#i saw all these musicals on broadway which is insane to think about

[noys-boise]

Sondheim revivals on Broadway in the 2020s so far

company | into the woods | sweeney todd | merrily we roll along

[cmspeirs]

Band of Brothers Headcanons: What music they’d be listening to

(+ Playlists and absolutely historically inaccurate)

A/N: Hey! So here’s my first BoB headcanon - I hope you enjoy it! I’m sorry if this is rather short. Let me know if you’d like to see other characters in those or have any requests :) I also spent way too much time making several playlists for them, I’ll link them for you at the end if you wanna listen to them!

{Dick Winters}

• Classical. Music.

• Can list you every thing that Bach or Vivaldi ever published, but with the backstories

• I just picture him closing his eyes and sighing very loudly whenever he listens to something he loves

• Will dance to old Jazz music until the sun comes up, and says the day after that it was a really wild night

• Also listens A LOT to Lana (would never admit it)

• Secretly gossips and argues over her online. Tries to keep it a secret but his username is “DickDelRey101”

{Lewis Nixon}

• Classic Rock all the way

• I’m talking Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, ACDC…

• “Paranoid - Black Sabbath” was his wedding song

• When he gets home he falls into the old chair next to the record player with a bottle of whiskey already waiting

• He’s always like “I need this music to calm down, don’t you understand???” and absolutely means it

• Drives the car only to listen to “Enter Sandman” and wear sunglasses while he does (windows all the way down, volume max)

• 100% certified Dad music

{Ronald Speirs}

• This mans music is all over the place

• Just like my feelings for him lol

• But mostly listens to a lot of old music???

• Like 40s to 60s, also a big fan of Elvis and Johnny Cash

• Literally has pictures of them hanging in the doorway

• Always says he doesn’t care about things like music, but will make a playlist for every one he meets with songs that remind him of them

• I swear to everything music would be one of his love languages - he’d absolutely remember every song you ever liked

• Turns the radio louder randomly to songs with the explanation “saw you smiling to that with your morning coffee last week”

{Donald Malarkey}

• Listens to a whole lot of sad songs - and I’m talking about gut wrenching, laying on the bathroom floor kind of sad

• Also somehow into Grunge??

• At least three Radiohead songs in every one of his playlists

• The Smiths is his happy music

• When his favorite Pink Floyd Record is on he listens to it all day. He runs to push the play button again every time it stops.

{Joe Toye}

• 100% an alternative Rock / Nu Metal kind of guy

• Would have Deftones playing all day

• Also listens to Bloodhound Gang a lot lol (The song “Jackass” is his anthem!!!)

• Just imagine him sitting in the garage with Guarnere, drinking beer while an old Limp Bizkit vinyl is on

• He thinks it’s the greatest thing of all time that bands began to combine Rap with Hardcore

• In terms of that - definitely a fan of Deez Nuts, Hollywood Undead or Linkin Park

• “Band of Brothers - Deez Nuts” is literally his favorite song

{George Luz}

• Unironically listens to the Soundtrack of Oklahoma

• It just puts a smile on his face every time he hears it - takes him back to the news of the musical still on broadway back in war

• Also loves & defends Tom Lehrer to death

• He knows every song from him by heart and always sings the loudest

• Will randomly sing his favorite songs throughout the day, which makes everyone shake their head but deep down they all love it

• He’s almost afraid of sad music

• He aspires to be Ricky Nelson in another life

{Eugene Roe}

• Similar to Malarkey, but doesn’t cry to those songs

• Just sits in silence with a cigarette between his fingers, staring into the nothingness while thinking about his time with Easy

• “Feels like a movie” - songs were made for him

• When he listens to Elton John or Billy Joel you know he’s in a happy mood

• Is also the anonymous person Winter argues with online about Lana

• DickDelRay101 replied: Are you clinically insane? How could you deny it’s her best album? Did you even listen to it?

• Absolutely knows that it’s Winters and accidentally called him Sir when he replied (several times)

{Joe Liebgott}

• Hear. Me. Out. He’s a pop punk & grunge boy all the way

• Has a big collection of thrifted vinyls (if you can’t find him, search at the next thrift market)

• Puts on Nirvana or the Offspring and just lays on his bed while smoking a whole pack of cigarettes

• Room full of ripped band posters and at least one guitar (but can’t play, although he says he can)

• 10/10 would’ve lived in a skatepark in another life

• Also really into Old school HipHop, loves the Beastie Boys

• Accidentally went to a New Kids on the Block concert once. Said he hated it but stayed until the very last minute.

{David Webster}

• Would also listen to classical music

• But it would just be for people to think he’s very intellectual, actually can’t stand it

• In reality really into slow and soft love songs

• Listens to Vera Lynn on a daily basis and happily admits that he cries to her songs. Always speaks of “Our Vera.”

• When he listens to “There’ll always be an England” he suddenly gets an English accent.

• The Fleetwoods is his favorite band

• Tries to listen to Pop Punk because he knows Joe loves it, but he absolutely hates it

• “There’s no emotion Joe!!”

• “For fucks sake, Web, there’s all the goddamn emotion!!?!!”

{Bull Randleman}

• Hard Rock, can’t say more

• Also 100% certified Dad music. He’s the one who visits Nixon once a week to play poker and smoke cigars while listening to his records

• Is the guy at a concert who will accidentally throw you to the ground while in a mosh pit

• But will absolutely make everyone stop so he can pick you up again

———

Link to the Ronald Speirs playlist:

Link to my profile - the other playlists are on there (still updating them regularly):

[shadowqnights]

could you tell us about your mcd anastasia thoughts? i am intrigued

ANKA DON'T TEMPT ME. god where to start. i am trying to keep this short and simple cause my thoughts are a huuuge jumble rn .. also as a disclaimer it has been years since i Saw anastasia on broadway so i am going off soundtrack and memory alone..

very generally erhh lots of people i feel have made the connection of aphmau to anya, an amnesiac's journey to find and reclaim a lost identity while the idea of being a very famous well-regarded figure looms over their head. though more of a headcanon in aph's case, i always love the idea of her having small memories and deja vu to cling to. once upon a december is an easy song for them but also in my dreams and crossing a bridge constantly makes me think of aph - that she is also longing for someone to know her. but i feel a little bit insane thinking about how anya kind of goes out With the intention of knowing about her family, wanting to understand her identity and her dreams. mcd's story isn't spurred early on by the question of aphmau being irene or not, and her quest isn't to go out and Find the origin of her lost memories to see if she has a family somewhere. she isn't pulled By an identity constantly hanging over her head until its revealed to her and it takes her. she doesn't follow a path to know her family/past identity specifically, it unweaves as these other pieces fall into place. there are points in both of their stories that provide this closure and reclaim those identities, but in anya's case it offers her the ability to now forge her own identity as separate from the idea of anastasia - the idea of 'anastasia' is as much of this constantly elusive concept as an actual identity to me, and when anya comes to terms with this she is able to let go and pursue dmitry. she isn't renamed, she isn't forced to re-adopt her title, she is still anya but with the clarity of the truth, her family & her love. she thinks she wants to join the empress and reclaim her title, but realises that she can still refind the love of family and still be Her, the her that fell in love with dmitry and met all of these people and made these friends. irene herself also become something of a caricature of her original self through deification, and we know that through this has become heavily idealised. but aph finally finding out / realising that she's irene forcefully assimilates her into the public perception of her deification, something that she doesn't even want to reclaim. by all means, understanding her past/origin should now grant her the clarity of pursuing things like love, which we know she rejects for reasons of responsibility and duty (which i'm gonna come back to later because i feel sick), but it only gradually melts the expectations of something that has existed as a concept for So long into her own identity. and much of this is struggled with, she fights against it, and it does seem for a while that aphmau is determined to forge her own identity despite the pressures and expectations of the people around her who now simply consider her as irene, we know that in the end she loses nonetheless because of mystreet, where mcd aphmau has finally become that universe's irene through sacrifice. we know that she makes an effort to resist but ultimately fails, unable to redefine herself in the end. something something cycle of suffering and sacrifice idk. i think its interesting. by all means aph should have had the ending that the musical offers anya - finally knowing and reconnecting with the truth, but not being defined by it, getting to pursue love. by all means she might deserve to abandon her sense of responsibility and choose garroth or laurance in the end if that's your jam but ultimately can't. anya expresses her worries about life as a princess and is reassured that even if she doesn't reclaim the concept of 'anastasia', she and the empress are still reunited and she is still loved as herself. to me irene is the equivalent of the concept of the princess - the rumours, the whispers, this idealised mystery, an unclaimed identity that finally gets put to rest - rather than the empress herself. and aphmau never Gets to put irene to rest. that part of her identity never finds peace.

