#american musical theatre facts

[ssruis]

The problem w attempting to write anything ruikasa (esp rui pov) is you have to fully become one with the show freak theatre kid. So many times in my head I’m like both of them would probably be referencing some thematically appropriate show for either the situation or wider narrative but I know like 10 musicals and even less plays. I don’t have their wealth of knowledge of every popular play/musical and hundreds of obscure ones and honestly I don’t want to have that knowledge. + there’s also the issue that referencing anything too modern just feels weird.

Like yeah they would both know hamilton (unfortunately) but I think if I read something that involved them discussing hamilton it would take me out of the story so badly that I’d be unable to continue. It would feel like a Glee moment. “Wow this is just like when burr shot hamilton” that would make me hope they both died painfully. Referencing Sondheim shows or alw shows or any of the more classic broadway shows (anything written before the 90s that has been on the big stage)/older plays (Shakespeare plays, for instance) kind of avoids that issue but then it’s a matter of “how many scripts/shows am I willing to read for research” (the ideal answer is zero). General rule of thumb seems to be “if it’s old enough that it’s fair game to do shit with and iconic enough that two Japanese teenagers would at least know of it, then referencing it doesn’t feel weird”

[purecommemasolitude]

it really is weird remembering that the outsiders musical is in fact currently reaping massive success in the most famous theatre scene in the world and won one of the most followed tony awards among three others and furthermore is an adaptation of one of the most studied books in american literary canon that is a household name in the states. like what do you mean it doesn’t only exist to me and some other people online

[poppitron360]

I’ve said this before in the tags under a post but I think it’s honestly bullshit how people think that casting a character as black takes away their ability to represent you.

Thalia reps me as a fellow Alt Girlie. Casting a black actress to play her does not change that. Just because we’re no longer the same race, it doesn’t stop me seeing myself in her.

Hell, I relate to Leo- a Mexican-American teenage boy with a special interest in machines- and I’m white, British and female who knows fuck all about mechanical engineering. But I relate to his feeling of loneliness, isolation, and a need to keep moving. I see myself in him despite the fact that we look nothing alike and don’t have everything in common (I doubt Leo knows much about Musical Theatre).

Don’t you relate to Lester despite the fact that you were never an Olympian God? Don’t you relate to Percy despite the fact that you can’t bend water? Don’t you relate to Nico even though I’m pretty sure you were never raised in 1930s Italy?

Not every character has to look/act/struggle exactly like you in order for you to relate to them.

Casting Annabeth as black doesn’t take away representation from young, neurodivergent girls who desperately seek constant parental approval. But it adds that representation to people with additional struggles (like racism) on top of that. You’re not getting any less rep with Tamara as Thalia than with a more book-accurate-looking actress. She’s still repping the alts.

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

okay so steph is definitely a music purist?

we can all agree on that right? like she's a 'said she was born in the wrong generation in middle school' fleetwood mac, david bowie, the mamas & the papas, niche modern indie artists and also chappell roan kind of music listener. obviously. but.... i dont think we've really considered pete's music taste?

pete, who is a science, left-brained kind of kid, so he probably does not actively go out to look for music and is instead just provided music by the people around him?

pete whose older brother is theodore spankoffski and so his earliest and most fond and nostalgic music influences from his childhood would have come directly from ted's cd collection???

basically what im saying is peter spankoffski has the most trashy, early 00's ke$ha, black eyed peas my humps era, all american rejects ass music taste in the world

that boy had bowling for soup's 1985 memorized at age four, his guilty pleasure music is hollywood undead's everywhere i go, ted did his first decent person move in years when pete came out as trans as a kid and stopped listening to grow a pear by ke$ha and pete forcibly made him play it because it's a bop

and then his only friends are a weeb and a theatre kid.

steph gives him the aux cord on a date to be nice, as a sign of trust, and is blasted in the face with the most uncurated mess of j-pop, sondheim, weezer, and like... owl city's fireflies and that's just a fact

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Josephine Baker (The Siren of the Tropics, ZouZou)— Josephine Baker was an American born actress, singer, and utter icon of the period, creating the 1920s banana skirt look. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion film. She fought in the French resistance in WWII, given a Legion of Honour, as well as refusing to perform in segregated theatres in the US. She was bisexual, a fighter, and overall an absolutely incredible woman as well as being extremely attractive.

Anne Baxter (The Ten Commandments, All About Eve)—her soft, gentle voice in "all about eve", those gentle eyes with something odd behind them, the way she flips from Sweet Innocent to Viper on a dime......there was something Built Different about anne baxter, man, and it makes her so good for playing people who are Built Wrong. also one of my favorite batmen villains (her joint episode w vincent price is a delight) and of course I'm obsessed with her columbo episode where she bosses around edith head and does fabulous movie star things for no good reason. and i would be REMISS if i didn't mention her slink—oh the slink—in the ten commandments...................pardon me i must go think of sinning again

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Josephine Baker:

Black, American-born, French dancer and singer. Phenomenal sensation, took music-halls by storm. Famous in the silent film era.

Let's talk La Revue Negre, Shuffle Along. The iconique banana outfit? But also getting a Croix de Guerre and full military honors at burial in Paris due to working with the Resistance.

She exuded sex, was a beautiful dancer, vivacious, and her silliness and humor added to her attractiveness. She looked just as good in drag too.

So I know she was more famous for other stuff than movies and her movies weren’t Hollywood but my first exposure to her was in her films so I’ve always thought of her as a film actress first and foremost. Also she was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture so I think that warrants an entry

Iconic! Just look up anything about her life. She was a fascinating woman.

Anne Baxter:

The prettiest murderer in that film. Just so beautifully evil as Nefertari.

Anne Baxter was part of my Bisexual Awakening. My family has a tradition that every Palm Sunday we watch The ten commandments on TV together... And starting from a very young age, I essentially developed a crushes on Anne Baxter's Nefertiri & Yul Brynner's Ramses. Dude, the woman was HOT! They both were! My crush definitely wasn't helped by the fact that Anne Baxter's costumes were a bit on the sheer side. She had a way of capturing you with her eyes, and I never understood why Charlton heston's Moses didn't just have a threesome with Nefertiri and Ramses. LOL

Her Nefertiri in The Ten Commandments was FORMATIVE TO ME. If not the hottest old movie lady, then she definitely played the hottest old movie character. if that makes sense.

