dave Malloy – “Octet”

playwright Luis Alfaro – “Mojada”

playwright Martyna Majok – “Sanctuary City”

Tim Blake Nelson, author of “Socrates”

Anna Deavere Smith

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks – White Noise

Halley Feiffer, playwright and star of The Pain of My Belligerence

Playwright Stefano Massini – The Lehman Triology

Cillian Murphy in Grief is the Thing With Feathers

Lynn Nottage — The Secret Life of Bees

Composer Duncan Sheik — The Secret Life of Bees, and Alice By Heart

Composer Tom Kitt – Superhero

Theaster Gates, Black Artists Retreat

Playwright Leah Nanako Winkler – God Said This

Marin Ireland in Blue Ridge

Playwright Christopher Shinn – Dying City

Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury — Mary Seattle

Playwright John Guare — Nantucket Sleigh Ride

To make the sorting more manageable, the shows are largely grouped together by the theater that’s presenting or producing them, in order of my preference for those theaters (determined by such factors as their recent track record, the promise of the new season, and by the overall experience I’ve had with the theater as theatergoer and critic.) After my favorite theaters, I list some individual shows from other theaters.

Some might argue there is little distinction anymore between Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially in a season when so many downtown darlings are moving to Broadway, such as Taylor Mac,Tarell Alvin McCraney, Dominique Morisseau, Anais Mitchell (See Spring 2019 Broadway Preview Guide: A Season of Theater Geniuses Making Their Broadway Debuts)  

Yet, Off-Broadway remains less expensive  and, frankly, potentially more rewarding. It’s also more sprawling — not quite possible to present all the riches of a season in a single post.

I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially excited or intrigued. (I’ll only know if my excitement was justified once I see them.)

Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.

(Also check out my monthly calendar of openings)

THE PUBLIC THEATER

425 Lafayette Street and in Central Park. Twitter: @PublicTheaterNY

The Public is on a roll once again, and not just because it originated Hamilton.  , The successful downtown empire that Joe Papp created half a century ago offers a eclectic, inclusive mix of challenging and entertaining theater. Truth is, I could put a check mark next to nearly every one of its offerings in the Spring.

Under the Radar Festival

January 3- 13

The 15th annual festival presents 21 artists from nine countries. See details of this and several of the January theater festivals in my January 2019 New York Theater Openings

 √ Sea Wall/A Life

February 1 – March 31. Opens February 14.

Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal appear separately in a pair of plays, Sturridge in Simon Stephen’s “Sea Wall,” a monologue about love and the human need to know the unknowable, and Gyllenhaal in “A Life,” and Gyllenhaal in Nick Payne’s A Life, a meditation on how we say goodbye to those we love most.

√White Noise

March 5 – April 14. Opens March 20.

Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) returns Off-Broadway in a new play by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis. Long-time friends and lovers Leo, Misha, Ralph, and Dawn are educated, progressive, cosmopolitan, and woke. But when a racially motivated incident with the cops leaves Leo shaken, he decides extreme measures must be taken for self-preservation.

Ain’t No Mo’

March 12 – April 21. Opens March 27.

In this satire by Jordan E. Cooper that began at the Fire This Time Festival, African-Americans leave en masse a country plagued with injustice.

Socrates

April 2 – May 19.

A new drama about the Greek philosopher written by Tim Blake Nelson and directed by Doug Hughes. Michael Stuhlbarg portrays Socrates.

Mobile Unit: The Tempest

April 29 – May 19

Mojada

July 2 – August 11

Luis Alfaro, whose “Oedipus El Rey” bowled me over, returns with the New York premiere of his drama inspired by the Ancient Greek story of Medea

PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Everything I’ve seen at the Park Avenue Armory in the past couple of seasons has been spectacular, from A Room in India to The Damned to The Head and the Load, and this season looks to continue the feast. The theater they present is largely European, cutting-edge, often hybrids, and they sometimes require patience and an open mind. But, offered in the vast expanse of the Armory’s Drill Hall, these aren’t just shows; they’re events.

  Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley in The Lehman Trilogy

 √ THE LEHMAN TRILOGY

March 22–April 20, 2019. Opens March 27

Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s play, adapted by Ben Power and directed by Sam Mendes (The Ferryman!) stars acclaimed actors Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Ben Miles and the Lehman brothers and their sons and grandsons over nearly two centuries, climaxing with the end of the firm that bore their name in the crash of 2008.

  EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND WOULD HAPPEN

June 3–9, 2019

Artist and composer Heiner Goebbels reenacts 100 years of history to show a world in strife through performance, sound, movement, and moving image

DRILL

June 20–July 21, 2019

Immersive, site-specific film installation Drill by Hito Steyerl that mounts new commissions by the Armory alongside pre-existing works in a dynamic installation exploring the world’s power structures, inequalities, and obscurities

In the Fall:

ANTIGONE

September 25–October 6, 2019

Japanese director Satoshi Miyagi’s multicultural adaptation of Antigone, which stages the classic Greek tragedy within a large river of water and incorporates traditions from Japanese Noh, Indonesian shadow play, and Buddhist philosophy

BLACK ARTISTS RETREAT 2019: SONIC IMAGINATION

October 11–12, 2019

Theaster Gates’ Black Artist Retreat, hosted for the first time outside of Chicago and designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and innovation among black visual artists, recreating the kind of public-spirited dialogue associated with the civil rights movement of the sixties. As part of the weekend’s event, the public is invited to a roller skating celebration party in the Drill Hall amidst an installation of Gates’ seven-foot-tall disco-ball glacial sculptures, known as housebergs.

JUDGMENT DAY

December 5, 2019–January 11, 2020

 The world premiere of a new adaptation of Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play Judgment Day, part moral fable, part sociopolitical comedy, part noirish thriller commissioned by the Armory and directed by Richard Jones  

NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP

79 East 4th Street. Twitter: @NYTW79

NYTW has gotten much attention over the past few years for presenting David Bowie’s musical “Lazarus,”    “Othello” with movie stars Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo, and “Mary Jane.” Its fare has ranged from the innovative and tuneful — “Hadestown” — to the cutting edge and incomprehensible — “Fondly, Collette Richland”

Fall 2018 offered a surprise hit, What The Constitution Means To Me, and a controversial debut, Slave Play.  Based on their track records, the offerings in Spring 2019 sound extremely promising, though we’re still not yet told much about them.

Hurricane Diane

February 6, 2019—March 10, 2019. Opens February 24.

In this play by Madeleine George directed by Leigh Silverman,  Diane is a gardener who is actually the Greek god Dionysus, returning to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state.

√?Sanctuary City

Opens May 6.

There are few clues as to the particulars of this play, but it’s written by Martyna Majok, last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for “Cost of Living.,” who in such dramas as Ironbound and “queens” has given a voice to the new immigrant.   “DREAMers. Lovers. Life-long friends. Negotiating the promise of safety and the weight of responsibility, they’ll fight like hell to establish a place for themselves and each other in America”

√?Anna Deavere Smith project

Opens July 15 (?)

No clue whatsoever as to its subject, but her one-woman shows about race riots in Crown Heights (“Fires in the Mirror”) and Los Angeles (“Twilight”), about health care (“Let Me Down Easy“), and about the school to prison pipeline (“Notes from the Field“) have made it clear that Anna Deavere Smith is one of our country’s greatest theater artists.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

416 W. 42nd St. Twitter: @PHNYC

Annie Baker’s “The Flick” is one of six plays that originated at Playwrights Horizons that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The theater offers new plays and musicals that are consistently worthwhile, in an environment that feels dedicated both to the theater artists and the theatergoers.

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

February 15, 2019 – March 31, 2019. Opens March 10.

In the village of Affreakah-Amirrorkah, no one questions that Akim is the one true, perfect beauty — not even her jealous classmates. But they’ll be damned before they let her be the leading lady in this story. A decidedly contemporary riff on a West African fable by Tori Sampson

The Pain of My Belligerence

March 29, 2019 – May 12, 2019. Opens April 22.

Halley Feiffer’s play about an eight year relationship between journalist Cat and devilishly charming Guy, which charts a rapidly changing America.

