#and he'll be baking rum cakes for his neighbors

[saint-starflicker]

YES bapo songs analysises! I like earlier versions for the foreshadowing (Ivy singing "I can fix you if you let me try" and Peter just going NOPE, Nadia singing "Loves my brother, God, it makes me sick / You are risking both of your salvations" so we are already introduced to Nadia's brother being somebody that Peter at least pines over, then the students with no last names tell him that he's on a mysteriously inevitable deadline)

and I just had a thought that between Nightmare Ivy making sexual advances on Peter and "Is it I, Lord? Is it I?" Peter's dreaming mind got confused at some points who this would happen to because Peter and Jason are soulmates with the same heart and destinies intertwined

but I understand why these lyrics had to be changed. It's a use of dramatic foreshadowing, but I would still keep wondering who in-world sent the supernatural vision, and what they even expected Peter to do to prevent whatever the dream was warning him about, or if it's Peter muddling things in his mind all the time, or what the song is trying to foreshadow and establish...Is it trying to say that Jason would have lived past graduation if only Peter had been the one to break up with him and prayed away the gay?

If Epiphany contradicts 911 Emergency, are there devils and angels sending contradictory prophetic visions to that one religious gay kid who apparently gets prophetic visions (as ye do)? Or is it all nothing more than a nightmare or a drug high? Either way establishes Peter as a really, really weird kid. I love him for that. John Torres' Peter talked to stars. Peter's such a strange little boy.

Later versions of Epiphany lyrics make it more simple and clear: 1. establish that Peter is gay. It could be both that he genuinely lives some stereotypes and that he is worried about others suspecting that he's gay based on association with those stereotypes. And 2. foreshadow one major future event with Matt.

York and BlueRep productions stage Epiphany far more violently: Matthew Corr's Peter is really having a nightmare about his own mother beating him probably-to-death with a golf club, probably a callback to John Torres' Peter asking John Griffin Jason to be there when he comes out to his mother "in case she [Claire Simmonds] starts swinging", and Bibo Reyes's Peter gets shoved around and his hair pulled and glowered at by the entire expanded cast of students too realistically.

Yes to the choral arrangements, the trapped and cultlike vibe, and the leitmotifs.

I like A Million Miles from Heaven better as a song, but Epiphany does a better job at establishing the characters and foreshadowing the plot. I didn't perk up with "oh i think i like this show" until You & I, though.

Bare: A Pop Opera song saga- #1 Epiphany

So I've decided to post some of my 'half-analysing half-raving about every song in Bare: A Pop Opera' posts in here because I can. If even 1 person out there appreciates hearing someone's else's thoughts about this, this will have been worth it, because I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this too. Alright! So my thoughts on Epiphany:

Perfect balance of funny, catchy, Christian and angsty for this musical.

The stagecraft is usually very interesting for this number but my favourite version of the choereography has to be the 2004 Michael Arden version solely because of how much they carry and throw him around. Really emphasises how powerless he is against his peers and the authority figures in his life, and makes his character growth all the more satisfying, where he gains the courage to come out but also to understand the true gravity behind coming out. Also it's just so fun to watch!!! Unfortunately most of the lyric changes were a bit of a letdown, the original lyrics are the best in my book. Personally I found the LA version's choreography rooted in one position, leading to less of a dynamic effect- Payson's Peter had a lot more space and freedom to watch them say their anti-gay Christian stuff than Michael's Peter did which made it feel a bit like a strange fever dream rather than a full-on nightmare sequence.

Speaking of the original lyrics, shoutout to "looks around in gym, it pleases him"- it both makes me laugh and is sung SO well.

Also speaking of the original lyrics! I find it very interesting that the phrase, "loves his female singers, loves to cook" is included. It's gay stereotypes that aren't central to Peter's character in any way- we never see him cook or enjoy cooking, and he references Diana Ross once when high. I see this being interpreted in multiple ways- 1 being that he genuinely does love female singers and cooking and he sees those as being signs of his gayness that he must hide or else he'll be found out, or 2 being that he is being really paranoid that something like him being fairly familiar with who Diana Ross is will lead to people calling him gay- even if it's so small it's almost insignificant, in a toxic environment or with high levels of paranoia, it's perfectly plausible he is scaring himself over the smallest of things. I know, I've done that. It's just interesting to me.

The ending of the song-- the harmonies are SO GOOD!!! The overlapping harmonies of "bear the cross" culminating in them chanting it more and more aggressively till Peter wakes up is so urgent and fun to watch while also giving the cult-sense of religion gone too far.

There are so many motifs introduced here, like Matt's motif, the Epiphany motif and the Bare motif (the song). It's always really cool going back and relistening to these with the new context you have, and it means so much more when you do. The more you listen, the more you discover!