Look. Listen. I only *just* discovered her on a post from the Have You Seen This Romcom poll blog. Saw she had the same last name as me and went OOH hi hello. Went to her IMdB and saw she was born in Indiana like moi. I am now even more intrigued. Been eagerly telling my partner this, and he was like "maybe you guys are distantly related?" And after 2 hrs of going down the tumblr tag + her imdb photos, I'm In Deep(tm) and I can't stop looking at her like 😍 When I go to my grandma's house, bet your ass I'm gonna check my grandpa's genealogy and see if we're somehow related. Sorry that's not really propaganda I just got real excited, esp when I saw that the submission deadline was extended (bless your soul). Narrowing down the movies where she's hottest in was Hell tyvm. I've only just discovered her, she looks gorgeous to me in every movie still I see of her gdi lol.

[d-criss-news]

Renegades | Darren Criss & Helen J Shen Tackle Finding Love as a Robot

Welcome to Renegades, Gold House’s newsletter series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week features Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Darren Criss & Helen J Shen, co-stars of Broadway’s Maybe Happy Ending. Maybe Happy Ending is the offbeat and captivating story of two outcast robots near the end of their warranty who discover that even robots can be swept off their feet.

Helmed by visionary director and Tony Award winner Michael Arden, with lyrics by the internationally acclaimed duo Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending is a fresh, original musical about the small things that make any life worth living. Darren and Helen talk to us about their journeys through the world of theatre, what originally drew them to the role, and the nuances of playing robots in front of a live audience. Get tickets to Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway now!

What did you want to be when you were growing up and how does that compare to where you are now? Helen: I wanted to be a singer growing up, and now I get to sing for my job. I kind of feel like I won the lottery. Darren: I’m very fortunate that I have always known what I wanted to do. Because of that, I feel like I haven’t spent a day of my life that wasn’t working towards that. Most of my young life was very targeted to be working as a performing artist in some kind of professional space. So it wasn’t something that I fell into, it was a sight I set. And I would like to think that my younger self would be pleased! It’s exactly what we worked towards.

Your new Broadway show Maybe Happy Ending is an incredibly unique musical about two “helper” robots who fall in love in the not-so-distant future. How did you first come across the project and what pieces of this one-act musical attracted you most to the role? Helen: I was sent a request from my agents to do a self-tape of the Maybe Happy Ending material. Then after I sent it, I got a request to come in to do a chemistry read with Darren Criss. The day after the chemistry read, I found out I got the job. I was most drawn to the music initially. The lyrics were so specific and evocative, and the music beautifully supported the imagery. I was enamored and hungry to sink my teeth into the material. Darren: I’ll say the number one thing about this show, before really knowing anything about it, was Michael Arden. Michael Arden is a visionary force: I’ve been friends with him far longer than I’ve had professional relations with him because of our own personal lives. Getting the opportunity to work with him was something that I always kind of hoped would present itself as an opportunity. Jeffrey Richards is also a lead producer on this, who I did American Buffalo with and who I’m very fond of. Having those two men believe in a new project like this says something about the material itself, because both gentlemen could do anything they want. The fact that they were doing something like this, a producorial risk because it’s brand new, it’s a harder thing to put together. That actually makes my ears perk up because I go, “Wow, if these two guys want to do it then there must be something special going on.”

What was the most challenging part of playing the role of a robot that conveys human emotions in front of a live audience? Were there any new performance tips or tricks you and your co-star picked up or ideated along the way? Helen: Knowing how Claire (a model 5) functions, as opposed to her counterpart Oliver (a model 3), as well as how she interacts with her human owners, was a great starting point to understand the nuance of "robot acting", or lack thereof. What actually has become fun and challenging is maintaining some of the same line readings tonally, while still keeping the lines fresh and not going monotonous or predictable to a new audience's ear. Darren: One of the great ironies about the performance choice of this piece is that you can’t be a human being; there are a lot of really big emotions happening, but it's the one thing we can't really do. You can't emote to the level that a human being would, because that would be directly against the characterization of what we're experiencing. The only people in the room that are allowed to feel that catharsis is the audience, because the people on stage can't. So you have to reprogram your brain accordingly, everything is telegraphed on the surface, facial expressions, physicality, a lot of the things that are happening to these people, you can read on the outside, just like an animated movie.

Darren, over the course of your decorated career, you’ve performed across both the silver screen and the theater stage, having starred in television phenomena such as Glee and American Horror Story, as well as acclaimed stage productions such as How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. As a performer, have you started to form a preference for one medium over the other? Are there other performance mediums you’re eager to try next? Darren: I think it always comes down to the story and the character. Working as an actor is such a ludicrous life choice already, that getting to work at all is always the preference. To have any job at all is such a blessing. The next job is certainly never guaranteed. So just working at all to tell stories, which is something I'm so passionate. I've been lucky enough to be able to hang out in a few of the different avenues that are available for that passion. But I think just by nature of it, being my first love and experience, theater is the sort of de facto, quote, unquote, preference. But it isn't that black and white!

Helen, with a long background in the arts, having studied the piano very seriously from quite a young age, you eventually pivoted to theatre by the time you got to college and went on to act Off-Broadway last spring in the ensemble cast of Michael R. Jackson musical Teeth. What was the primary driver of that career switch for you? Helen: The main pull I felt towards theater was collaboration. I loved playing piano and loved the feeling of painting a picture, telling a story with the music, but I craved doing those things with other people. Every time I got to closing night of a musical that would only play for one weekend as a kid, I felt some kind of magic. I've been chasing that high ever since. I was really inspired by Lea Salonga, specifically in the 10th anniversary concert of Les Mis that played on PBS Great Performances every so often. Her ease and grace as Eponine became a beacon of possibility for me.