right now also very insane about quartet at the ballet - with aph as anya, i know that laurmau likers would hc dmitry as laur which i agree with but i'm putting him aside because ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gleb time. i'm trying to think of what to say because my thoughts are a very angry jumble of [GHRHGRHGRHGHRHGHRHGRRGRRRG] and its hard to put them to words. erm. garroth. there's a part of me that could see a version of zane as gleb for religious reasons but i think personally those can work Just as well with garroth. i don't really like making a 1:1 au unless i'm really into it and the characters fit because i'm not going to shove random characters in random places that don't make sense for funsies, i'm not on a mission to recreate anastasia in mcd, i just like to think about similarities and subsequent divergencies. my anastasia au would be based on a specific version of mcd where certain characters end up in different places and make different choices to get to a point where they can Become the 1:1 in my brain. aphmau would kin anya nonetheless, i think, and laurance and dmitry have so much in common that i kind of have to let the laurmau likers have a win. i think that in a certain au where garroth does Not end up in phoenix drop, he would take up gleb's role. thus fulfilling a vague 'love triangle' vibe but no not like that more like they are both incredibly fascinated with her but gleb is obsessed with a very idealised form of who he Thinks she is where dmitry very plainly falls in love with her as a girl despite his Initial fascination with the myth. thus fulfilling their brief duet in quartet at the ballet, agonising over her but they are both seeing different Parts of her. i have a lot to say about it but i feel like i'm going insane ghugrhgrhgrghhrhgrg. ok.

o'khasis!garroth, specifically in the case of going to the guard academy, returning to take up the mantle of the jury of nine [cough cough be a general]. drawing from the religious notes of mcd with garroth's faith translated to utter obsession with, again, this idealised concept. gleb's obsession with 'anastasia' [again, the idea] REEKS of o'khasis garroth who is witness/present to his father's atrocities and bears them as duty, but ultimately cannot bear that same shame and follow through. gleb's Constant conflict between duty and heart - his fascinations with anya herself, as a person, vs the violent obsession with this elusive 'anastasia' as a part of his father's legacy. the ability to point the gun, but can't pull the trigger. the sense of responsibility and morality at constant war because he recognises her both as human, a young girl, and that concept. and in the end he can't entirely dehumanise her enough to spill blood. she is a part of Duty, she's just a trembling young girl, she is a form of Closure, she is loveable. he is confronted with a very human anastasia, not a myth or legend or obsessive fantasy, but a Young Girl. garroth ro'meave eats that shit UP, in his current form he would less, but a garroth at the right-hand of his father, growing up to bear his legacy of blood and shame and Fulfill his command, at the head of the jury. he loves his country:) he loves his military capital city-state:) he has a duty to the people and to his father, dead of shame:). the children and their voices and how a man has to make painful choices huh. oh, he would. the neva flows/still + reprise is all him. i feel sickened.

i think i have more thoughts but i talked so much i am so sorry errrrrr woe thoughts be upon you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

[crystallizsch]

hi ian i come bearing angst fuel for the yuusha as twsted elsa (maybe an idea for her possible overblot idk she kinda reads to me as someone whod preemptively isolate in the case she feels...blotty)

(also seeing that art of her playing violin totally didnt fuck me up im still nursing my bruised heart 🥴🥴💕💕)

https://youtu.be/NDldNaEZTt8?si=Wm71pgTltuJLjFvk

^^this is from the frozen musical where they gave a song to elsa to explore her emotional turmoil and it just fleshed out her character so much more than the orig movie (ok i havent seen frozen 2 oops) but just this section here:

Is everyone in danger as long as I'm alive?

Was I a monster from the start?

How did I end up with this frozen heart?

Bringing destruction to the stage

Caught in a war that I was never meant to wage

anyways lmao i jus think the song is neat i think yuushas neat (i wanna see more of her ahehehe i love seeing infodumps abt ur yuus)

-diodellet

(throwback to this “what if yuu had magic” ask where i had a ✨realization✨ and this more recent yuusha lore drop that i gave zero elaboration on 🙃)

very rough ob yuu design??? idk i came up with it on the spot ;;; and it’s kinda based on disney’s concept art of elsa when she was supposed to be the villain.

evil ice queen vibes :3

also i know the ob monster is supposed to be based on the villain— which is elsa in this case— but lowkey. an ice monster is way cooler.

also also i just realized after i drew this i couldve done a grim/yuu tandem overblot ough 🤧🤧 (next time I'll do that instead if i ever go back to this concept)

(read more below because it got SO long)

AAH anyways hi hi dio!!! when i saw your ask i went —

— with this entire post

AAGH HOW MANY MORE UNINTENTIONAL CONNECTIONS ARE GOING TO BE BETWEEN FROZEN AND YUUSHA

i guess watching the movie everyday when it came out when you’re like 9 does something to your brain chemistry (and still haunts you at least a decade later) 💀

but anyways the angst ;;; overblot yuu ;;;;; my brain is rotting and the worms have taken over

also i didn’t even know that there was a frozen broadway musical so im gonna have to check it out later 🏃💨💨💨

(also dont worry frozen 2 is a nice watch for the most part but the way they concluded the characters did not feel 100% satisfying to me 😭 BUT i love some of the songs tho ;;; kristoff’s goofy 80s ballad song is one of them specifically, i need everyone to listen to it)

hfgnnfhfgv anyways thank you so much i’m chugging that angst fuel as i expand more on a possible ob yuusha with another infodump 💪💪💪

⚠️⚠️⚠️ ALSO IM SORRY BUT mentions of taking one’s own life so please proceed with caution ⚠️⚠️⚠️

i had to reread what my initial thoughts about it bc it was months ago??? and after rereading im just like, huh what was i on— (just that feeling when you just cringe at your old posts ;; but idk i think the insanity/cringe sometimes can loop back into being a genius and the cycle just continues)

anyways i’ve been on and off writing yuusha’s bio and overblot yuu was just at the back of my mind chilling but i didn’t really do anything with it.

but now that i have the opportunity,,,, im gonna go on the magicless route this time bc i feel like I've said all what i thought if it was an overblot due to her own magic.

so uh from what i gather overblots are a mix of overuse of magic + intense negative emotion.

since it’s magicless yuu, i guess the one of the general headcanons around the fandom is that they’ve been too exposed to overblots and then intense negative emotions suddenly just triggered their overblot.

uh anyways onto the elsa parts

Is everyone in danger as long as I'm alive? Was I a monster from the start? How did I end up with this frozen heart? Bringing destruction to the stage Caught in a war that I was never meant to wage

THE LYRICS ARE SO GOOD ;;; i really love how some broadway interpretations expand on the source material

and yeah you're right 🤧🤧🤧— yuusha would try to hide and escape, especially as she overblots bc she would try to avoid hurting people (and like elsa, it'd only hurt others more trying to escape bc of probably how she leaves destruction in her wake trying to make others stay away from her 😔)

(this is a small tangent but i remember thinking about an overblot kalim and i imagine him to be similar, like he would not hurt anyone intentionally in his overblot.)

anyways so the way it would go is that i imagine her friends got fatally injured either because a) she feels that she’s too “useless” without magic to help and wasn’t able to do anything OR b) her attempts at helping to try and prove that she can help without magic made everything worse.

and then she just goes into a guilty spiral then boom — overblot.

