#how are all of these pull quotes such bangers tbh

[kindahoping4forever]

Via Rock Sound's 25 Icons Series

[musicaldamage]

So having watched the vbw Falco musical recently. Rock Me Amadeus. I have Thoughts™

[ID: the mostly empty Ronacher theatre's auditorium seen from the 2nd floor on the right side. the stage is hidden behind a sort-of wall barrier curtain thing made of squares, some of which are reflective. the "Rock Me Amadeus" logo and an image of Moritz Mausser in character as Falco are projected onto it. Surrounding the stage there are a number of variously-shaped angular mirrors lined with glowing light. (additionally there's my partner's hand forming the peace sign on the right side of the image)]

side note I am irrationally annoyed that the squares of the logo don't line up with the squares of the curtain thing WHAT are they doing

Spoilers and further opinions under the cut

- The cast is stellar. Moritz Mausser is absolutely 100% brilliant, Katharina Gorgi's voice is beautiful, and Alex Melcher is there so that's in some ways already enough for me personally really. though he only really shows up in the 2nd act which is a bit sad. to me

but his presence is good bc. well. a lot of the things I generally value in a musical are kinda meh in this one tbh

- the music is fine! it's mainly Falco songs obviously, which I've been mostly neutral about so far but there definitely are some bangers, and, well, Moritz and Alex singing them sure is a point in favour. the additional songs written specifically for the musical are... I don't think they're bad, mostly, but they have a completely different vibe that doesn't really fit in with the rest. and. actually, some of them are bad. in my opinion. extremely cheesy. what's that doing there. one of them is hella catchy but the chorus lyrics sound like it's for kindergarden, two are just incredibly generic and boring and did I mention cheesy?

- Starting out with calling the day of Falco's death "the day the music died" sure is a claim. nothing to do with whoever is in charge at the vbw being weirdly patriotic (stares at the general Austria(ns) theme of quite a number of vbw musicals)

- Similarly his first sentence "In Wien musst erst sterben, bevor sie dich hochleben lassen" ("In Vienna you gotta die before they celebrate you") which sounds nice and dramatic and all but. come on. dude was #1 in international charts very much during his lifetime. they talk about this in the musical itself. he complains on stage about how the fame and stuff bothers him. where's the dying first part huh Hansi.

- Alex. listen I am stupidly into that guy's whole vibe. his everything. his voice is my favourite kind of male voice and his hair in combination with his entire profile and the lineof his stupid neck make me feel some kind of way. I wanna grab that hair and pull his head back like that one Sandman scene you know the one.

This one. also his tattoos and his absolutely deranged energy and willingness to just go off and do insane things rolling around on the floor. and then suddenly look like an innocent child in awe at seeing snow for the first time of his life. this tangent of Alex Melcher stanning has gone on long enough we'll return to our regularly scheduled musical discussion now

- They're simultaneously trying to make Falco a sympathetic figure while also showing him behaving like a dick. it seems to work bc the audience laughs and gets Emotional but. idk maybe it's me but the "I behave like an egoistic dick to everyone around me including my wife but it's ok bc I'm Misunderstood and actually very Deep and Emotional and I love my wife and need her to keep me sane and also I'm marionetted against my will by my Dark Impulses" shtick is sort of... you can't have him throw his wife to the ground and give zero fucks about her and then half an hour later at his funeral or wake or idk play a quote of him saying "I never hurt anyone other than myself" and have someone else call him empathic and sensitive and expect me to take that seriously and... look maybe I'd like it better if the jokes weren't so incredibly lame

- Female roles?? what's that. there's two (2) that get a name on the cast list (his wife and his mum). one (1) of them gets addressed by name on stage (Isabella, the Wife. his mum is Maria but only if you look at the cast list or the programme). Isabella's role is Sexy Lady turned Caring Wife and Mother who finally Leaves. the mum's role is Nagging Mum (in law) and Comic Relief. there's a second girlfriend (wife? secretary? idek) who apoears in one scene and gets called a name (Caroline) which I only caught bc I was looking at the surtitles. no one gets a personality not even the male characters really no one matters (I mean yes ok it's Falco's Story but ffs let Katharina DO something with her voice maybe)

- have I mentioned the awful dialogue and cheap jokes yet? "the best aspect of the American flag are the red-white-red stripes". terrible flirting with "ladies in uniform" who are trying to do their job when faced with an entitled asshole but of course it's portrayed as hilarious.

- ok so back to Alex Melcher but his role is the most fun part of the thing. he's Falco's "Alter Ego" aka his, idk, hedonistic impulses and desire for fame and admiration and whatnot personified? there's a huge head on stage with a brain and all in it to make sure the audience understands that he is Inside Falco's Head and in case that's not clear enough yet he also verbatim declares that "I'm inside your head" so yeah subtlety is not required in this play. he and Falco/Hans are being incredibly homoerotic the entire time and I am personally offended that they're not kissing, but I'll take Alter Ego pretending to lick Hans's throat and clinging to him like a limpet. I would love to write fanfiction about them actually but I haven't figured out how to do that well when both parties are the same person/one is a personified fragment of the other's mind and not physically present. pity.