When speaking about his Broadway show Yellow Face, actor and activist Daniel Dae Kim recently said “It’s not often that we see an Asian American play on Broadway told in such a deftly skillful way.” Maybe Happy Ending was not only co-written by South Korean playwright, Hue Park, but it also debuted in South Korea under the direction of Kim Dong-yeon. As an Asian American performer, do you feel the theater world in the U.S. is making progress in terms of showcasing diverse characters, stories, and themes? Helen: I feel that we are absolutely making huge strides in the theater world to showcase diverse characters and stories. I also feel that there is still a breadth of diversity to still discover. I'm excited about the fact that Maybe Happy Ending spotlights nuanced, flawed, painfully human characters that also happen to be Asian and have Asian features. That kind of visual and physical representation is everything to me. It is not lost on me that I stand on the shoulders of countless trailblazing, talented, unbelievable Asian artists. I hope I can provide beacons of possibility for others hoping to pursue art as well. If Maybe Happy Ending can add to an ever-expanding canon of Asian American theater, we have already won a million times over. Darren: Just the fact that this is a question being asked is, I think, indicative of a more common place, more understood awareness of the importance of representation in general, across the board, for all peoples and backgrounds and stories. It's something that I think we've taken a wonderful, newly invigorated consideration of in the past 10 years, and it has directly affected the stories we tell and the people who tell them, and it's exciting. We have folks from all over the Asian diaspora, involved in the show, and it's a really cool thing to be part of that. But it's not what makes the show specifically singular and interesting: it's a wonderful ingredient, and there's such marvelous representation, but what makes the story so exquisite and enduring is its universal human themes, just like anything else. I'm excited that there is even an example of a show that was created in South Korea that can come to Broadway, which is the highest commercial form of theater that can exist in the United States. That's exciting. I've never really heard of that before. And maybe this is the beginning of a future of many shows being kind of fed through a new pipeline of Korean arts and culture.

The performing arts can be a challenging world for aspiring artists to break into. What advice might you offer to those looking to get their start? Helen: Keep pursuing your most authentic self. That journey is lifelong, and actually harder than one might think. It's easy to look sideways and compare, or look at someone's career and just try to emulate it. The feeling of "making it" is so nebulous and complicated, but the times that I have felt my sense of purpose align with my actions are when I feel like I'm pursuing my most authentic truth. The world doesn't need another fill-in-the-blank-artist, the world needs YOU. Darren: My one thing that I could say that hopefully could apply to everybody is to just open your mind to as much art as possible along the way. Especially if you're a student, you get a student ID, presumably, that's your key card to getting discounts for as much art that you'll ever get in your life. You know, watching film, seeing plays, reading plays, going to concerts, going to the symphony, hearing about some weird of. You know, type of art you've never heard of before.

What are you most excited for audience-goers to see in the show? Helen: I'm most excited for audience-goers to experience a completely new story maybe for the first time in a very long time. It's rare that Broadway embraces a new story that is not based on a book, movie, or is a revival of some sort. As the theater community, we have to champion new, original ideas, and be cheerleaders for new perspectives. I just feel proud to have a part in bringing Will Aronson and Hue Park's poignant and powerful story to new audiences. Darren: Well, if you don’t know anything about Broadway, you're in luck, because you don't need to know anything about Broadway or theater to hopefully enjoy this show. I can safely say categorically that this is unlike anything I've ever seen, and I think a lot of people coming to see it will feel the same way, and that's really exciting, because they have nothing to compare it to. They're not encumbered by previous experiences, unless they know the show very well from Korea. So that would be the one caveat to that. Other than that, this is a very new thing, and that's exciting on Broadway.

Lightning Round

Morning Routine Darren: One routine: just caffeinating, man. Helen: Coffee, gratitude journal, maybe some pilates to get the body moving, and a high protein breakfast. I love an egg or two. Soft scrambled, please. Hidden Talent Darren: I can, like, name songs very quickly, Helen: I love to crochet. Comfort Movie Darren: A comfort movie is like those rainy days when you're not leaving the house and you have free time, and you just turn on the TV, and this happened to an entire generation of people, which is why it's such a huge hit. But you just turn the TV on and it's like the beginning of Shawshank Redemption, and you're just like, “Hell, yeah, that's my day. I'm gonna watch Andy Dufresne go through this little journey.” Helen: The Chronicles of Narnia 2: Prince Caspian Favorite Song from a Musical Helen: “Arlington Hill” from Passing Strange Darren: There's too many songs. There's not one singular thing that makes my robot wiring glitch out.

[montanamp3]

in the spirit of the genre i'd like to hijack the current asian country music train to talk about one of my favourite historical guys shoji tabuchi: fiddler hall of famer! king of kitsch americana slay!! one of the Most Guys Ever in country music!!!!!

[OKAY this spiralled into a Whole Thing so im putting it under the cut to save your dashes. be warned this is long]

quick backstory: shoji tabuchi was born in osaka, japan. he was classically trained on the violin but discovered country through roy acuff and joined a fairly popular japanese band called the bluegrass ramblers. in 1967 he moved to america with (he claimed later) his guitar and five hundred dollars and played in a couple of bands around california and texas. in the 80s, he got a contract in branson missouri, met his wife there, and they started a show called (very creatively) the shoji tabuchi show.

this is where it gets fun, because the shoji tabuchi show is. okay. it's like if you concentrated the distilled essence of 1990s RAGHHH AMERICA HELL YEAH-style patriotism into a three hour-long extravaganza with backup dancers! fog machines! ten thousand glitter suits! SHOJI spelled out all caps with lasers! a glow in the dark space violin from NASA! like it's TACKY! it's CHEESY! it's CAMP! it's genuinely hilarious!

anyway, when people talk about tabuchi they like to say that he was the "american dream" like he had a family, he owned a whole incredible theatre with (no joke) the gaudiest bathrooms in america, he played two shows a day until he died, he performed to the pm of japan… like he was GETTING THAT BREAD!! the city of branson even gave him a public holiday!

and to be clear. i love tabuchi, i think he was a great entertainer and a great performer, and i don't begrudge him any of his success. but there are better fiddlers out there, better performers, better singers. as a guy on reddit put it in 2013 put it, you kind of have to recognise that at least some part of his success is enabled by "Asian Can Into Country Music???" syndrome. and he has kind of acknowledged this himself-- he used to sell himself as the "japanese cowboy" before he started his show, and he once told a magazine "say person A and person B play [the fiddle] just as good. who stands out, me or him?" which is. #girlboss? maybe? one of his more defining traits throughout his career was his fairly pronounced japanese accent which made it difficult for him to gain footing in the music industry at first but became iconic . some people have said that he didn't actually have that strong of an accent and he was playing it up for the Bit-- a hypothesis that is (somewhat) supported by his album named (i kid you not) ROVE RETTERS.

so how much of the shoji tabuchi show was the Bit and how much of it was genuine? and if it is a bit, who's in on it? who's being made fun of- tabuchi? japan? the audience? america? i have to admit i'm pretty biased here because the essential Incongruence of being an asian-can-into-country-music person IS funny! rawhide kobayashi and all that! and i understand why he might have leant into it and played it up to survive/get famous/get that bread. i never knew tabuchi, so i can't say that like it's fact, but wouldn't that be the most american thing of all?

