#he challenged the preconceived notion that all gay men are fun to be around .

[give-grian-rights]

THE MOST ROMANTIC BOY IN TOWNNN!!!!

Do you know this queer character?

Noel is Gay and uses he/him and she/her (when in drag) pronouns!

[colors-of-my-heart]

since this production has been living in my head rent free since I saw it a week ago… a cluttered (but comprehensive) list of notes on Phoenix College RTC.

- Virgil pre-show. he just skuttled around the stage for a full minute before the lights went down.

- without exaggeration, this was probably the most Virgil-heavy production of RTC to date. in every other version of the show I've seen, he does his little guitar solo at the beginning and then kind of just disappears for the next two hours. that was NOT the case here, my boy was kicking around for the entire show and for that I will be eternally grateful. 

- there were long stretches where he just sat there vibing to the music and shyly mimicking the choreography to himself. everyone was the amazing of course (and i’ll get to that) but Virgil in particular has my heart. - the set was super impressive!! you could definitely see inspiration from the Off-Broadway production in the colors, patterns and set pieces. the thing that stuck out to me the most in its uniqueness was the big crystal ball cutout they used for the bumper footage and projections. 

- golden cast. perfect. iconic. not a single ass was halved. everyone fit their roles perfectly, brought so much personality and flair to them, and had amazing chemistry with one another.

- Virgil immediately terrifying the choir the moment they arrived in the afterlife, and then proceeding to poke Noel in the back repeatedly with his tail and then pretend like nothing happened the entire time Karnak introduced himself

- l don’t know if the actor playing Noel had a lot of friends in the audience, if everyone was just very familiar with RTC, or if his stage presence was just that powerful, but everyone lost their minds whenever he did ANYTHING (and deservedly so).

- Mischa had a very large and very clearly homemade tattoo of Talia’s name on his forearm 🥺

- The audience yet again loses its collective mind the moment Jane enters (the energy in this theater was feral in the best way possible)

- Noel is absolutely captivated during Jane’s monologue and claps ferociously when she finishes

- Noel cackles maniacally when Karnak explains that the winner will be chosen by unanimous vote after WTWN

- Noel aggressively flipping off Ocean the moment she turns away after the “you challenged my preconceived notion that all gay dudes are fun the be around” comment (the sibling-rivalry-esque energy between these two was immaculate here)

- Noel gestures towards Mischa while delivering the “I wanted a man who would drive me to drink” line

- The feather boa during Noel’s Lament was absolutely distrintigrating, like every little movement sent a flurry of little green fuzzies adrift. by the end of the number it was basically a string with a few spare feathers clinging on for dear life, and while it was almost certainly unintentional, let me tell you it WORKED. it’s what Monique would have wanted.

- “In my home country it is natural for two men to show affection by kissing… nnnot always in heeeelssss 😏🥴” this production very much said nischa real

- Mischa trying to stare down Ocean after the “my song will only have profanity in chorus” line only to get intimidated and back off

- clips of what seemed to be a homemade music video were interspersed throughout Mischa’s bumper and it was delightful

- ALSO he was wearing a custom Bad Egg hat and WHERE DO I GET ONE

- I didn’t put the pieces together until way later when I saw someone else point it out, but when they showed the projections of Talia, apparently it was just Noel in a wig. I was very confused why everyone was laughing when she appeared, I’m not good with faces ok

- Ricky awkwardly joins in when Noel and Mischa hug it out after Talia. He was third-wheeling it big time but it’s the thought that counts ❤️

- During SABM, when Ricky goes behind the curtains with the cat ladies, Cat!Mischa and Cat!Noel cover their ears in discomfort until he comes backs out in his costume change (which included a silver helmet and arm bands. Iconic).