ALSO in the song, the way elsa briefly contemplated taking her own life but then realizing there’s no guarantee that would solve anything hnghgh (<- another unintentional parallel to my yuusha lore because that’s actually how she ended up in twst except she did NOT have the latter realization)

there’s this “yuu is dead” theory i’m just using and that the black carriage actually just caught yuusha’s soul after she took her own life from all the burden.

also some bonus angst context for that violin post :3

yuusha back in her homeworld is raised and known to be a gifted musician. people can feel the life and soul in her music but when people interact with her, they are usually met with an ice-cold (heh) personality.

the dead family member was the one who taught her music and the only one who was kind to her.

there’s always an expectation from her family to perform well and to keep up appearances as to not be a humiliation since anything she does can reflect on her entire family. (also hi, slight yuusha/jamil parallels maybe???)

the way she presents herself also stemmed from an incident as a child when she went apeshit on another kid bc she was defending a friend.

so from then on she was taught taught to conceal don’t feel those emotions — which just unfortunately extended to any positive ones, not just negative ones like rage.

so when she is brought to twst, there’s no memory of her being forced to hold back her emotions so she’s just unapologetically affectionate and open with everyone bc that’s how she really is.

but every now and then, memories of her breaking down haunt her in her dreams or as subtle reminders in the waking world.

then yuusha just goes on her day like she just wasn't reminded of her past.

(unnecessarily tragic lore my beloved, but anyway—)

another extremely brief tangent and bonus -> the two songs i had on loop while drawing pre-twst yuusha

lindsey stirling my beloved i love her music

the songs are such a vibe

her instrumentals in “lose you now” especially makes me feel some sort of way 😖

[miss-tribulationperiwinkle]

Why I Hate Suffs.

Spoiler alert, but in the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”, Kat Stratford reads a poem in front of her class in which she mentions all the reasons why she hates a guy and at the end she says “But mostly, I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” And, well, that’s exactly why I hate Suffs.

I really tried hating Suffs. I live on the opposite side of the continent from the Music Box Theater. On the side where we consider ourselves “Americans” just by living on this land, even if we don’t live in the wealthiest country and where Christmas is spent wearing shorts and eating by the pool. Because of that, seeing Suffs this year was not an option for me. I love musical theater with every part of my being, but I’ve learnt that I have to ignore certain shows if I don’t want to spend months being sad because I can’t see them.

The problem was that I knew I was going to like Suffs, even if just a little. So my plan was to hate it instead. I believed every lie I read on the Internet about it that would help me with it. I ignored the cast album even when Spotify thought I should try listening to it. I didn’t even check the reviews when they came out because what would I do if they were good? 

Everything was going perfectly, I convinced myself that Suffs was the worst show on Broadway, the kind that deserves bad reviews and empty seats. But then, I watched the Tony awards and I saw Shaina Taub win her second Tony of the night and curiosity got to me. The following day, I listened to the Cast Album for the first time. 

Now, because I don’t live near Broadway, most of the knowledge I’ve gotten about shows comes from listening to cast albums. I’m one of those people who believe that music and lyrics are one of the most important parts of a musical. If they aren’t good, I don’t care if you put the Empire State Building on stage, I will not like the show. If you don’t make me feel something through words and sound, you won’t get my attention. 

The first song I listened to was “Let Mother Vote” and it got my attention. Then everything else came and I just knew I was screwed. There was no way I was going to hate that musical after listening to the full album. It was smart, it had different styles, and it spoke to me in a unique way. Now, I wish everyone was willing to listen to it speak to them.

Suffs doesn’t tell my story, it doesn’t even tell the story of my ancestors. But even so, it fills my body with an array of emotions and my eyes with tears every time I listen to it. It would have been great if it had been a boring, educational show about politics. I would have been able to hate it. But the thing is that it’s so much more than that. 

It’s a show that made me realize that women are not powerless like some people make us think we are. It’s convenient for them that we buy that lie, but it’s simply not true and Suffs proves it by showing the achievements of women who were deemed insane just because they wanted to be heard and seen. Women who not only believed in themselves, but also in collective power. They believed in having each other’s backs when the world turned theirs to them. Suffs showed me that we don’t have to be the same person, or think alike, to be able to fight for what is right. It showed me that even when we think we are alone, a woman next to us will hold up the sign and march with us. Women are powerful, especially when we are united. Especially when we decide to show the world that we are. 

I wish I’d been able to hate Suffs. If I had, I wouldn’t have cried on Friday learning the news that the show will be closing in January. I wouldn’t be so mad at people who believed lies and built their opinions on nothing and won’t give it a chance when it’s such a relevant show -even if that was my original plan. I wish I could yell in their faces and ask them to pay attention, because if there’s a musical that needs to be seen and heard by everyone, it’s this one. 

I recently saw a video of their cast album presentation and I cried seeing women from different generations there. That’s what Suffs is to me, a musical that’s not about being a certain age or from a certain historical time or from a specific country, it’s about being a woman. We know what that’s about, we know it’s not easy, but we are powerful, we are not alone and we have to keep marching for the ones that came before and the ones that will come, we can do it. I just love Suffs.

[legendary-defender-of-fandoms]

My (barely) Coherent Thoughts After Seeing Beetlejuice Live

Yes, I saw the show three times. Yes, I think I bought one of everything at the souvenir stand (and what I didn’t buy I either already owned or will add to my Christmas list). Yes, I know I have a problem. No, I don’t intend to do anything about it.

About five minutes into the show I decided that yes, if they ever stage a production on the West End (basically the Broadway of London, England), I WILL go to see it! And if Alex is invited back & says yes, I’ll book the next flight across the pond!

EVERYONE in the cast was amazing! From the leads to the supporting characters to the ensemble to the swings (a few subbed in for the last show) - they all gave incredible performances, and made every show the best.

Fun details you miss in a boot or just listening to the cast recording - on the backdrop for the opening scene, the hill in the cemetery is heavily based on Jack’s Hill in Nightmare Before Christmas. There are also two headstones with legible writing on the hill. One says “Van Dort” as a reference to Corpse Bride, and the other says Jane with a long name I couldn’t make out because my eyes suck & I got distracted by a group of mourners crossing the stage with an extra pair of feet.

I say this with the utmost respect & affection - every character in Beetlejuice is a certifiable weirdo! Charles LOOKS like the most normal character, but even he’s quirky & bizarre with his matter-of-fact “I’m very good at sex.” He’s awesome because he can play the straight man to the Deans & Otho and be funny with Delia, Lydia, Beetlejuice and the Maitlands. But everyone from the guy whose name is on the marquee to Maxine Dean is a strange & unusual person, and I am HERE FOR IT!

Things Beetlejuice would have to do to make me say “Yes” before he even finishes asking include: sit on my lap with his face inches from mine & his thighs balanced on mine so he can kick his feet in the air like a teenage girl, walk over to me with his silly little jaunty walk, wear either his full wedding attire or his Cowboy attire, just pop into existence when I say his name 3 times, etc.

The show really is part musical, part magic show. There’s a lot of sleight of hand & misdirection. I was starting to wonder how Justin even fits his arms into the sleeves of his costumes with all the crazy stuff they had hidden inside! Most of the tricks had to be modified from the Broadway version, like being stabbed by bad art, but they’re still impressive.

It should be illegal for anyone to look good in a decrepit red suit that looks like it just got Carrie’d, and yet.

It’s insane how folks can be handed nearly-identical scripts & songs for the same character, and yet come up with vastly different interpretations.

I don’t know what else I can say. I laughed, I cried, I stuck around at the stage door partially to get Justin’s autograph (which I did, the guy’s so nice & patient), partially to let traffic die down before getting stuck in a hot sticky parking garage for 20 minutes, mostly because my legs wouldn’t stop trembling after what can only be described as my first religious experience.

