#and nothing's as amazing as a musical

[flyingthesky]

this is the worst intersection of fandoms i will ever experience. thanks kevin jonas.

[flyingthesky]

this is stephen schwartz erasure

[spacetimeaccordionfolder]

I love the intersection of Narrator and character. Character who is the narrator or a narrator who is also a character but not the main character. Guy in the corner who announces what will happen and also gets boo'd or high five by the main characters. Exists in the 4th wall but sees through it. Or perhaps exists outside the 4th wall but peaks in and says hi. The characters say hi back. Sometimes the Narrator is all knowing. Sometimes they only know a little, perhaps the script or what has previously happened. Sometimes the Narrator character is kind and helps the other characters along. Sometimes they laugh in the other characters faces. There is a chart here that I haven't conceptualized yet.

Some examples:

The narrator in Into The Woods

Alan-A-Dale/ the Rooster in Robin Hood

Hoid/ Wit in the Cosmere

Steve/ The Jester from Galavant

Also the Head Monk from Galavant

the Narrator from Winnie the Pooh

The Narrator from Word Girl

If you can think of other examples, please add!

[cupoteahatter]

In the wake of the cancellation of Warrior Nun, I am imploring anyone who has Disney+ to watch Willow (2022).

It features a woman loving woman romantic subplot at the forefront, meaning it’s not in the subtext. Episode 1 has them kiss and afterward the lines of romance exist so throughout the narrative for these two characters that it is current and seen to the point that it cannot be argued away.

But there’s next to no buzz for it, only the Disney+ app really promotes it as something to watch with the odd ad showing up on Instagram of the cast playing mini games.

On top of that, it is a well written show that holds all of the love of the original film from the 80s.

I know that it would appear that numbers don’t seem to matter, but I am begging people to watch this show because it is a fantastic piece of media that delights in paying homage to the source material it comes from.

Also hot women with swords. Hot women with swords who could KILL you-

[faaun]

the way that diff languages sound r so fascinating they're all different and all so vivid

[flyingthesky]

Before I get into, like, specific proshots, I feel like I should mention BroadwayHD, where you can watch a slightly rotating number of professionally filmed productions. Many of them are PBS Great Performances filmings, but others are not. There's also Broadway On Demand, but I find their ticketing system annoying. YMMV.

Shoving aside everything recent and readily available on streaming (Come From Away, Hamilton, Miss Saigon, Falsettos, Spongebob, Heathers, etc), here's a selection of professional filmings of theatre productions you can purchase for legal tender or stream in English:

The Sweeney Todd concert was mentioned, but there is also a filmed version of the cast with Angela Lansbury. It aired as a Great Performances thing, but was technically not filmed for that, which is why you can find it on DVD.

Have you ever wanted to watch David Hasselhoff struggle to sing a Frank Wildhorn musical? Great news! You should watch Jekyll & Hyde: Direct from Broadway.

Did you watch Greatest Showman and get extremely flabbergasted with its tenuous grasp on history? Have I got a musical for you: Barnum! It's on Freevee right now, apparently. It's even got Michael Crawford in it.

Please watch Pippin. The filmed version is, frankly, the best way to experience it besides going to see it live, as every cast recording sounds like hot garbage.

Were you obsessed with Adam Lambert in 2008 when he was on American Idol and also Prince of Egypt? Yeah, you should watch The Ten Commandments: The Musical.

Also there's this ministry called Sight&Sound that does incredible musicals based on Bible stories if you, like me, have the incredibly niche special interest of "musicals based on religious texts."

If you want to know why Tom Holland dances like that and why Zendaya's face falls when she remembers he's a classically trained dancer, watch Billy Elliot. The filmed version doesn't have him in it (he left the cast before then) but you'll understand what it would take for that to be your first professional role.

Are you wondering why people get really annoyed when Hugh Jackman getting cast in The Music Man is called "stunt casting"? Go watch the 1999 Oklahoma! proshot.

Do you want to get familiar with Merrily We Roll Along before that version the director will probably die before releasing starring Ben Platt gets made? You're in luck! There's a 2013 filming of it.

You guys mentioned the Phantom concert, but like. Love Never Dies has a proshot. Torture all your friends! Watch as the blood pack doesn't go off at the final climax! Also the 25th Anniversary "concert" is just the regular show slightly adapted to Royal Albert Hall rather than people standing at microphones like the Les Mis concerts (1995, 2010, or 2019), if you've never seen it.

Watch Allegiance. Watch it. I'm not asking. It's available on both BroadwayHD and Broadway On Demand.

"Yes, but why did you say 'English' up there?" Well, because I'm about to tell you something that may hurt your wallet but enrich your life: English speaking countries are actively the worst at filming their productions, but other places (Japan) are way better. Do you like anime? Chances are, that anime has a 2.5D musical and for the sweet, sweet price of around $80USD you can import that 2.5D musical and force all your friends to watch it in the original Japanese.

Don't speak Japanese and/or don't have hundreds of dollars to drop on blu-rays? That's okay! Europe's filming their musicals too. You can get a copy of Mozart l'opera rock for like. $30USD and most of that i shipping. There's also Mozart! das musical, which is pretty easy to find. "I want one that's not about Mozart!" Fine, fine. Everyone's doing Dracula Daily, right? Dracula: L'amour plus fort que la mort has a proshot. There's also Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort, if you're Canadian and don't want to watch a musical in French-French. There's also a proshot of the Vienna Elisabeth, but last I checked it was kind of difficult to obtain because it's from 2005 and super popular because Elisabeth is THE European musical.