- Ricky got the crowd to clap in time with music near the end of the song and it quite literally felt like a religious experience

- TBOJD was so good holy fucking fuck

- the actress portraying Jane just had a fantastic voice and captured her physicality so so well. her deadpan expression was unwavering and just everything about her was so tragic and haunting

- the members of the choir carried these black funeral umbrellas throughout the number, but when it reached the ragtime portion they flipped them to reveal Christmas lights underneath. there was an audible gasp across the audience when this happened and it gave me goosebumps

- Noel got absolutely SLOSHED after one swig of vodka and I would expect nothing less

- Constance looked like she’d been saving up that punch for a LONG LONG time, Ocean is lucky she was already dead because she did NOT hold back

- Right as she sang the word “heartbreaker”, Constance stepped on a light and it shattered. the timing was honestly so perfect it’s hard to say whether or not it was intentional? I’m going to go with it wasn’t because a stagehand came to sweep up the glass a minute later and the cast later had to sit on the floor of that general area. but it honestly added to much to the moment, gave me chills

- the audience proved itself to be the true villain of the show when Karnak said that in five minutes was his “appointment with a rat named Virgil” and several people cheered. LOOK I love him too but can we NOT encourage him?!?!?!

- karma came a few minutes later when we were forced to actually watch Virgil bite into the wire and convulse violently until he stopped moving :( F

- i felt like an asshole but I couldn’t help but giggle throughout the ending of Its Just A Ride because, as the choir was singing and dancing cheerfully in one final celebration of life, Virgil was just lying there in the Peter Griffin death pose like two feet away. there was one point where Constance did a little hop and I thought for a split second she was about to stomp on his hand

- besides the callous disregard of the corpses right next to them, they played around with some of the props from earlier in the show throughout the number and it was very organic and wholesome

- in a continuation of my favorite modern RTC production trope, they had Jane come out sans makeup (so now Penny) at the end of the show to round it out 🥺 this production gave me everything I wanted

I think that’s all of it but also the moment I hit post I’ll probably remember something else. point is though this was a very good production and I’ll probably never recover

[ktmarison]

ride  the  cyclone  sentence  starters.

'  it  turns  out  being  told  the  place  and  time  of  your  death  in  front  of  your  family  with  a  mouthful  of  corn  dog  at  a  fairground  is  the  very  opposite  of  fun.  '

'  meet  my  executioner.  '

'  i'm  well  aware  rats  cannot  play  musical  instruments.  '

'  when  you've  been  alone  for  as  long  as  i  have,  you  tend  to  anthropomorphize  your  friends.  '

'  the  armrest  to  your  left  is  yours.  the  one  to  your  right  is  your  neighbors.  if  you  believe  both  armrests  are  yours  exclusively,  you  are  part  of  the  problem.  '

'  this  just  shows  the  high  standard  of  excellence  !  even  in  competition  against  yourself,  you  can  still  walk  away  a  loser  !  '

'  tonight,  we  shall  raise  a  middle  finger  to  that  most  ruthless  adjudicator  called  time.  '

'  something  doesn't  feel  quite  right.  '

'  how  can  this  be  fair  ?  '

'  what's  the  point  of  even  suing  ?  '

'  there's  nothing  left  to  do  except  to  rot.  '

'  i  hope  i  wiped  my  browser  history  clean.  '

'  i  did  not  feel  safe  at  all  .'

'  democracy  rocks  !  '

'  even  in  death,  i  can't  escape  her  !  '

'  well  played,  satan,  well  played.  '

'  being  the  only  gay  man  in  a  small  rural  high  school  is  kind  of  like  having  a  laptop  in  the  stone  age.  i  mean,  sure,  you  can  have  one,  but  there's  nowhere  to  plug  it  in.  '

'  i'm  really  freaked  out  right  now.  '

'  do  you  want  to  know  what  really  freaks  me  out  ?  '

'  when  a  lioness  has  children,  she  stops  making  love  to  the  lion.  the  lion  gets  jealous.  sometimes  so  jealous  that  he  eats  the  children.  you'd  think  this  would  upset  the  lioness,  far  from  it.  they  make  love  again  as  if  the  children  never  existed.  '