[pardonmydelays]

top 5 musical theatre performers?... and you can't choose lin

i love this question so much! & i'm so happy you said no lin because it's a great opportunity for me to talk about the others! this will be probably chaotic (surprise, surprise) & i will drop clips to prove my point:

PHILLIPA SOO

i don't think any words could describe how i feel about her... the most incredible voice i've ever heard. i would literally die for her, i'm being serious right now. she is one of the reasons i think the off broadway cast album of the great comet is better than the obc one (unpopular opinion maybe but oh well she is MY natasha). i would never be tired of listening to her, she is so precious to me istg. one of my favourite videos is, of course, phillipa singing no one else from tgc (ha! i know you were expecting hamilton! no way, you are getting this one instead):

JORDAN FISHER

i know a lot of people wouldn't agree with me, but i actually think he is incredibly talented. he has a great voice & damn, he can act! i kinda lost my mind when i saw his first pictures as orpheus in hadestown, i also recommend to watch all the clips with him (especially wait for me, my personal favourite), but what i really want to show you is this video of jordan singing waving through a window from dear evan hansen (the fact that he is not only singing the song but also acting here, i couldn't love him any more, he also has the most adorable smile but it's not that important or is it?):

JOSH GROBAN

his voice... for the love of god... i am kinda crazy about him. amazing as sweeney todd, yes, true, but most of you probably know already i am absolutely fucking insane about pierre bezukhov the biggest fucking loser oh god i love him so much (a little disclaimer: i usually listen to the off broadway version of tgc, yes, but i do have playlists with all pierre's song so josh groban is there as well), so it's probably not surprising that i am giving you this today (dust and ashes is, in my opinion, one of the best musical songs ever written):

EVA NOBLEZADA

ngl, i fell in love with her immediately while listening to hadestown for the first time. she is just aaaaaamazing, that girl can sing & definitely can act. also, she is so incredibly beautiful i can't even (i may have a little crush on her). i am always getting super emotional when i watch her, so i want you all to feel the same, watch this video of her & reeve carney singing all i've ever known:

AMBER GRAY

dear fucking god what a voice. first of all, she is definitely my favourite persephone, i mean come on. i am also fucking obsessed with the song charming from tgc which is not surprising to anyone probably. i also found an audio of her singing starchild from ghost quartet & my head exploded (i don't know where it is now but believe me, it exists... somewhere). but this is what you get today:

[fuckmywholeactuallife]

just saw Here Lies Love on Broadway and I have…complicated feelings about it?

One one hand. There was an insane euphoria of seeing a 100% Filipino cast. Playing Filipino people, too! Not just…oh we have a Vietnamese/Japanese/Chinese character, let’s cast a Filipino bc they’re the only Asians whose parents let them go into theater. And as a fil-am actor, that was very cool!

On the other hand of course is uh. Um. Imelda Marcos is still…very much alive. And the Marcos family is still very much influencing the government of the Philippines. And making her into an Evita story isn’t even accurate? Plus, the music/lyrics were written by two white (British!) guys and it shows.

HOWEVER I will say the production design is a huge part of the messaging of the show. HUGE. while the marcos are saying one thing, the projections and video screens are very much showing another. Death tolls, statistics about their wealth, their cronyism, archival footage comparing the Marcos’ wealth to the average Filipino standard of living, images of the people power revolution, etc etc.

Plus the acoustic song at the end which was composed of real text from revolutionaries contrasted so well with the huge bombastic disco style of the rest of the musical. Idk how to explain it exactly but it really felt like for the past 90 minutes of the show we DID get swept up in the Marcos propaganda machine. The dancing and the lights and the moving set pieces— the whole thing was designed to (imo) really get you caught up in the glamour of it all in the same way fascism promises you big things! things they way YOU want them! And before you’re really aware of it, you are dancing next to war criminals. The end song and the mural reveal felt very tonally different than the rest of the show.

However, I just…think there wasn’t enough THERE there, iykwim. The actual summary of the politics and events is minimal at best, if not outright fabricating some things (she did NOT grow up poor??? Her literal WIKIPEDIA says so. you wrote a whole musical and didn’t do your research??), they really toned down Imelda’s actual role as a dictator, shoving most of that responsibility off on her husband, like she didn’t run the country into the ground all on her own while he was ill, and seriously minimizes how corrupt and evil she was all on her own.

To me, Here Lies Love felt a lot like another Miss Saigon in that it took a huge historical event that devastated thousands of people and still has repercussions to this DAY, and made it sweet and palatable to a western audience. Then slapped a little “fascism bad, defend democracy uwu” moral on at the end. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[tending-the-hearth]

OMG, I just saw Wicked a few hours ago! A big thing I love about it is that it’s being split into two parts. It does wonders for the pacing, and ‘Defying Gravity’ makes such a good finale!

I also enjoyed the little detail in the play slapped into the middle of’One Short Day’. At first I was annoyed and thought it was pointless padding/ exposition, but then I realized- the two leading ladies in the play are Elphaba and Glinda’s broadway actors! That made me giddy.

I even got a Glinda popcorn bucket and an Elphaba drinking cup. What am I meant to do with those? 🤣

i was quite honestly in absolute SHOCK when the movie finished. it was quite possibly one of the best movies i've ever seen, and hands DOWN the best musical to movie adaptation. when the movie was over, it felt like i had just watched act 1 of wicked on a broadway stage. i was shaking, that's how good cynthia's "defying gravity" was and how good the movie as a whole was.

i was honestly a little disappointed when they first announced that it would be two parts, because i hate when that happens, but after watching part one, it just makes so SO much sense. if it was just one part, we would be missing so much, there would probably be cut songs, we wouldn't get as much development as the characters deserve!

and i've seen the show on broadway a few times, and when i tell you literally every moment from the broadway musical was in part one???? they literally left NOTHING out of it, which is so insane. i know it's kind of cliche to say, but you can so completely tell how much love and respect everyone who was part of this project has for the stage show. even in bts videos, there's no sense of "our version is the best version" it's all just "we're honoring the legacy of this iconic show" and their love for the stage show just is palpable in every single scene.

AND OH MY GOD "ONE SHORT DAY"

surprisingly i made it through the glelphie dance scene and "i'm not that girl" without crying, but with "one short day" i was on the lookout for kristin chenoweth, because i remember people saying that she had a cameo, so i was ready to just see her briefly, maybe as one of the salon ladies or something like that!

but oh, when kristin and idina came out during the play scene? i absolutely lost it crying. it was such a beautiful way to show tribute to the two women who began the legacy that is elphaba and glinda, and it was done in a way that honored them while still shining a light on ariana and cythia as the newest additions to the wicked legacy. they were absolutely hilarious (when kristin's wand didn't work, i was cackling), i loved that idina did the "defying gravity" riff (which, ofc she did bc she's iconic), and their little moments with ariana and cynthia just made me sob (the hat tilt 😭😭😭 the iconic hat tilt that glinda does in "for good" 😭😭😭)

and i also got an Elphaba popcorn bucket!!! i don't usually get the movie-specific buckets (the last one i think i got was a cats 2019 popcorn bucket, which ironically was the last movie musical i genuinely enjoyed), but i just had to get an Elphaba one!!!

[hetchdrive]

SLEEPOVER SATURDAY YAYYYY I have 2.

1. Because I’m still stuck in fucking Texas, top 3 best US states

2. Top potential AU’s for The Terror

Oh noooooo wishing you a speedy departure tomorrow!

I've lived a lot of places and done a lot of road tripping and without further details on which to define "best" I'm going to go with the three states I feel the most personal connection to and say Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan. I love Lake Superior, I grew up in that area and sometimes I am very homesick for it. I've been trying to develop the same feeling of connection to the landscape in New England since transplanting and I'm not going to lie, it is rough going. I keep saying I am going to try to get into hiking and rock identification so I can see the mountains and maybe 2024 is the year I buckle down and do that.

First off: Star Trek AU obviously. I'm really bad at coming up with plots and writing long fics but I am beginning to take notes for a Star Trek AU in case the Terror SciFi Fest happens again this upcoming May.

Secondly: Ghosts/spiritualism/haunted house AU. While I do enjoy a good modern AU from time to time, to me part of the draw of The Terror is the time period it is set. I am fascinated by the Victorian era, the advances in medicine during the time period, the rise in popularity of ghosts and ghost stories, and I think I'd get a lot of enjoyment out of researching to write an AU that takes advantage of this somehow.

Also, I am obsessed with haunted houses as they are used to represent familial trauma, codependence, grief and loneliness, etc etc, and I think it would be fun to take Crozier out of The Horrors only to put him into a different flavor of The Horrors <3

Lastly: Musicians/orchestra AU. Gonna be honest, I do not have any of the requisite knowledge to write this and it does not interest me enough to do this research. I want somebody else to write this so I can read it. However, I saw a post once that was the show writer going through and saying what each character's job would be if they lived in the modern day and what he said about Fitzjames was that he'd be a surgeon or somebody else with very specialized knowledge, someone who is the best at something. And while yeah, a specialist surgeon is this, and specialist surgeons are, in my experience, divas with complexes, for reasons of personal taste (dislike of the medical field irl and preference for show contemporary AUs over modern ones) I think it would be more interesting to just skip over the medical layer and make Fitzjames a diva with a complex.