A Strange Loop

May 24, 2019 – July 07, 2019. Opens June 17

Michael R. Jackson’s musical about a black, gay writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, gay writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical

ATLANTIC THEATER

Cofounded in 1985 by David Mamet and William H. Macy, this theater entered in a whole new realm of achievement with the acclaimed musical The Band’s Visit

Blue Ridge

Opens January 7. Closes January 26.

Marin Ireland stars in this play by Abby Rosebrock as aprogressive high-school teacher with a rage problem who retaliates against her unscrupulous boss and is sentenced to six months at a church-sponsored halfway house, where she attends to everyone’s recovery but her own.

The Mother

February 20 – April 7. Opens March 11.

Isabelle Huppert stars in a play by Florian Zeller (The Father) as a woman suffering from clinical depression and grasping for stability after her grown children move on to build lives of their own.

√ The Secret Life of Bees

May 12 – July 7. Opens June 13.

A musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s beloved novel,  with music by Duncan Sheik and book by Lynn Nottage, about two runaways in 1960s South Carolina, taken in by beekeeping sisters.

ST. ANN’s WAREHOUSE

Although, as with Park Ave Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse primarily presents avant-garde European exports,  this Brooklyn theater climbed up in my preference thanks to Taylor Mac’s homegrown “  24-Decade History of Popular Music ,”  then nailed it with “The Jungle.” Its production of “Oklahoma!” is moving to Broadway.

 THE B-SIDE: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons”

March 4-24

The Wooster Group brings the 1965 LP to life, channeling the voices of the men performing work songs, blues, spirituals, preaching and toasts on the record via an in-ear receiver, and providing context via the book Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues.

Grief is the Thing With Feathers

April 20 – May 12

Adapted and directed by Enda Walsh from a novel by Max Porter, the play tells the story of Crow visiting a family whose mother just died. “This sentimental bird is drawn to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him.” Stars Cillian Murphy.

IRISH REPERTORY THEATER

Listed here because it’s offering the “Sean O’Casey season”

The Shadow of a Gunman

January 30 – May 25, 2019

Juno and the Paycock

March 9 – May 25, 2019

The Plough and the Stars

April 20 – May 25, 2019

PRIMARY STAGES

In their second year in their new location at the Cherry Lane in the West Village, Primary Stages has a promising season lined up.

God Said This

January 16 – February 15

In Leah Nanako Winkler’s play, five Kentuckians face mortality in very different ways.

Little Women

“May to June”

Kate Hamill’s take on Louise May Alcott’s novel

  LINCOLN CENTER THEATER*

@LCTheater

The shows at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway venues are inexpensive (especially at the Claire Tow theater, where initial-run tickets cost $20) and often rewarding. I’m hoping that someday they will be literally more inviting to independent New York theater critics. 

Mary’s Seacole

February 9 – March 24

In this new play by Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview), Mary (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is an ambitious Jamaican woman determined to live a grand life; her adventures take her across oceans and eras, from a battlefield of the Crimean War to a contemporary nursing home, and many times and places in between.

Nantucket Sleigh Ride

February 21 to May 5

In a new play by John Guare, John Larroquette portrays a playwright turned New York stockbroker, who ventures from Manhattan to Nantucket island one day on a surreal errand. “He gets mixed up with a giant lobster, Roman Polanski, a pornography ring, Walt Disney, stranded children, a murder, and Jorge Luis Borges…”

ROUNDABOUT* LAURA PELS

The empire that is now Roundabout includes three Broadway theaters, and that’s where most of the attention is focused, mostly on star-studded revivals, especially musicals.  But its fourth building houses two Off-Broadway theaters (one of them a tiny “Black Box” theater.) It is in its Off-Broadway facility that Stephen Karam’s The Humans originated, which went on to Broadway and Tony love. The Roundabout’s “Underground” series discovers new playwriting talent, with tickets priced at $35.

Merrily We Roll Along

January 12 – April 7. Opens February 19.

Fiasco Theater reimagines Stephen Sondheim’s musical about a trio of showbiz friends who fall apart and come together over 20 years, going backwards in time.

Something Clean

May 4 – June 30. Opens May 30.

Playwright Selina Fillinger’s new drama slips into the jagged cracks of a sex crime’s aftermath—the guilt, the grief, and the ways we grapple with the unthinkable.