‘  i’m  going  to  stand  a  little  farther  away  from  you.  okay  ?  ’

'  ever  since  i  was  six  years  old,  i  knew  i  wasn't  long  for  this  world.  '

'  don't  interrupt,  sweetie.  '

'  i  am  the  best  by  any  metric  of  society.  i  get  that.  but  if  that  is  how  worth  is  measured,  i  want  no  part  in  it.  '

'  okay,  it's  clear,  i'm  the  top  of  this  class.  '

'  fetch  me  a  coffee,  shine  my  shoes.  '

'  some  of  us  are  winners,  some  were  born  to  lose.  '

'  he'll  rob  a  7-11  and  go  straight  to  jail.  '

'  what's  he  gonna  do,  solve  a  rubik's  cube  ?  how  long's  he  got  if  we  feed  him  through  a  tube  ?  '

'  he'll  never  learn  to  read.  he's  never  gonna  breed.  he's  going  to  jail  guaranteed,  and  she's  a  freaky  monster  !  '

'  we  need  a  little  less  of  them,  a  little  more  of  me  !  '

'  you  just  told  your  best  friend  that  her  greatest  achievement  in  life  will  be  to  become  an  organ  donor.  '

'  that's  okay  !  it  kinda,  really,  super  hurt,  but  .  .  .  '

'    what  i  did  there  is  exactly  what  you  shouldn't  do.  '

'  you  challenged  my  preconceived  notion  that  all  gay  dues  are  fun  to  be  around.  '

'  sweet  jesus  christ  on  a  bike.  '

'  i've  seen  the  movie  the  blue  angel  about  a  billion  and  one  times.  '

'  mom  tells  me  i  gotta  try  to  blend  in  so  i  tried  really  hard  to  dial  it  back.  '

'  i  wanted  a  man  that  would  drive  me  to  drink.  '

'  can  you  keep  it  in  your  pants  for  one  second,  you  horrible  succubus  ?  '

'  i  embrace  a  new  man  every  night.  '

'  i  want  to  be  that  fucked  up  girl.  '

'  i  think  i  am  in  love  with  you.  '

'  i've  heard  that  lie  a  million  times  before.  '

'  tell  him  that  like  him,  i  choose  to  burn  out,  rather  than  fade  away.  '

‘  that  was  dope  !  ’

‘  level  up  !  ’

'  in  my  country  it  is  natural  for  two  men  to  show  affection  by  kissing.  '

'  there  is  a  difference  between  affection  and  smut.  '

'  what's  the  lesson  ?  '

'  not  every  story  has  a  lesson.  '

'  every  story  has  a  lesson  except  saw  five.  '

'  porno  ?  that  is  a  genre.  that  doesn't  tell  a  story.  '

'  i  think  it's  messed  up  that  we  celebrate  violence  and  demonize  the  very  act  of  love.  porno  is  magical.  '

'  i'm  never  mad  at  you.  i'm  just  frequently  disappointed.  '

'  just  cause  i'm  all  gangsta  doesn't  automatically  make  me  a  homophobe.  '

'  that  shit  was  emotionally  devastating.  '

'  we  were  engaged.  '

'  i  have  no  respect  for  this  country.  '

'  my  life  is  awesome.  '

'  this  beat  is  awesome  !  '

'  i  am  vulnerable  now.  '

'  i  lay  my  masculinity  at  the  altar  of  your  maidenhood.  '

'  i  wanna  be  with  you,  baby.  '

'  love  conquers  all.  '

'  look  at  me,  i  am  physically  weeping  !  '

'  and  that  is  why  not  everyone  should  have  a  library  card.  '

'  the  world  needs  more  poets.  '

'  and  this  is  why  you  both  sucked  at  math  !  '

'  there  are  no  accidents.  '

'  since  we're  all  sharing,  i  would  like  to  talk  about  my  religion.  '