This man plays the violin and he is the best at it and he and Crozier cannot stand each other because Crozier has been playing longer, does not care about the limelight, and actively scorns Fitzjames for doing so. I just have this idea in my head of Fitzjames saying to someone else that Crozier plays a perfectly serviceable, workmanlike violin, but he obviously doesn't truly care for it, he doesn't play with any passion, and Fitzjames who has been doing this his whole life and made it his whole life, the only thing he's ever been good at that he's had to hang all his hopes on, finds that intolerable. Meanwhile Crozier cares about the violin very deeply but doesn't really show it to anybody and keeps to himself because loving music and loving your coworkers are two different things.

Additional inspiration for this idea is the fact that when Phantom of the Opera shut down on Broadway a couple months ago (last year? What is the passage of time...) I saw a news article about it which said some of the people in the orchestra had been playing the show together since it started running in 1986. The drama within that pit must have been insane and I desperately want to read about it.

[pop-pop-pop-popculture]

Can you please review the Wicked OBC show and share the link?!

WICKED on Broadway Review (2003)

I'm going to try and leave off quotes and lyrics that I really liked...

Idina Menzel is my Elphaba Thropp and I love her

Great first impression of our Green Girl™

The transition into the songs was smooth

"What's in this punch?" // "Lemons, and melons, and pears." // "Oh my."

Norbert played the himbo trope so well

Fiyero's entrance was a great first impression, and I would not expect anything less

Madame Morrible gushing over Nessarose and then subtly being startled by Elphaba's appearance

The way Fiyero went from being in love with G(a)linda to, instead, being in love with Elphaba was sweet

Speaking of Fiyero and Elphaba, the chemistry between Norbert and Idina felt genuine, thus, making the romance and feelings between their characters believable. The storyline between them was written well and didn't feel rushed or forced. #TeamWhateverTheShipNameForElphabaAndFiyeroIs

Elphaba telling Doctor Dillamond "...I have no friends." I'll be your friend! 🥺

The Wizard sounded less cruel in the musical than the novel, so I was on the fence about liking him or disliking him

Speaking of The Wizard, I loved Joel's portrayal of him. He was quite the charmer and honestly a little hard to not like.

So we all hate Madame Morrible, right??

“I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow." -Fiyero Tigelaar in a nutshell

I love how protective Fiyero eventually became of Elphaba (same, Fiyero, same)

Fiyero panicking after hearing someone say how to possibly k*ll Elphaba

"I can't stand here grinning, pretending to go along with all of this!" He was genuinely worried about his green, soon-to-be girlfriend.

ANIMALS SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD .. Ouch.

The train station part

"Fiyero, do you think I like hearing them say all these things about her?!" She still loves Elphaba deep down but can't vocalize it; however, there were a few times she tried to defend her.

Fiyero calling G(a)linda out on her bullsh*t: "You can't leave because you can't resist this, and that's the truth."

G(A)LINDA TOLD MADAME MORRIBLE AND THE WIZARD TO KILL NESSAROSE!!!! Well... use her as bait to capture Elphaba. This was done out of pure jealousy due to Fiyero confessing his feelings for Elphaba and running away with her.

(previous bullet point) Morrible: "We must now force her to show herself." // The Wizard: "How?" // Galinda: "Her sister." // Morrible: "What? What did she say?" // Galinda: "Use her sister. Spread a rumor, make her think her sister is in trouble..."

I loved the attitude and how dramatic Elphaba was over a pair of shoes. To be fair, though, they did belong to her sister. They were the last thing she had to remember her.

Regarding the previous bullet point, I love how Idina raised her pitch a few times towards the end of the musical, which began around her argument with Glinda shortly after Nessarose's death. For those who saw the musical, the argument begins after Elphaba asks to be alone with her (now dead) sister. Anyways, it sounded like she was paying a homage to Margaret Hamilton from the 1939 film by doing that.

The Wizard cutting Elphaba off just as she was about to tell him what happened to Doctor Dillamond by saying he knows why she's there and that she first must "prove" herself. He's a manipulative charmer.

So.. in the novel (and based on this), Elphaba went insane, like, mentally unstable kind of insane to the point of having at least one, full-blown mental breakdown. That being said, going back to the musical, I could hear the insanity in Idina's tone post-Nessarose's death (well done, Queen!); however, I wish there was more dialogue and "scenes" added to really emphasize Elphaba's mental instability. I mean.. our Green Girl™ went through a lot of shit (for a lack of better words) and most everyone hated her! And so, I wish we actually got to see how all of that took a mental toll on her to the point of having a full-blown mental breakdown.

Some of the songs felt rushed as well as lacked emotion too. I won't list out which ones, but that's just my opinion. For the songs that are my favorite, I like how the cast sounded in the album recording instead of on stage.

Since the quality was low, I couldn't hear too well...

The lion cub part. This is when a spark ignited in Elphaba and Fiyero's hearts.

Elphaba coming to Doctor Dillamond's defense after G(a)linda vocalized her anger of him accidentally mispronouncing her name for the second time

Elphaba's attempt at dancing. She tried, and that's what matters most.

I love how she immediately yanked the hat off once people began laughing at her and then, eventually, put it back on to start dancing

G(a)linda felt bad for purposely humiliating Elphaba, especially after Madame Morrible told her that Elphaba was the one who told her to give G(a)linda the training wand as a way to repay her for telling Boq to ask her sister to the dance

"For Good" is a beautiful song, and I love how Kristin and Idina sounded together. However, I just don't really buy the song, though, and here is why: Both mentally and emotionally, Elphaba was in a bad place. She was grieving over the loss of her sister and Fiyero, who was taken away by Oz guards to get tortured because he had a weapon on him and threatened to kill G(a)linda. To make things even worse, Elphaba was hated by everyone, and that's all thanks to The Wizard and Madame Morrible. Those are just a few things... . I'm sure some of you will argue that G(a)linda tried to comfort her (in secret since she was a "public figure"), and she did, but only once. Even during that one time, which was after they met up at the spot her sister was killed, the attempt at comforting Elphaba immediately turned into an argument, so I wouldn't really count that.

*This is just my opinion, though!*

I liked Doctor Dillamond, but I didn't care enough about him to the point of being sad about what happened to him. In the book, he was killed by a creature under Madame Morrible's orders...

Not G(a)linda calling Elphaba an "artichoke", lmao

The big hat at the beginning. That was so cool, and clever!

The ending!!!! Fiyero ran back on the stage and then knocked on the ground. After a few seconds, Elphaba opened the tile and he helped her out. My babies got their happy ending. 🥹❤️

Despite the crappy quality, I still enjoyed watching this, and I am beyond grateful for that person uploading a full bootleg performance. So.. thank you, kind stranger!

I'll probably end up reblogging this and adding more things that I liked, but for now, these moments stuck out to me the most.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Dead City, Ep 4: Everyone Gets a Prize - Analysis

@wdway

I'm hoping that this is a way that they would set up Maggie having a flashback. Maybe a scene of Beth on the other side of the doorway talking to her Maggie from s4. A new scene build on what we did see that would be great.

The other thing that stood out to me and I'm not giving anything away on the storyline but the showrunners comments at the end of episode, it really caught my attention because he compared something that happened in the episode a scene in Les Miserables. I never read the book, but the broadway musical play is my all-time favorite, so I really caught that remark. I thought what a strange connection he's making to a very famous book and musical plat about the French Revolution.

@galadrieljones

I never really watch the commentary after the show unless you guys say I should (I know I know I should lol) so I’d be interested to know the comparison to Les Mis!!!! I love Les Mis. There is I guess kind of a Fantine/Cosette thing going with Maggie and Ginny and ofc Negan could be compared to Jean Valjean, the ex-con who is still being pursued by moral purist Javert (re: Armstrong). Great catch with the French comparison

Also I have similar hopes re: flashbacks but more so with Daryl’s spin-off. Idk how they will skirt the Beth issue if they do flashbacks. I think a lot of ppl would notice if they did.

@wdway

He compared the scene between Negan and Armstrong with Jean Valjean saving Javert. The comparison was that the hunted saved the hunter.

@galadrieljones

I never thought of Negan as a Jean Valjean character, but I love it.

@wdway

Neither had I, but I still think that the comparison to Les Miserables is a bit pushing it. I think it was more about just putting that in the minds of the viewers.

@galadrieljones

Okay so it's not a spoiler so I will just share my google results. It was really kind of weird like it made me blink multiple times rapidly and lean so close to the computer I almost bumped it with my nose lol. This is what I saw:

NAFC, the way it's stylized, looks like it's some sort of fighting guild.