√ Toni Stone

May 23 – August 11. Opens June 20

Uzo Adubi stars as the first woman to go pro in the Negro Leagues, in this play by Lydia Diamond directed by Pam McKinnon, based on a true story.

MANHATTAN THEATER CLUB*

This looks like a good lineup, but It’s hard to embrace a theater completely when you don’t get to see many of its plays.

The Cake

February 12 – March 31. Opens March 5

In what sounds like a recent Supreme Court case, Debra Jo Rupp portrays a baker in North Carolina who refuses to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The difference — one of the brides is the daughter of a dear friend, now deceased. The play is by Bekah Brunstetter (who writes for the TV series This Is Us.)

Continuity

May 7 – June 9. Opens May 21

Though the description doesn’t tell us very much —  a comedy “in six takes where storytelling and science collide…” — it is written by Beth Wohl (playwright of the odd but satisfying Small Mouth Sounds) and directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).

Long Lost

May 14 – June 30.  Opens June 4.

A play by Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) directed by Daniel Sullivan. “When troubled Billy appears out-of-the-blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office, he soon tries to re-insert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. What does Billy really want?”

  SECOND STAGE*

This 40-year-old theater has became the fourth “non-profit” to produce theater both on and Off Broadway.

Superhero

January 31 – March 24.Opens February 28.

A musical, with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and a book by John Logan (Red), about “a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and an unexpected hero…”

Dying City

“Begins May 2019”

Christopher Shinn’s play is set in a spare Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. Dying City explores the human fallout of global events, including the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the interwoven stories of three characters

  OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish moves to Stage 42, opening February 21st.

Alice By Heart (MCC). January 30 to March 10. Opens February 26 Two friends who escape in the cherished story of Alice in Wonderland during the London Blitz of World War II. The musical is by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the team that came up with Spring Awakening.

Fleabag (Soho Playhouse) February 28 – April 7 The play by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that inspired the BBC television series currently being shown on Amazon Prime.

Daddy (Vineyard/New Group at Signature) February 12- March 24. Opens March 5. In the second Off-Broadway play by Jeremy O. Harris (who gained some notoriety with his Slave Play in the fall), Alan Cumming plays Andre, an older white art collector who befriends Franklin, young black artist on the verge of his first show. Their bond creates a battle of wills with Franklin’s mother.

Diary of One Who Disappeared (BAM) April 4-6 In 1917, Czech composer Leoš Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle called Diary of One Who Disappeared, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Janáček’s opera.

Octet (Signature) April 30 – June 9 Dave Malloy, composer and conceiver of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812, is not through experimenting.  His new musical is scored for an  a cappella chamber choir and explores high-tech addiction, his libretto inspired by Internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts and Sufi poetry.

  Other companies and theaters worth checking out:

Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company

Mint Theater

Mayi Theater Company

There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:

Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre

*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway

*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide

What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?

Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.

There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)

 The Flea

Labyrinth Theater

 LaMaMa ETC.

New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.

Monthly Calendar of Openings

Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)

What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-

Off Broadway Spring 2019 Preview Guide Below is a selection from an Off-Broadway season full of starry faces like Daveed Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal, Isabelle Huppert, Uzo Adubi et al,  in plays by Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Martyna Majok, Anna Deavere Smith,  Lydia Diamond, Enda Walsh, Donald Margulies, Halley Feiffer, Luis Alfaro, John Guare, Florian Zeller et al; and musicals by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.) It can feel overwhelming

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Huge-title linebackers on bubble in Saints' 53-guy roster projection - New Orleans Saints Weblog

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Huge-title linebackers on bubble in Saints' 53-guy roster projection - New Orleans Saints Weblog

The New Orleans Saints open education camp on July 26 at their apply facility in Metairie, Louisiana. Here’s a 53-guy roster projection:

QUARTERBACKS (2): Drew Brees, Chase Daniel

You can generate these two men in Sharpie. Following that, it’s a toss-up as to no matter whether the Saints will retain a 3rd developmental QB on the energetic roster. Youthful contenders Garrett Grayson and Ryan Nassib will want powerful preseason performances to earn a area.