'  for  lo,  i  am  a  prophet.  '

'  i  guess  you  could  say  i'm  pretty  sexy  on  another  planet.  '

'  who  are  you  right  now  ?  '

'  we  need  your  fantastic  seed.  '

'  i  know  you've  heard  the  legend  of  the  sexy  cat  women  from  zolar.  '

'  won't  you  please  help  save  our  galaxy  ?  '

'  what  would  you  do  in  my  place  ?  '

'  oh  my  goodness,  what  have  i  gotten  myself  into  ?  '

'  i'm  a  lover,  not  a  fighter  !  '

'  i  wanna  hold  your  hands.  '

'  i  have  no  desire  to  rule  the  galaxy.  to  hold  you  close  is  enough  for  me.  '

'  i'm  gonna  give  you  the  cliff  notes  for  every  prophet  that  ever  lived:  life  is  hard  enough  without  making  up  reasons  to  be  dicks  to  each  other.  '

'  let's  take  care  of  each  other.  '

'  for  love  is  the  closest  you  can  come  to  another  person,  for  it's  the  closest  you  can  come  to  being  another  person.  '

'  and  then  peace  was  restored.  '

'  there's  only  one  commandment  in  my  bible.  don't  be  a  dick.  '

'  in  choosing  myself,  that  would  be  the  ultimate  dick  move.  '

'  i'm  the  same  person  i  always  was.  it's  just  no  one  ever  listened  to  me.  '

'  if  the  holy  people  are  to  be  kept  harmless  from  war,  then  make  all  people  holy.  '

'  we  all  know  the  worms  must  be  fed.  '

'  my  soul.  is  it  here  ?  '

'  cruel  existence  was  only  a  shame.  '

'  won't  you  tell  me  at  last  who  i  am  ?  '

'  i  hear  the  anguish  of  the  street.  '

'  if  this  is  how  i  die,  lord,  why  be  left  with  no  family  and  no  friends  ?  '

'  time  eats  all  his  children  in  the  end.  '

'  this  is  no  way  to  die.  '

'  isn't  there  anyone  to  tell  me  who  i  am  ?  '

'  that  song  is  so  overplayed.  '

'  how  did  you  find  the  entire  meaning  of  my  life  in  such  a  phrase  ?  '

'  not  even  the  dutch  speak  dutch.  '

'  i've  never  been  drunk  before.  or  kissed  a  man.  '

'  your  life  was  tragic.  '

'  how  do  we  know  it's  my  birthday  ?  '

'  what's  a  savannah  ?  '

'  it's  a  fire  sale  in  my  brain  and  everything  must  go.  '

'    you  know  i  envy  you.  '

'  i  was  building  a  life  and  you  were  satisfied  doing  nothing.  '

'  i  thought  my  life  had  meaning,  turns  out  it  didn't.  '

'  my  death  has  really  affected  me.  '

'  naturally  my  death  has  affected  you  !  can't  you  just  listen  for  once,  without  making  everything  about  yourself  ?  '

'  i  lost  my  virginity  to  a  carnie  in  a  porta  potty.  '

'  he  had  this  tattoo  on  his  forearm.  it  was  of  two  skeletons  having  sex,  and  it  said  born  to  bone  on  the  bottom  of  it.  '

'  after  a  while,  i  started  feeling  crummy  about  stuff.  '

'  i  really  wish  i  never  thought  those  things.  '

'  i  just  wanted  to  do  it,  so  i  didn't  have  to  think  about  doing  it  anymore.  '

'  i  used  to  think  that  life  was  just  a  heart  breaker.  it  breaks  til  you  can't  take  no  more.  '

'  there's  nothing  wrong  with  being  the  nicest  girl  in  town.  '

'  you  knew  all  along  i  could  never  do  it.  '

'  no  one  will  win  here,  and  no  one  can  lose.  '

'  no  one  keeps  score  of  how  hard  we  tried.  '

'  your  lucky  number  is  seven.  '