I was fully prepared for NAFC to not be real btw, and it's not. But I wasn't prepared for the first and only real hit for what NAFC means irl

It's not so much what it is, but WHERE

It's literally located AT King Street Station, on the DC Metrorail, which begins in Alexandria, VA

Idk if you guys remember my insane rant about the DC Metrorail, which was actually the rant that got @twdmusicboxmystery to invite me into your group chat

I surmised after Acheron 1, due to Negan's subway directions, that they probably ed the DC metrorail subway at the King Street Station in Alexandria. Negan's subway directions took them toward the Shady Grove stop, which is a terminus: “Yellow Line North. Switch to Blue at Reagan National, then hop the Red toward Bethesda.” Anyway, this is a wild callback to Acheron Pt. 1 and 2, which largely take place in the DC underground. With Maggie and her group now ing the NYC subway, I can't help but think this is on purpose.

Anyway, this isn't a Bethyl thing. But it's just like, for me, confirmation that they are ABSOLUTELY hiding clues in the real world.

They are counting on certain types of fans to google stuff and find these clues, like the coordinates, which lead to the Canary Islands

This is also taking me way back to Acheron 1. One of the subway stops they pass, and Daryl shines his light conspicuously on the sign, is the "Pyron" Station:

The Shady Grove underneath means that it is the terminus for that particular line.

When I initially googled "Pyron Shady Grove" a million years ago, idk what I was expecting. Essentially, it lead me to the Shady Grove stop on the DC metro (which is real), but that word, "pyron," was bizarre. It means literally nothing. I was kind of thrown for a loop as to why they included that nothing word.

Note that if you search these keywords now, you'll first get a hit for this fictional subway station, but when I initially googled "Pyron Shady Grove," that page hadn't been created yet, so at the time, when searched together, these keywords showed very few hits. There was one, however, that I could make heads or tails of. It was a hit for a cemetery, called the "Northcutt Pyron Cemetery," which is in Acworth, Georgia.

Not three miles from this cemetery is another cemetery, called the Shady Grove Cemetery. Acworth is in Cobb County, GA. Cobb County is where the filming location was for the CDC in season 1. Further, the Shady Grove Cemetery has a church. It's called the Shady Grove Baptist Church. It looks SO familiar, but I don't think it's ever been filmed at. It's not exactly a "white church," but it has a white steeple:

ANYWAY, Idk if you remember @twdmusicboxmystery, but I spammed you with this 84 years ago in your DMs, and that's the day you invited me to this group chat. I remember it as "my audition" to be a TD theorist LOL.

At the time ultimately I was like, no I am being a conspiracy theorist, BUT, this NFCA thing has made me wonder if the writers do think about and test-run the google algorithm before they make these choices. For example, there is like a net zero change that they chose "NFCA" not knowing that the search results would turn up a certain hit.

Just like "Biomedicine." There's a net zero chance they chose "Biomedicine DMII" for the WB coda not knowing that "France Biomedicine" would turn up the Pasteur Institute.

Now, per the word "pyron." I remember talking to my husband about how the google algo works. He told me that the algo can be spammed in certain ways to promote search hits, but that this would never really work now UNLESS the search term in question is super unique, ie: "pyron," which is REALLY unique. Can it be a coincidence that there's a cemetery in Cobb County, GA with the extremely unique word "pyron" in its name? And that that said cemetery would be located so close to another cemetery with the words "Shady Grove" in its name? And that the Shady Grove Cemetery has a church with a white steeple? And that Cobb County contains multiple filming locations for TWD, including the filming location for the CDC? I mean ofc it can be a coincidence! But after Acheron, Pt. 1, I mostly stopped thinking about the cemetery coincidence because it just never came up again, UNTIL NOW, when I'm taken BACK to Acheron 1 via another real world clue related to the DC metrorail, and now I'm really starting to wonder. Are these...actual clues?

(Oh also I feel it's important to mention that the Pyron Shady Grove search can STILL be replicated to this day. Even though there is now a bunch of hits pertaining to it as a fictional location in TWDU, you can still find the hit for the cemetery on page 1 of Google)

Honestly, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that this clue is directing us back to this moment to rewatch, ie: the DC metrorail, the subway scene in Acheron 1. Maybe to google the Pyron Shady Grove sign, if we haven't already, on like a wild goose chase. Ofc I am a conspiracy theorist so...

@wdway

What struck me when I was reading is how you were talking about (Washington) DC metro rail in s11 and now you're talking about the DC subway in Dead City spin-off. Try and convince me that wasn't on purpose. Try. No, really I don't think you can convince me.

@galadrieljones

Not to mention that Acheron 1 and 2 are basically 100% Maggie/Negan tension and here we are…

@wdway

Okay, Miss Research Queen of TWDU. Here's your assignment. I've only watched the episode once, I only took one shot, I know it must mean something because Maggie all but come to a complete stop when she saw it. Let's see what magic you can do.

I have to tell you my mind went straight to some possible chapter and verse in the Bible. I have no idea what it could be. That's as far as I got.

@galadrieljones

I have not had time to look into that one yet tho it is 100% in my notes. My only initial observation was that Pennsylvania could be a reference to Rick and the CRM. I had not thought of the Bible but that is genius !

Okay I found out that LIRR Access means Long Island Railroad Access so we’re really cookin lol

Maggie really stares at this sign for a long time. I noticed that. She had a lot of interesting internal moments in this episode.

So literally it means 31st street-38th street. You can access the LIRR from Penn Station which is on 31st. I think I recall them talking about ing via “the thirties” when they were trying to decide how to get into the Croat’s sanctuary

Per your idea I also searched for Bible passages at 31:8. Everything comes up Deuteronomy 31:8 - “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

@twdmusicboxmystery

While you were both mentioning Acheron and how it was all Maggie/Negan tension, I had a thought. If those episodes foreshadowed the current Maggie/Negan story in DC (and they totally do) the that might be a hint to where Daryl is while DC is happening. In Acheron and the following episodes, he was with Leah and the Reapers. So, while Maggie and Negan are in NY, is he with Beth? The CRM? Is that why Maggie didn’t ask him along? Probably. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@galadrieljones

Yeah, I was trying to think along those same lines but I never got quite that far. Like, if this is showing us that Acheron was foreshadowing, what else from season 11 is foreshadowing? In 11a, it’s a bit inverted, as it’s Maggie being hunted, and now it’s Negan. Their relationship is also growing. It’s feeling healthier, or like there’s hope they can live side by side. Like that they no longer constantly want to kill each other.

These are inversions. In Acheron, Daryl runs off after Dog and “goes down the rabbit hole” alone. It’s worth noting that Carol isn’t even along. She’s back home, but she’s looking for someone—Connie. Daryl ends up looking a Beth imposter in the eye and then he’s abducted. He infiltrates an enemy faction and helps bring them down from the inside. Looks like in the spin-off, he may also find himself face to face with a Beth lookalike and fighting against an enemy faction.

Didn’t we hear in some leaked footage or something that the nun refers to Daryl as “the one,” or something like that? In Rendition, Pope refers to Daryl as a Chosen One. There’s a lot of parallel. Idk but it also seems weird that in both season 11 and the spin-off there’s a Beth lookalike. One is a nun, one works for a “Pope.” Will Beth actual be in some way entangled with Catholic imagery? I keep coming back to the DaVinci Code and the Louvre but it’s all to far and wide yet to find a template.

@wdway

I just want to throw out some thoughts I had while reading comments above. Acheron 1,2 is Maggie's mission that Daryl is helping her with. In RIP Maggie gives Daryl a mission to go explore for new communities.

At the end of Acheron 1, Daryl leaves Maggie and the group but tells Maggie that he'll meet up with her at the other end. Daryl leaves the group to go look for Dog (Dog=Beth?) because he heard Dog heard dog barking in the distance. He goes through an unknown space searching for Dog. I want to point out that it is at the other side of the tunnel where Daryl miraculously finds the Morningstar (Sirius/Beth?) that we hadn't seen for a long time.

Daryl and Dog fight walkers and sees a mural of how the rich uses their power over the poor but the poor rebel and bring down the rich (Commonwealth?). In this parallel tunnel/world to Maggie and group he comes across belongings of a brother and sister whose family has left them and that they go looking for (possibly the orphanage with the religious order of nuns).