Functioning BACKS (4): Mark Ingram, Adrian Peterson, Alvin Kamara, Daniel Lasco

The Saints had to make two hard cuts in this article with Travaris Cadet and Marcus Murphy. But I imagine their places are in jeopardy simply because rookie Alvin Kamara is the new “joker” back again as a runner/receiver and new receiver Ted Ginn Jr. should really be a principal return guy.

FULLBACK (1): John Kuhn

This was an easy preference after Kuhn’s terrific debut period in New Orleans past 12 months. How was he even now accessible past August?

Vast RECEIVER (five): Michael Thomas, Willie Snead, Ted Ginn Jr., Brandon Coleman, Tommylee Lewis

I’m sticking with incumbents Coleman and Lewis for now, but the two of them could be beaten if a person these kinds of as Corey Fuller continues to impress this summer. Lewis will have to confirm to be an indispensable return guy to defeat men these kinds of as Cadet and Murphy.

Restricted Close (three): Coby Fleener, Josh Hill, Michael Hoomanawanui

I required to increase veteran John Phillips or Clay Harbor to this list, but I ran out of area. Either a single could very easily make the roster, specifically if Hill isn’t back again to total health and fitness early in the preseason.

OFFENSIVE LINE (8): Max Unger, Zach Strief, Andrus Peat, Larry Warford, Senio Kelemete, Ryan Ramczyk, Josh LeRibeus, Bryce Harris

Terron Armstead isn’t in this article simply because he’ll start off the 12 months on the bodily not able to perform list. That eighth roster location should really be a free of charge-for-all amid kids Jack Allen and Landon Turner and veterans Khalif Barnes and Harris, amid many others.

DEFENSIVE LINE (nine): Cameron Jordan, Sheldon Rankins, Alex Okafor, Tyeler Davison, David Onyemata, Trey Hendrickson, Darryl Tapp, Hau’oli Kikaha, Al-Quadin Muhammad

There is certainly a whole lot of wiggle area in this article as the Saints try to establish some edge rushers who can make an impact. Kikaha wants to display that he can return to kind after an ACL harm that wiped out his 2016 period. Muhammad (a sixth-round draft choose) wants to display that he is completely ready to lead as a rookie. I have them just beating freshly-signed veteran nose deal with Tony McDaniel and youthful edge rusher Obum Gwacham.

Manti Te’o is coming off an Achilles harm and ought to confirm that he can return to kind after lacking most of the prior period with San Diego. Derick E. Hingle-United states Currently Athletics

LINEBACKER (seven): A.J. Klein, Dannell Ellerbe, Craig Robertson, Alex Anzalone, Nate Stupar, Manti Te’o, Stephone Anthony

I’m dishonest in this article simply because I really don’t really hope all 7 of these men to make the roster in a crowded placement group. If they all keep balanced, I imagine it’s an both-or preference among Te’o and Anthony, two large-profile names experiencing make-or-split summers. There isn’t enough area for all of these men, specifically simply because Te’o and Anthony aren’t unique-groups standouts. Anthony wants to confirm that he can revive his occupation after battling with read and recognition challenges the to start with two seasons. Te’o wants to confirm that he can return to kind after lacking most of the prior period in San Diego simply because of an Achilles harm. A different title to observe in this article is former CFL standout Adam Bighill.

CORNERBACK (six): Delvin Breaux, Marshon Lattimore, P.J. Williams, Sterling Moore, Ken Crawley, Arthur Maulet

2nd-12 months professional De’Vante Harris and 3rd-12 months professional Damian Swann could be my two most tough cuts yet. But you know at least a single or two undrafted rookies will make this roster — and Maulet was as outstanding as any a single of them all through OTAs and minicamp. It will in all probability occur down to which of these men appears to be like greatest on unique groups in the preseason.

Basic safety (five): Kenny Vaccaro, Vonn Bell, Marcus Williams, Rafael Bush, Erik Harris

Veteran Chris Banjo is a further tough slice simply because he has been so powerful on unique groups in his occupation. But so are Bush and Harris, and I could not make area for all of them.

Professionals (three): P Thomas Morstead, K Wil Lutz, LS Thomas Gafford.

Morstead and Lutz are clear. Gafford is a longtime NFL veteran who was just signed in June. He’ll have to defeat undrafted rookie Chase Dominguez, as nicely as other very long snappers who get slice about the NFL in September.

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