[cryptgrrrl]

Silvia Pinal, the legendary Mexican actress passed away today at the age of 93, bequeathing a career that can be summed up in one word: ART.

In the vast library of Latin American culture, Silvia Pinal is not just a chapter or an encyclopaedia: she is an entire bookshelf. Few figures have been so versatile, managing to cover every corner of culture: cinema, theatre, television, cabaret, painting, politics, music, dance... the list is endless.

Silvia Pinal was born on September 12, 1931, on the eve of the celebration of Mexican Independence Day, a direct descendant of father founder priest Hidalgo, her destiny was marked to become an icon of the country.

As a child she studied opera and acting at Bellas Artes. Before she was 18, she had already participated in a beauty pageant, acted in radio soap operas, dabbled in experimental theatre and played minor roles in films.

In the 1950s, she established herself as a central figure in our cinema. Her theatrical training allowed her to shine in dramatic roles, comedies and musicals. Between 1949 and 1959 she filmed 50 movies. In that period she won three Ariel awards and appeared on a hundred magazine covers. Diego Rivera immortalised her in a famous life-size portrait, a gift from the painter to the diva.

Silvia rejected Hollywood and went to Europe. In 1961 she starred in Luis Buñuel’s ‘Viridiana’. Her performance was awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes, but in Spain, the Franco dictatorship considered it blasphemous and ordered the film to be destroyed. The film survives to this day thanks to the fact that Silvia hid a copy in the lining of her coat.

A visionary, Silvia revolutionized theatre: ‘Mame’, ‘Hello Dolly!’, ‘Gypsy’... she brought the best Broadway musicals to Mexico. In 1988 she opened her first theatre: Teatro Silvia Pinal, and went on to have three more.

She had already done it all, but cabaret was still missing. In 1981 she debuted as a showgirl at the El Patio nightclub, where stars such as Judy Garland and Edith Piaf shone. Her show, directed by Sergio Japino, Raffaella Carrà’s choreographer, was a resounding success.

Rest in peace, Silvia Pinal Hidalgo (1931-2024). You are and will remain unique.

[fruity-pontmercy]

Les Mis adaptations and apolitical appropriation

I think it's no secret on this blog that I love the original Les Mis 1980 concept album in French, and that I also love comparing different versions of the stage musical. I've noticed that Les Mis seems to get progressively more vaguely apolitical as time goes on, not only in the way it's viewed in our culture, but in the actual text as well.

It's natural for specifics to be lost in adaptation. It's easier to get people to care about 'the people vs. the king' in a relatively short musical rather than actually facing the audience with the absolute mess that were 19th century french politics (monarchist orleanists vs monarchist legitimists vs imperialist vs bonapartist democrats vs every flavour of republican imaginable). Still, I feel that as time goes on, as more revivals and adaptations of the stage musical come out, the more watered down its politics become. Like, Les Mis at it's core is just meant to be a fancily written, drawn out political essay, right?

In a way I feel that the 1980 concept album almost tried to modernise it with its symbols of progress. Yes, through Enjolras' infamous disco segment (and other similar allusions to the ideals of social change), but perhaps most interestingly to me, through one short line that threw me off when I first heard it, because it seems so insignificant, but might actually be the most explicitly leftist line of all of Les Mis.

"Son coeur vibrait à gauche et il le proclama" (roughly "His heart beat to the left and he proclaimed it" i.e: he was a leftist) Feuilly says, while speaking of the now dead général Lamarque in Les Amis de L'ABC.

What's that? An actual mention of leftism??? in MY vaguely progressive yet apolitical musical??? More seriously, this mention of leftism, clashing with the rest of the musical due to it's seeming anachronism, is interesting not because it's actually more political than anything else in Les Mis, rather, because it's not scared to explicitly name what it's trying to do.

But we've come a long way from the Concept Album days, it's been 43 years, and Les Misérables is now one of the most famous and beloved musicals in the entire world. It's been revived and reimagined and adapted in a million ways, in different mediums, in different languages and countries, and it's clear that it's changed along with it's audience.

On top of pointing out a cool line in my favourite version of the musical, I wanted to write this post to reflect on the perception of the political message of this work. We as a Les Mis fandom on Tumblr are very political, I don't need to tell you that, however, I feel that because this very left leaning space has sprung out of a work we all love so much, we oftentimes forget to revisit it from a more objective point of view.

Les Misérables has a history of being misrepresented, this has been true since it's publication, since american confederate soldiers became entranced with their censored translation Lee's Miserables. However, with it's musical adaptation, this misinterpretation has been made not only more accessible but also easier. As much as I love musical theatre and I think it is at it's best an incredible art form able to communicate complex themes visulally by the masses for the masses, I think it'd be idealistic to ignore the fact that the people who can afford to go see musicals regularly are, usually, not the common folk. Broadway and the West End are industries which, like most, need money to keep them afloat, and are loved people of all political backgrounds (and unfortunately, often older conservatives) not just communists on tumblr. We've seen the way Les Miz UK's social media team constantly misses the mark regarding different social issues, and the way Cameron Makintosh has used the musical to propagate his transphobia, and most of us can agree that these actions are in complete antithesis with the message of Les Misérables as a novel.

But I must ask, how does Les Mis ,as a West End musical in it's current form, actually drive a leftist message, and how are we as a community helping if every time someone relating to the musical messes up if we just claim they "don't get it"?

I'm thinking in particular of incidents like last october, where Just Stop Oil crashed Les Mis at the West End. Whether you think it's good activism or not is not the question I think, this instance is interesting particularly because it shows that, outside of Les Misérables analysis circles and fandom spaces, it is not recognised as an inherently leftist, political or activist work, and instead of just saying they completely missed the point of the musical, I think it'd be interesting to take a step back and look at what the musical as it stands actually represents in our culture today.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, so I won't try to give one, but I do hope we can reflect on this a bit.