Daryl and dog eventually makes their way back to Maggie and group just in time to join the fight and help save them. They all then meets the Reapers. This sequence of events are not exactly in the order that we saw them in the show, it's out of sequence, kind of like how the last scenes of RIP were.

On a fun note I've been watching the old TV series Medium. I always loved watching it back when it was airing. Guess who I saw today in an episode, a very young Kary Payton/Ezekiel.

@twdmusicboxmystery

Lol. He’s a baby!

Love your thoughts on the Acheron symbolism. Totally agree! I hadn’t gone through and figured out details, but it’s exactly the kind of thing I was thinking.

I was curious about the song that played in the background during the entire arena sequence. The lyrics are in another language, but the subtitles kept popping up with the name of the song, which made it seem important. So, I just googled it. The translation may be rough, but even so, there are definitely some fun Beth references here.

It almost has a "Struggling Man" vibe to it.

@wdway

You had me with the title, Dawn Will Cry.

@galadrieljones

Okay, also, guys I'm going to just share my general notes on "Everybody Wins a Prize" now, since I've got a bit of time! There were some interesting callbacks here, mainly, I thought, to season 4/5 and also to Glenn.

There were two death fake-outs in the episode. The first one was Hershel. The scene where they find the young boy in the chair, with Negan picking up his head, revealing it to be somebody else, and a live walker, really reminded me of the scene in Try when Daryl and Aaron find the blond walker, Daryl picks up her head, and she is NOT Beth.

Tommaso also has a death fake-out, when he's taken away by walkers and then reemerges. A lot of ppl on social media are worried that Tommaso has been bitten and that they're hiding it from us, and while I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, I'm not so sure. It reminded me more of Tyreese in the end of "Isolation," when the car headed to the Veterinary College gets overwhelmed by walkers. The group escapes, but Tyreese stays behind, seemingly consumed by the horde. He ends up escaping unscathed, however. Ofc, he does die later on. So I'm not sure what this indicates.

Maggie's harmonica story was really interesting to me. It's a music reference and reminded me of Beth.

There is a crumbled, broken clock in this episode, which is another reference to seasons 4/5, particularly "Still" and "WHAWGO"

There are major cop references in this episode. They are in a massive parking garage, and Maggie shown near multiple cop cars

There is also a Winnebago in the parking garage. It's shown two times.

It's a Winnebago "Warrior," which is a real type of Winnebago and also a song by the Dead Kennedys

Bird cage sighting

There's a major visual Glenn reference with the CD as well, which the young woman with the short hair inserts into the AV system before turning it on and leaving.

It's the same exact shot

Reference to things "going sideways." I can't remember if this is common in TWD, but it's definitely mentioned in Coda, I think by Daryl.

And we've already discussed this, but the Subway is playing a big role here, which feels like a redirect back to Acheron 1 and 2.

Also, back to the harmonica, that whole part was a bit odd. It seems to come out of nowhere, and we never get to see who's playing it. It's almost like the wolf howling in "Diverged," ie: a clear audio cue and signal toward something. Maggie has her story and clearly she's thinking of Hershel, but both times it plays, she looks very inward and a bit confused. She has a lot of these "looks" in this episode, like she's remembering or realizing something.

Speaking of Hershel, we never saw him or any reference to him in this episode. There was also no reference to him in the preview for next week's. Based on his type of arc, it seems like he is going to be forced to survive in some way. It pulls reminders of both Andrea and Beth, who at one point have death wishes, or seem unwilling to survive. But when push comes to shove, they learn they want to live. I wonder if that will happen to Hershel.

There's also another shoe/boot reference in this episode. Negan and Armstrong end up in a shoe repair shop.

There is another Kennedy reference (re: Winnebago Warrior) via the Taxi with a flat rate service to JFK airport

I think this is it for my notes.

(aside from the crazy NAFC thing)

@wdway

I have some things to add to your episode list. First I want to say there is a reference to young Herschel, it's when Maggie is remembering when Herschel was pulled away and taken.

I think all the meat is ham.

A total call back to Andrea with the governor. The girl actually reminded me of the Tales episode with the one armed girl in The Preserve. More instruments for harm or for good depending on the person using them and their intentions. For me a bright Spotlight is always a call back to the lights around Beth at Grady especially Slabtown

I red fire extinguisher.

What looks like a single candle in the dark, a reference from Daryl about Beth. But it's over on the left side that's really intriguing, because there's what appears to be a red fire pull alarm and above it we only see two lines of a sign, I think the first word is in red, AND RETURN.

You mentioned the shoe repair store did you notice this.

@galadrieljones

The candle was memorable to me too and also reminded me of Beth and the last supper. It was used as a delayed fuse for the explosive bins which ignite the methane and blow the barricades, letting the walkers into the arena. I was trying to think of other instances of this, aside from the hwatcha.

@wdway

It reminded me of the scene in RIP where they rigged the record player and the bombs and when they blew them up wasn't the record playing mentioned jfk?

@galadrieljones

Turtle?

@wdway

It definitely looks like a turtle to me. I should say a paperweight turtle, haha.

@galadrieljones

I did but I didn’t write it down!! I was overwhelmed with imagery and forgot till just now

@wdway

Not sure exactly what this says other than we can make out the year so it was purposely done this is when they were walking through the garage. Of course I obviously enlarged it.

I feel the vase near the paperweight Turtle to be interesting, it looks familiar

I was also going to say all the things that relate to jfk. The president that was shot in the head on the 22nd of November.

@wdway replied to themself

The vase looks Greek to me.

@galadrieljones

That’s what I was trying to think of! Thank you. And yes the song is “Cult of Personality” by Living Color. There’s a Kennedy ref in the song (among many references) and I think a sound clip of one of his speeches?

Also, I like your comparison of the urn to a Grecian Urn. That really stands out in a shoe repair shop. Idk if it could be a reference to the famous Keats poem Ode in a Grecian Urn which is all about the silence and yet actually shares a lot of themes with FG’s sermon in WHAWGO, ie: what lives and what is seen is temporary, but that which cannot be seen, and which exists only hypothetically or in the realm of belief (in this case, art), is eternal. I remember Keats well from college. This is his most famous Ode and contains the famous line “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”

I may be reading too much into this but there’s already apparently been a Les Miserables reference in DC and like I said earlier a shoe repair shop is an odd setting for a Grecian Urn

Also sorry for all the typos above lol. I got excited about the possibility of a Keats reference Would fit nicely with all the Frost references. Is Gimple a poetry fan?

There’s a stanza in Ode on a Grecian Urn that that references basically the eternal truth of unrealized love: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on[…] Really reminds me of FG’s sermon. This stanza reminds me of Daryl and Beth, in how they never kiss and so their love is sort of suspended between life and death. It is initiated but never realized and in this lives forever. What never lived can never die. Seems romantic, but we see how this lack of closure has ruined Daryl: Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

This stanza is specifically about love and how a lover who is never kissed or with whom love is never realized will remain forever young, and the love will never die. Once again, that which never lives, never dies. It could be about the bittersweet of a short life. Keats had tuberculosis and died very young.

(I’ll stop with the poetry now LOL. Nuns and poetry; a big day for me )

@wdway

Seriously, if TWD can drop hints using Frost references than why not Keats! It is not like they're leaving this for the general audience. And that's not a slam on them, it's just that they leave these types of things for a very few. Probably more than we realized, but still in the scheme of things a very small amount of people. I would have never thought of the poem by Keats, but together I helped to spark the thought for you and I think it's very valid. The poems beautiful and it fits Daryl memory of Beth. For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

About the strict order of the nuns. Did that not remind you of the very zealous monk dressed man on a mission from the church in the book/ movie, The DaVinci code? Certainly feels that way to me.

@galadrieljones

Good call, yeah I think his name was Silas

@wdway

Silas A tie in to TWB?

@galadrieljones

Probably on purpose! Lol. The names in WB are really on the nose in some ways: “Hope,” “Iris,” “Leo,” “Lyla” (Lie-la)

@wdway

Definitely. Iris is not only a flower but could always be the iris of the eye.

Negan's been talking an awful lot about Hope lately

@galadrieljones

Yes that’s how I see it, ie: Iris “sees.”