After all the talk of slime tutorials on here, I have been reminded of the general consensus that there should be more professional recordings of shows. So I would like to ask what shows actually do have proshots?

As for proshots that come to my mind now, I know Hamilton and Legally Blonde have somewhat well known proshots, Heathers got one not too long ago, and quite a few classics have recordings that were aired on PBS way back when (PBS ought to do that more often these days). I also think Cats has one and Les Mis and Phantom have those staged concerts that kind of fit the bill.

Hmm, good question! First, what counts as a proshot? 🤔 Are we only talking films of staged shows, and not movies/adaptations? So, for example, the Producers movie wouldn't be considered a proshot even though it's got the two Broadway stars and was overall quite faithful to the show? And are we not talking something like Encanto Live?

The ones I can think of offhand not on your list are Spongebob Squarepants, Newsies, By Jeeves, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat, whatever else ALW released during the pandemic to watch that I don't recall, and Into the Woods. If we're talking concerts, there's Sweeney Todd and Chess.

After that, I'd have to start cheating by looking up PBS's Great Performances episode list or things like Live from Lincoln Center.

Anyone got any other recs?

Note: As a personal ask, as y'all answer this please don't get too in depth on where you might find these to watch these days. This blog is meant to be about musical recommendations, not piracy recs. And it's nice to support theater with actual money when you can.

[ourshadowstallerthanoursoul]

Just a quick Robert photo dump + gif because why not

[murdleandmarot]

Hey guys, Memory is, like, a really good song

[flyingthesky]

are you normal or are you listening to the parade album on repeat because for some reason they decided to drop it like a week after they opened on broadway and announced this three days ago

[flyingthesky]

dear evan hansen as a youtube video

MY BEST FRIEND KILLED HIMSELF ?!?!?! project link in description! | edit: apology video up

[spiritofcamelot]

So all the other older sisters are crying at WBN 23 tonight, right? We're feeling normal levels of being seen by a D&D show, for sure.

[pardonmydelays]

totally unrelated to anything ever but somebody from my country is selling the great comet cd and it doesn't really cost much and i think i want it

[puppyeared]

:D

[flyingthesky]

on the strength of "watching this will help you in history class (probably)":

tokyo rose, a musical about iva toguri who was forced to participate in broadcasts of propaganda during WWII

parade, which you might have heard of recently because of the revival with ben platt (and which as a bonus has a similar sound) and which is about the 1915 lynching of leo frank

come from away, which is about 9/11 but in a positive and uplifting way and tells the story of the canadian town that hosted many of the planes that were diverted when air travel shut down. has a proshot that's very good!

the scottsboro boys, the kander and ebb musical about the nine black teens who were accused of rape in 1930s alabama which has a very similar slap some songs over this serious topic vibe

nevermore: the imaginary life and mysterious death of edgar allen poe, which you should just listen to anyway because it's an insane artistic masterpiece

newsies, everyone's favorite musical about the newsboy strike of 1899! it also has a proshot, if that's important.

on the strength of "specifically i want more about presidents (that aren't hamilton or 1776)":

bloody, bloody andrew jackson (predates hamilton by a few years and reimagines him as an emo rockstar)

1600 pennsylvania avenue (the "even less popular than 1776" musical about american presidents)

teddy & alice (a musical about the fraught relationship between theodore roosevelt and his daughter alice)

on the strength of "i just think someone who enjoyed assassins might enjoy this":

a gentleman's guide to love and murder (musical about a guy who hates rich people and capitalism so he goes around killing them, which just feels very much in the same tone as assassins)

bright star (musical about the folk story of the iron mountain baby, deeply American in the same way with some similar musical styling as assassins)

the dogs of pripyat (musical about all the pets people left behind after the chernobyl disaster that just feels experimental and Off to me in the same way as assassins)

and finally, shoutout to our american cousin by molly lewis, a four and a half minute mini-musical about the lincoln assassination you will be obsessed with if you loved assassins.

okay pls help can folks give me some musicals similar to Assassins?

[roseworth]

la la land is held back by how badly it wants to be a stage show which is kind of funny because dear evan hansen is made by the same people and it’s held back by how badly it wants to be a movie

[fullscoreshenanigans]

JUMPING AROUND RAY'S BIRTHDAY HIS BIRTHDAY *SCREAMS* .

his whole birthday party started out as a prank with the asparagus cake, and him putting down vegetables instead of whatever they were eating. (Only to have the real ones come out)

SINCE HE'S INTO FANTASY ID GET HIM THIS

AND A MUSIC BOX AND NRDY SHIT

A good bday for a good boy. 🥳 I love the thought of the kids buying or making him an apron, bookmarks, or hair clips. <3

Music boxes are really interesting given his association with "Isabella's Lullaby," Shirai mentioning his secret appreciation of music in the mystic code book,

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 7 Q&A)

and Norman mentioning "[Ray's] good with machines" back in S1e02/chapter 4 due to it being a shared hobby of theirs at Grace Field (maybe with some of the rewards Isabella gave Ray?).

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 Q&A | Questionnaire Translation Source)

I like to believe Norman and Ray put the music box back together for Emma so she could enjoy it for a bit longer while she was at Grace Field. As they get older, I headcanon them going antiquing in the human world and finding little odd trinkets that might be broken for them to either fix up themselves to give to the other, or to hand off when one or both of them needs a distraction that they can work on fixing up, either together or each working on their own separate thing in the same room while enjoying the other's presence. Music boxes could be a special treat.

(Continued here and here.)