- idk I'd just. I'd have done it differently? again it's just. so unsubtle. why does Alter Ego just hover menacingly above the stage in a glass box once or twice during the first act, why didn't they idk put him in as part of the white-clad ensemble and make him stick out more and more instead of the Hovering and then the 5 minutes "I am you and you are me" song at the start of the 2nd act. Have him talk to people while Hans takes a step back to show it's his Dark Side™ taking over idk. I'm sure there'd also be ways to make Hans more actually sympathetic and less of an arse (fewer dumb jokes might help, or giving other characters more of a personality maybe) but yeah idk

- idk there's just. not much of a story? it's a Falco tribute show with some life moments thrown in. there's a Falco song, there's a crisis bc he's out of ideas, now he's taking drugs, now he's happy, now there's a new album without any clue where he got the ideas (was it the drugs?) now there's sth about his wife now his friend is reprising the basic as fuck Live Your Dream song yet again. then it's over and he dies in a car crash and it's all presented like it's all some incredibly deep and moving story but it's just Not That Deep

- I do like the Writer's Block song they put in, don't we all know that feeling

- I'm not sure it's a good idea to use Jeannie of all songs as a recurring motif the way they're doing? "quit living on dreams, life is not what it seems" "lonely little girl boy in a cold cold world" blah blah all nice and well but Do We Remember What This Song Is About. I mean it's a good song I'm not contesting that I like it! (if someone wants to come at me for "endorsing" anything just bc I like the song... just don't) But yeah no matter how good it is I don't think it's very uhhh fitting. Though in retrospect maybe it's meant to portray him as like... Someone At The Mercy Of Sth Evil And/Or More Powerful Than He Is. Fucking over his own life powerless to stop it or sth idk idk

- Generally I think they rely way too much on the use of background projection screens idk it seems lazy. it's fine in some scenes it can work really well but it gets too much and kinda cheesy

End of the random unorganised RMA thoughts yay! It was fun to watch. I know I mostly complain a lot here but it's definitely fun! It's just that a large part of the fun for me was despairing about how bad I found it and waiting for more homoeroticism and also for Alex Melcher to... do the things he's doing

Edit: ALSO I'm not sure if uhhh low-to-mid-key insulting (iirc) two of the three not-Austrian countries he goes to is. Necessary?

[the-kipsabian]

⭐️🌟⚡️💢⭕️💞🎵❗️🎭🎙🎩

bless you babe <33

wrestling favorites asks ~

(this will get long so yay read more ~)

⭐️ Male Superstar i have a lot. yall know this by now lol. so since this week is (hopelly) The Week, let me pour some kip sabian on you. cause hes amazing, i love what hes doing right now (even tho it has been rapidly driving me insane the longer it has been going on), i love his look and also croptops absolutely do fucking bang. hes talented as shit and i just miss him so much. fucking look at him (although yes this is superbad, the next/returning version most likely wont be but idc im gonna love him either way). also hes a bisexual icon and you cant change my mind until he himself literally tells me differently lmao

🌟Female Superstar oof theres a lot.. tho surprisingly recently ive been really infatuated with the bunny? shes gorgeous, allie is a legit hilarious and adorable person and shes just. getting so good in the ring. she deserves the world tbh <3

⚡️Wrestling Move SPANISH FLY. whenever executed it always looks so freaking amazing and its always so cool when ppl who do it can pull it off from anywhere at any time. fucking love that flippy shit lol (oh this gif was a perfect case and point bless)

💢 Heel Turn im sure theres a lot, but the one that immediately first came to mind was when mjf turned on cody on aew. way way back in the day. like although it wasnt a surprise by any means, knowing his bitchy ass better than you character from the indies before, but the way it was executed and how he played the character before that and at the moment of the turn. it lives rent free in my head tbh, it was that good

⭕️Face Turn im sure there are answers to this, but i cant think of like? anything?? so honestly gonna go with seth rollins. from the corporate buy-in (when he joined forces with steph and hhh i dont fucking remember what they were called but it was after the betrayal of shield "i didnt sell out i bought in" yada yada you know what i mean) to the beast slayer. i dont even remember if there was anything in between there, probably was, but one of my fondest seth memories is seeing him demolish lesnar at mania for the heist of the century lmao. ..and i do believe he was a face at this time?? i fucking dont remember but face!seth is good regardless. and i refuse to think more of this at this kind of an hour ask me again later LOL

💞Return KIP SABIAN personally i was really loving trent coming back from the first injury in aew. arcade anarchy was already a fucking banger of a match and then he rolls in with sue and im just. heart eyes motherfucker. its so freaking good i know theres a lot more to add to this but yeah. just greg things <3

🎵Entrance Theme ..how many of these do you think i can reply to with kip sabian LOL. but currently actually obsessed with the men of the year theme. that or omegas battle cry. theres so many good ones but those are the ones i have on repeat right now (like with any favorite song question i cant answer this for like an all time fave, my likes fluctuate like all the time lmao)

❗️Catchphrase/Quote jay white. just as a whole. you know what i mean ("the man that single-handedly sold out madison square garden")

🎭Gimmick/Character okay so im gonna separate this into two cause im seeing these two as two very different things rn. cause for a character, absolutely danhausen. he fucking owns that shit and i have no idea how the fuck he does that (tho i think hes been doing this literally for years so.. experience i guess?) but hes great at keeping it consistence but not overdoing it to the point where it would be actually annoying. its just very intriguing and just hilarious as for gimmick, best friends. just as a whole. a group of absolute idiots who will support one another as best friends do and will always have one anothers backs as best friends do, even if they are a really varied group of misfits just hanging out together (yes theres history for all of them but still). its literally just adorable and you dont need anything else for a group to stand together and i just think thats great

🎙Wrestling Trope ooh this is an interesting one mmMMM. ..does god complex count for this one LOL. you know i have a thing for that (although it gets used so little so idk fam. i think its more of a gimmick tho never mind lol) OH one of my all time favorites is someone stealing a champs belt. idk why i just always thought it was fucking hilarious. just like 'imma take this its mine now bye' and run off. it always works on me oof

🎩Ring Gear theres so many answers to this and idk which one is actually like. my favorite favorite lol just take ace austin for now cause oof them colors (also yes hi i do want to direct your attention directly to his ass with this one lol)