[schmergo]

I think there's a very specific type of girl that just loves the stepsisters from Cinderella in any incarnation and that trait stays with you for life. When I heard about Lucy Punch, who's played 4 different versions of Cinderella's wicked stepsister in movies and TV shows over the years and apparently had a wicked stepsister themed birthday as a child, I was like, "Yeah, makes sense, goals." I love characters who are tacky and over-the-top and trying to be 'glamorous' to the point of being grotesque. And I always loved Anastasia and Drizella's style from the animated Cinderella.

When I was very little, like first or second grade, a girl in my class got one of those 'put on a play' kits from American Girl and invited a bunch of us over to put on Cinderella in her backyard. Of course, half the kids couldn't read fluently yet, so that wasn't going to go great, but I was SO DESPERATE to play a stepsister, and nobody else wanted to play them because they're ugly/evil, so I ended up reading both stepsisters' roles. I guess that was technically my introduction to theatre.

In sixth grade, I auditioned for a summer children's theatre production of Cinderella and got cast as a stepsister. That very same day, I found out I had been chosen to appear on a nationally televised game show. My reaction was basically, "Oh my gosh, best day ever! I get to be on Jeopardy! and I get to be a stepsister!" When I actually appeared on the show, my intro fact was that I had just played a stepsister in Cinderella and that it's more fun to play the villain.

I was in a musical theatre class in high school. We had to pick two solo songs and a duet for our musical showcase and while most of the duets were dramatic in nature, this other girl and I made an absolute beeline for the stepsisters' song from Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

AAAAAAND just now, at the age of 31, I auditioned for a local production of Into the Woods, my first musical in over 13 years. Did I audition for one of the lead roles? NO! I auditioned for a stepsister! And I GOT CAST AS A FLIPPIN' STEPSISTER! And I sincerely believe that somehow giving off this very specific spark as that weird girl who's obsessed with the stepsisters and actually wanting to play that role is the one thing that I had working in my favor.

I wanna play stepsisters forever. But I am also willing to eventually graduate to playing the stepmother.

[yourstrulyray]

hi do you want to talk abt isaac.

basically i'm writing a cbs ghosts fic with a focus on some original characters but with a lot of nisaac and plenty of the entire cast in general

it'll have a lot of isaac's pov as well, with his thoughts about two people who can be openly queer in the modern era

but. since ive only watched like,, probably less than half of the show. i thought talking to someone else abt it could help me characterise everyone?? i also just want to talk abt it bc it's kind of a fixation right now haha

no pressure though!! hope you have a nice day

AAAAA yes please i would love to talk about my son hehdhd

let me list out some timelines pre-death first :3

isaac's marriage to beatrice: before or during 1773 the american revolutionary war: 1775-1783 nigel's death: 1776 isaac's death: 1777

so since the start of season 1, despite isaac's efforts we could all still see the fact he does not find women attractive (he literally called his wife, beatrice a handsome woman) so we're thinking bad comphet for our guy here.

(this only applies pre-nisaac) there are five male ghosts of the main cast, so when they all collectively agree that one girl is attractive (maybe not pete), isaac naturally plays along with it, but. plays along badly. everyone could tell that he did not find that girl attractive

as during nisaac, he is still obviously hesitant to be open because he had never been in a relationship with another man. a homosexual relationship. but not only is he hesitant, he is scared.

why is he scared? take a guess of what punishment you'd get for being gay in the 1770s (especially 1776).

the death penalty.

and we all know our guy isaac likes to talk about himself, he was so heavily disappointed to see that all he was in history was a footnote, and how he was jealous that his rival, hamilton, got a whole MUSICAL made about him (isaac loves musical theatre so thats twice the angy) so it's reasonable for him to be scared of death.

but hes already dead, why still be scared?

i actually dont know why but it's probably muscle memory for isaac to pretend. maybe he only found out that queerness was legalized/modernized through sam, not even through the recently dead ones. gotta hand it to him though i cant keep up a facade for more than a century XD

anyway, him being hesitant isn't the only problem, it's also the way he handles his relationship with nigel. his only other serious relationship was with a woman he wasn't even romantically interested in, so he has no healthy base to rely his current relationship with. also, his god-forsaken terrible communication skills, bros been pretending so much that even his personal feelings should be hidden 😭🙏 who hurt u man?

honestly his poo communication skills can still be linked back to his marriage with beatrice. maybe he had no problem with her, therefore no feelings were required to be shared, and he didn't have the need to communicate. but with nigel is a whole different situation.

oh yeah speaking of nigel, like isaac he doesn't have a healthy basis for a relationship. in this case, he previously was in a homosexual relationship, but it was only a sexual (?) one (with jenkins, but idk about the sexual part so jenkins fans back me up 🙏🙏).

we do see in the series that isaac is taking baby steps in the relationship, as opposed to nigel who rushes the starting-to-adjust stage, because this isn't his first gay relationship (whos gonna tell him) which then results to isaac having certain feelings about it, which then results to isaac not communicating as to pretend he can manage their relationship.

one thing about isaac's "certain feelings", it's usually about little things not even serious stuff. he had gone on many respites (temporary break up) with nigel because of their political beliefs (TGE WAR FUCKING ENDED GET OVER IT), hobbies, and personal likes. instead of adjusting to each other, they still choose to follow what they want instead of each other's wishes.

so, TLDR; nigel and isaac, despite having been in previous relationships, are doodoo at expressing themselves and adjusting to one another. (boo)

if you'd like the characterization of the other ghosts/sam and jay, my askbox is open at all times!! :3

[galacticleague]

speaking my truth on npmd because im thinking about this alot. i think the reason it falls flatter than tgwdlm and bf as a musical is that tgwdlm and bf have a running theme — want.

(whole thing undercut)

the cast of tgwdlm want human connection - charlotte wants sam to love her, bill wants alice to love him, mr davidson wants his wife to choke him while he jerks off etc etc, and eventually paul goes from 'i want what anyone wants, money, kids, a partner maybe idk' to - to put it simply - wanting emma (putting it very simply, if i went into detail this post would go off the rails). this switch is what makes him vulnerable to the hive and this want to live and to survive and to be happy with emma is satiated by pokey by giving him the connection he craves via hivemind, this is how it works for everyone. they want to be happy, pokey makes them happy by removing any need to want anything in the first place.

similarly, in bf, the adults of hatchetfield are still miserable and they want to be happy, they have this void within them that they feel they need to fill with products and consumerism. if they buy this stupid fucking doll their kids will love them, they will be happy, etc etc. and this want to be happy is similarly satiated by wiggly via the cult - they have something to worship, or - in lindas case - people who worship them. they have purpose, or at least they think they do, but whether their problems have actually been solved or not - they are still content.

but in npmd, this is less solid. theres that bit where they have to sacrifice what they want the most, but this is near the end. its kind of all over the place, and this wobbliness(?) is sort of just emphasised by the fact that there is no specific lord in black, its all of them. now i loved the summoning when i first watched it because im obviously a huge hatchetfield fan so i like. know who these characters are but as ive seen others say, alot of npmd does rely on knowing hatchetfield lore - understanding injokes. and in hindsight it just... isnt great for the cohesion of the plot.

tgwdlm and bf both have specific themes, specific lords in black, they have subplots but they have a solid throughline that is easier to follow. to me, npmd feels like its all over the place and it just feels kind of...mid for lack of a better word.

i think there were some moments that were just kind jarring? i guess? like if i loved you coming directly after ruths death was really strange, tonally. i wish they spent more time on ruths death tbh she deserved better. richie got two songs and an opening scene. anyways i digress- i feel like whenever i think about it im always like. i just wanted More. which is weird cuz its already like 2 hours long but idk. IDK!!! if i loved definitely felt unnecessary to me- like just conflict out of nowhere. i would have liked more build up to it. maybe im just salty that it took up stagetime that could have been used to grieve ruth but. sorry for the random if i loved you slander i think my point here is that some moments and some subplots felt more tropey, injokey or like fanservice??but not in a sexual way?? - is that the right word to use idk - than actual compelling plot moments. tgwdlm is an incredible work of theatre and uses subversions of tropes to communicate a great story, bf is a detailed criticism of american consumerism and how capitalistic societies force people to rely on products to make their lives better, npmd is. high school drama with ghosts. it just doesnt hit as hard on its own.

i dont want to be one of those "im a better writer, and THIS is how i would have done it!!!! im going to fix this!!!" people so im not going to do that but i think something i would have liked to see was focus on just one lord in black, probably nibbly because i feel like he fits the most and has the least preexisting story. i mean for gods sake, why does wiggly have the most speech time out of all the lords in black again!!! he already has an entire musical about him!!! greedy bitch- well i guess thats kind of his thing. i think i just want to see more of nibbly tbh, he has one nmt story and he only shows up at the very end. anyways that was kind of a side rant sorry gang. there isnt a problem with having a story featuring all the lords in black, but i think it just doesnt quite work in npmd for like structural reasons as well as plot cohesion.

i did enjoy npmd, im not pretending i didnt, but narratively it is the weakest hatchetfield musical and i just wanted to put my finger on what it is specifically. please dont take this as like hate or slander, i am a huge starkid fan, but i think it is important to consume media critically.

also i am not a professional i am a teenage drama and english lit student who likes media analysis and narrative design so just. take everything i say with a grain of salt :)

if you read all this, thankyou and if you disagree please lmk what you think(civilly.i do not want discourse in my notes)!! i could be hugely wrong about this and just need to think more about npmd and id love to see others' analyses!

[pennylambchops]

lynxes intro ^_^!!

HIIIHIHII!!! im lynx!! you can also call me avianna or avi (my irl name), but nearly everyone just calls me lynx. i use she/her, im a lesbian and minor whos supersupersuper hyperfixated on ride the cyclone currently!! i have heavily suspected (by parents, friends, ectect..) adhd and autism, but im unable to get a proper diagnosis currently. my all time favorite characters are jane doe (ride the cyclone) and penny lamb (legoland), i absolutely ADORE them hence the username

FUN LITTLE FACTS YEAHHH

i own 11 pets (three cats, bearded dragon, africian fat tailed gecko, pitbull, red footed tortise, two corn snakes, ball python, fluffy tarantula)!!

ive lived in florida my whooole life and havent been out once..(get me out)

i do school completely online

ive seen theatre south playhouse live 3 times!!

im putero rican and american

i have an AMAZING girlfriend nikky mwa mwa i love you sm nikky ☹️☹️

FAVORITE..

musicals: RIDE THE CYCLONE!! i also really like falsettos, heathers and hamiltion

plays: legoland

games: mouthwashing

movies: but im a cheerleader

shows: the good place, edge of sleep and stranger things

artists/bands: emily rohm, the crane wives, and chappell roan

people: nikky (MY BEAUTIFUL GIRLFRIEND MWA), apollo (online brother…eugh..JUST KIDDING!!! hahahahahaguvgle), child, bri, cody and all my other friends (a, c ect!) <3

animals: cats, shoebill storks, manatees, lynxes, budgies, africian painted dogs, and dolphins

ride the cyclone productions: theatre south playhouse and station theatre have my heart by far, but i also really love the original productions, 2015 chicago, 2016 nyc with tiffany tatreua, majestic rep, and inner voice studio

DNI

basic dni stuff (racists, transphobes, homophobes, MAPS you get the deal)

kholby

miles/flop queen monique supporters

anti-furries

zionists

people who completely deny legolands existence?? 😭

penny lamb/jane doe dislikers

IDONT KNWOI :(

OTHER SOCIALS

tiktok (@/pennylambcoded)

youtube (@/funkylyynx)

instagram (@/pennylambchops)

pinterest (@/pennylambcoded)

pronouns page

@funkylynx • Pronouns.page

[st4rgirlk4i]

𝒽𝒾𝒾𝒾

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ My name is Kai! Here's some random facts about me ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

'•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸

~ I'm a HUGE theatre nerd (Moulin Rouge, Sweeney Todd, and Hadestown being some of my favorites)

~ I love marvel and still getting into DC (Bucky Barnes my LOVE ♡︎)

~ My Chemical Romance, Twenty One Pilots and Taylor Swift are my most listened to artists (I swear my music taste is bipolar)

~ My favorite color is Pink

~ My favorite movies are American Psycho (2000), The Crow (1994), Sweeney Todd (2007), Twilight (2008), Carrie (2013), and Revenge of the Sith (2005)

'•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸♡ ♡¸.•''•.¸

That's all, folks

~ kai ♡︎

[liannelara-dracula]

Shu Sakamaki in Real Life HCS

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Prompt

Requests are open

Rules

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

🎻I probably won’t have much to say because I find his character to be ugh sometimes but I can’t imagine not creating hcs abt this mf.

🎻But it is difficult to come up with things about him, ngl.

🎻Anyhow, if you guys have seen these irl hcs before you’ll know I’m mostly sharing with you my general thoughts, and formulated opinions on this character so here we go!

🎻Okay, so I’m sure we all know he’s the heir and a prince of the vampire kingdom (I know its weird.) And I just have to say this because I don’t say it enough, I really feel like he acts differently in the demon world because he knows his dad will be mad.

🎻So you can expect Shu to be much more expressive as he is the heir, he represents his father and so he needs to be “lively”.

🎻 That being said, he attends gatherings, banquets, and many other events that his father may want him to.

🎻I will say that when he is in the demon world it is much different as he doesn’t act like himself.

🎻Apart from him is still the same in the sense that he is still a pervert.

🎻I mean we know he’ll be with low-ranking vampires or whatever just to get some.

🎻 After all, he has somewhat of an ego even if he doesn’t show it.

🎻So you know he most definitely does believe that because he is the heir he can move from one girl to the next with no strings attached.

🎻All for his advantage of course.

🎻Also speaking of his royalty life I really want to mention the fact that he is very annoyed by all the attention the girls give him.

🎻He literally can’t wait till he goes back to the human world where it's much quieter.

🎻However as a royal he does enjoy the theatre because he can hear classical music.

🎻In fact, he loves it most when he can watch the ballet performances.

🎻If there’s one thing he loves most it’s watching girls do ballet.

🎻He loves watching them practice especially because you know he’s a thigh guy. Apart from being an ass man.

🎻This is honestly where he might take an interest in a girl who's probably a dancer.

🎻I’ve literally made an aesthetic about this here.

🎻And you can read a lot about how he is at school in the demon world here. 

🎻Oh btw he sleeps in only his underwear, that’s just how I see it. (and it's actually canon, I was laughing when I found out I was right.)

🎻I will say that he doesn’t laugh very often, he’ll just have a chuckle that makes anyone uncomfortable but when he full-on laughs it's so fucking rare.

🎻And it freaks out almost anyone, it even got Yui.

🎻He is such an ass I feel like he trolls anyone in, anyway, he can.

🎻His hair is so tangled and I bet he doesn’t wash it that often because he’s lazy

🎻He smells like cotton/linen and a bit of dust.

🎻The best actor to play him would be Toby Regbo.

🎻However the model I found on Pinterest is also a great representation of what he’d look like.

🎻In terms of attitude he really reminds me of Robert Pattinson because he trolls so much. 

🎻The best way to bribe him is with steak, I swear it works every time. 

🎻And I bet my entire ass that Reiji uses it for when he needs big favors.

🎻He loves to be comfortable so I feel like American Eagle, Hollister, Old Navy, and H&M are his go to.

🎻I know he loves cardigans so much so he’s probably extremely picky about the kind he buys.

🎻That’s why he only has three, this is actually canon, I believe it was in one of the game translations in Reiji’s route where he was looking for his jacket and asked Reiji. And Reiji told him it can’t be that hard to find since he has only three, lol.

🎻And idk why but I just feel like he miss places them all around the house.

🎻I also think he keeps so much junk under his bed.

🎻“Huh, I don’t remember that being there.”

🎻If he gets really hot, he just throws his cardigan under the bed.

🎻He once owned a cat, it's not that he went out of his way and bought one. It sorta followed him and so he started to take care of it a little. It lived outside mostly because Reiji wouldn’t tolerate it, but occasionally Shu kept the cat in his room.

🎻He has no idea where the cat went and whether or not it's alive since he hardly kept watch of it.

🎻Although he sometimes wonders where it went, and I think he liked the cat since she sometimes got into Reiji’s things. It was amusing to say the least.

🎻Forgets he puts his music sheets on his bed and ends up sitting on them.

🎻That’s why they’re always somewhat crumbled and folded.

🎻Never makes his bed, he just throws the blanket on and thanks to the butler the room is kept clean.

🎻Otherwise it’d end up like Ayato’s room, to which the butler can never keep up with.

🎻Because he loves music he has vinyl records, and countless CDs in some boxes he keeps under his bed.

🎻He keeps a couple of his favorite books which are in Latin.

🎻Something also tells me if he had a journal, he’d write only Latin because none of his brothers can.

🎻Because he used to be a cashier, he still has his name tag from then and his worker vest.

🎻He keeps in hidden in a corner of his closet.

🎻Speaking of which his closet is so empty and he literally has repeats of the same pants and shirts.

🎻It’s mostly because they were on a good sale.

🎻He will wear the same clothes for like three days or more and not even change out of them.

🎻Doesn’t brush his hair, just goes to school with bed head.

🎻Keeps his door locked so triplets don’t think about pranking him with some clown-related things since he has a fear of them. It's mostly because he’s learned that the hard way.

🎻It's also because he fears they may bring in a caterpillar.

🎻I could totally see Yui trying to feed a caterpillar and he’d flip out in panic and leave immediately. 

🎻He never will admit to his fears and covers them up quite well because he wants no one to know that, especially a girl. lol.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

˗ˏˋ 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 ˎˊ˗ ©𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔~Present

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss and Helen J Shen Make Robots Feel More Human in Maybe Happy Ending

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Darren Criss and Helen J Shen are currently starring in Maybe Happy Ending, a new musical at the Belasco Theatre where they play two retired Helper-bots who formerly assisted humans with their day-to-day tasks. Set in the future and directed by Michael Arden (Parade, Once On This Island), the show takes the audience on a journey through love, loss, and belonging. It’s received rave reviews on Broadway after first debuting in South Korea, then moving to Japan, China, and Atlanta, Georgia.

This marks Criss’s return to Broadway after stints in American Buffalo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He also starred as Blaine Anderson in Glee and won an Emmy Award for his performance as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Shen is making her Broadway debut after recently graduating from the University of Michigan.

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Darren Criss: I was about to go into tech rehearsal for American Buffalo at the top of 2020, an American contemporary classic play with Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne. I was like, “Wow, dude, the show is cooking. I’m opening this on Broadway. All these incredible things are happening.” Then, it was no more. I feel like I went through the pandemic with these two men [Rockwell and Fishburne], because we were all so excited to be part of this show. We would FaceTime regularly, read through the play, and talk about life. The show went on in our minds. We weren’t sure if we were ever going to get to do it.

That was something we kept chugging through, and we finally got to come back in ’22 with some of these things which now seems so in the rearview mirror: COVID restrictions and testing and audiences wearing masks. We were very diligent about all that stuff, and luckily we’re on the other side of that.

But at that time, that show was the longest I’d ever been on Broadway. The poster for that show at Circle in The Square [Theater] remained there for two and a half something years, even though the show hadn’t ever opened.

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Talkback On their initial reactions to Maybe Happy Ending:

Criss: I think the best stories we’ve heard are the ones we weren’t prepared to hear. It’d be like if Batman wasn’t as culturally ubiquitous as it is, and I tried to pitch you Batman. You’d be like, “That sounds so dumb. Rich guy fights a clown? This sounds absolutely ridiculous, and there’s no way this is going to be one of the most popular IPs the world has ever seen.”

That is what’s so exciting: When you feel people in the audience truly not knowing what’s going to happen, whether production-wise or as a spectacle. You don’t know if some things are going to look a certain way, you don’t know things are going to sound a certain way, and you don’t know if the story is going to feel a certain way.

Musicals live and die by their music. I love Shakespeare, but I’m not listening to Shakespeare in the car on the way to work in the subway. Musicals have that. They have this sort of extracurricular component that you can have forever after the fact. When I listened to the music, I was like, “Oh, wait. Hang on. This is really special. Why is this so smart? Why is this so beautiful and elegant and sophisticated and familiar and nostalgic?”

That keyed me in. And then I read the script and I went, “Wait, hang on.” I am glad that I was available to do it, because I think it’s one of the greatest things that could have happened to me at this point in my life.

Shen: It felt like a very kismet meeting of minds and hearts and souls and stuff. Still to this day, I’m like, “Thanks for having me, you guys.”

Criss: This was a train that was bound for glory with or without us.

On what they’ve learned from each other:

Criss: We went to University of Michigan together. That’s certainly a fun relating point, and something that I’m really proud of, the fact that two U of M alums share the marquee of the Belasco Theater. That’s so special.

But, to keep using the academic reference, I am an upperclassman now, which is very strange for me, as I kind of crossfade into that chapter of my life. I’ve always been the young gun. Now, being on the other side of that, I feel like I’ve been given a role of, “Okay, I am a senior now. I tell the freshmen what’s what, and hopefully, I’m saying something correct.” It’s an occasion I have to rise to. In rehearsals, from the very beginning, the loud voices of doubt were certainly prominent. I think Darren, Michael, the people who have more experience in the industry, and just experience in existing in these spaces, have taught me how to not apologize for my space that I take up, which is something that I think I’m still processing and still will continue to be processing throughout.

On what this show means for Asian-American representation on Broadway:

Shen: It means everything to me. If I was sitting in the audience, to see a show like this, to see someone who looks like me embody this character, be nuanced, be flawed, be all the kinds of things, instead of just the flavoring of a body, is everything to me.

Growing up, if you don’t see an example on the path that you’re choosing, it can feel impossible. You feel like, “Oh, there’s one spot.” That is so frustrating, to feel that sense of competition with people who look like me, instead of feeling like I stand in solidarity with them and stand in power next to them.

It’s been amazing to talk to people at the stage door who are like, “I’ve never seen myself represented on stage in this way.” I’ve never felt it where my Asian-ness isn’t the only thing that is my character. To have my Asian-ness be just a fact [of my character] is so much. It means so much to me. To see my parents see that, too. They wanted to protect me so much. They wanted me not to feel pain in this industry, and for them to see that I can inspire others is probably really exciting for them, and exciting for me too.

Criss: Everything that has happened for this show thus far was not on my itinerary. The response has been wonderful, but that’s not why we’re doing it. It’s not why we’re here. We’re in it because we found a beautiful story that we fell in love with, and we’re lucky enough to be asked to join it. It’s better to pursue something you love and potentially fail than succeed at something that you can’t stand. We’re in that rarefied wave, which is the combination of your passion and excitement matching those who are outside of it.

I want to be very clear about this, I think what I love about this show’s heart and soul is not that it is an Asian show. It is inhabited by Asian-American actors, and those Asian-American actors represent something really beautiful. I love the idea that in the future, this is a show that can have anybody from any background in it, because the story is so enduring and such a human story. My million dollar clickbait line is that I believe that the show is about as Korean as Romeo and Juliet is Italian. It’s just where we set our scene.

Now, at the same time, fuck yeah—Asian excellence on Broadway. It’s really exciting. Having any kind of representation in any mainstream commercial form of entertainment is wonderful.

On Elsie Fest, Broadway’s Music Festival, which Criss co-created and produces every year:

Criss: Elsie is such a passion project for me. It’s for this community that I love so very much, and I’m so pleased that it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own. I will keep doing it for as long as I can.

Having people like Helen, and the new guns, like Joy Woods, Lizzy McAlpine, and Rachel Zegler, people who will show up to be a part of this, is so encouraging to me. It gives me such faith in a community that I already have endless faith in and love and appreciation for. It is my small way of thanking this community for what it has given my life and trying to give it back in whatever way that I can.

Shen: Elsie, to me, it’s a love letter to the inner child, to the inner theater kid that we all are continuously. I have been a fan of this, obviously, for years. I can’t believe I got to sing A Very Potter Musical this year.

Criss: Andrew Barth Feldman was at the first Elsie Fest ever in 2015, almost 10 years ago, a little brace-faced teenager at the VIP meet and greet to meet StarKid, my friends from Michigan who made A Very Potter Musical, and there he was almost 10 years later singing the song that he was there to support with us. That is the best.