Good point. Remember the French doctor too in the coda. She says the phrase “hope beyond hope” twice

@wdway

Yes, and remember how I went through and compared it to the Beth's monologue and Inmates. Her speaking of hope. And those episodes were written by the same person.

@galadrieljones

Hope was staying with Dr. Ellis to continue their research. He seems to be affiliated with the French teams, somehow. Eugene references him in connection to the Human Genome Project. At the Pasteur Institude, they specifically are known for DNA sequencing new viruses and pathogens. Hope is near?

@galadrieljones

Wait which writer?

@wdway

Matthew Negrete.

@wdway

He was also the showrunner for tbw

@wdway

He and Canning Powell wrote, Inmates, Slabtown and others. He was the showrunner for TWB she the showrunner for Tales, I believe.

@galadrieljones

Right! Ty. Also wrote Indifference, Slabtown, and Consumed

Yep Powell was showrunner for Tales!

She also wrote Davon specifically

@wdway

Yes. Remember I did that long list of all of his episodes. It's been a couple of months but Liesel used it on her post so you could probably go back and find the whole thing.

It does same as if these writers communicate with each other. That there is an ultimate storyline that ties this all together. Don't tell the carylers they would never believe it, haha. I couldn't help myself.

@galadrieljones

Yeah i did a similar thing some time ago, trying to see whether there was a “cabal” of writers who know or have insight into Gimple’s “Grand Scheme.” It was like Kang, Negrete, Powell, and Cory Reid.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

I watched sweeny todd for the first time after seeing you gush about it, and I have to say the entire time I was thinking "this is pretty tame considering the premise" only for the last ten minutes to hit me like a semi.

I also listened to a few versions of the soundtrack and I think I might be in love with Sondheim. the Johanna reprise is probably my favorite even if the begger woman's bits are kinda jarring. Epiphany is a close second followed by the ballad.

*sweats, screams, cries, throws up, heart palpitates* I love that I convinced someone to watch it just by not shutting up about it lmao

First of all, what version did you watch? Did you watch the film and go listen to the ballads later, or did you watch a version of the stage show? I ask this because the film is definitely the most gruesome version of the show, and it's my favorite rendition of it (which would be much to the outrage of Broadway purists, but my justifications for my opinion would take up a long post lol). Sondheim pretty much intended to write a horror film for the stage, and the movie adaptation brought his vision to fruition in some ways. I feel like the whole show is dark without going edgy, you know what I mean? Like, it's never forced, while you have the protagonist singing a love song to his murder weapons lol

Secondly, I love "Johanna (Reprise)." I honestly think it's one of Sondheim's most underrated songs, perhaps because the Beggar Woman's parts are jarring, but people could easily take those out and make beautiful covers of the song. I love how the film version is able to juxtapose the beautiful lyrics and harmonies with blood splattering on the screen lol, but I do like Johanna's part in the stage versions of the song, too. I think "Epiphany" is probably my favorite song, if for no other reason, because of just how difficult its purpose was in the show and how brilliantly Sondheim pulled it off. Sondheim said that was the most difficult song of the show for him to write, and while I can pull out quotes from Sondheim On Music about it if you want, Sondheim also talked about (and partially performed) the song in this video starting at 39:30 if you're interested.

I love the last 10 minutes of the show. They're insane. So much happens, it has a plot twist I genuinely didn't see coming when I first saw it, and in the film version, it has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard (if you did see the film, I'm talking about when Sweeney first looks down at [redacted] and Realizes; due to the nature of film, Burton was able to make Sweeney really take his time with that moment, and the music is more drawn out than on stage, but god, the way it swells is just so fucking good).

Please feel more than free to send me more thoughts about this show dnakjdnkajdfknjks

[pep-tides]

What’s your favorite musical? (Or too 3)

ooh thank you for the ask! this is a great question! im definitely about to write an answer that is way too long

something to know about me is 1) i was big into three of the Big Four musicals about six years ago, it's not important which ones those are but unfortunately they were an important part of my formative years. Heathers is the only one i still especially care about, it's a good show! and 2) i am a big starkid/tcb fan, i've seen almost all of their stuff. that being said, my taste in musicals is incredibly basic.

my #1 favorite is probably gonna have to be Spies Are Forever, because wow it's just so good. i love the set design, the costuming, the songs, the plot... i also got to see the cabaret show they put on in 2022 and having MK Wiles (and the rest of them, except Joe Walker, sadly) thirty feet away from me was a godlike experience. i'm kind of thinking i want to watch it again just to find all the parts when the whole cast is onstage at once, because they did that whole show with EIGHT people and it's not something you notice unless you know to look for it! insane

#2 is gonna have to be Heathers, it's been in the back of my head for six years so i think i have to award it a spot here. the songs kinda never get old and it's really good fun. i'm also a sucker for Alice Lee

and #3, i'll go with The Lightning Thief! i saw this one in like 2017 (wow has it really been that long) and it was just so good. the writing holds up shockingly well, it's a solid pjo adaptation that nobody ever talks about, the songs are a lot of fun and there's a lot of humor and good character choices that just make the show so charming

honorable mentions: every other starkid show, but especially Starship, Twisted, and TGWDLM, my other favorites! and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, which is not a stage musical, it's a jukebox-musical-drama-comedy primetime NBC show, but it's got some incredible talent and i've been having a lot of fun watching it again. ALSO a good one for fellow Alice Lee fans.

there are a lot of shows i need to see still! i especially want to catch Spamalot while it's back on broadway, and i keep meaning to sit down and watch Chicago, and i'll take suggestions for other stuff i should listen to!

thanks for the ask!

[frodispatch]

Got to see her last night on Broadway after pulling up to the box office an hour before the show and asking if they had anything left. This show was INCREDIBLE. We’re only in the city for a few days so we were desperate to see a show but I couldn’t pull any tickets beforehand so resorted to running around 42nd street at night looking for ANYTHING, and with my busted hip it was quite a trip. We even walked into the back door for the Cursed Child and could’ve gotten tickets for $79 each with an obstructed view but god knows I, incredibly trans, am not gonna support JK, so we continued on our way.

We did NOT think Wicked would be available at first, but since it’s an older show, I decided at about 6PM to try, and the man behind the booth GAVE. Under $150 for 11th row CENTER. We were literally smack in the middle, it was insane. Best seats i’ve ever gotten. Flying Gravity, with the lights coming down around Elphaba hit in the most incredible way and I remembered right from the start of the show why Wicked is my favorite musical.

But since I got the tickets so quickly, we had no idea what cast to expect. I had seen Wicked on a trip to Boston with an honestly amazing Glinda my first time seeing it, so I had always envisioned that woman or Christen Chenoweth. But oh my when her bubble came down, my parter started bouncing she was so excited. We both looked at each other like “!!!! Glinda’s black !!!!”

I totally fell in love with Glinda, as I always tend to do since she’s so cute, but Brittney particularly played the character in a way that played to the audience but also rounded Glinda out more than with the original cast, in MY (expert) opinion. She played comic relief, which let Elphie steal the show, but you wanted her on stage at all moments, at least I did.

And her VOICE.

I think this was the best Broadway experience Ive ever had.

(I could also talk forever about Elphie. The last time I saw Wicked, the Elphaba actress was honestly not that good so I wasn’t used to being so rocked by the most neurodivergent lesbian in OZ, but she blew me away. The harmonies between her and Glinda… I got chills straight to the bone.)

In conclusion, Brittney is my favorite Glinda, the experience was amazing, the ableist Nessa story still annoys me, and Glinda and Elphie needed to hug more. The tension in their final moments before Elphie goes off the melt… the hug they gave was deep, and I felt it, they should’ve kissed, at least done a 🎶✨deep forehead touch✨🎶 THEY’RE IN LOVE YOUR HONOR!

Broadway’s First Black Glinda - Brittney Johnson 💚

[asdamagicbiscuits]

My Top Theatre Highlights and Moments of 2023 (in no particular order) 

Mary Poppins final show in London

So my first trip of the year saw me pop on down to Cherry Tree Lane for the final show of Mary Poppins. The show is so dear to me, I grew up with the film and the musical has become a firm favourite. To be in the audience for the final show was very special and to witness and be part of the standing ovation at the end of Step In Time was magical and a moment I won’t forget. Zizi and Charlie were the perfect Mary and Bert and delivered outstanding performances, along with the whole company. 

New York - the OG trip

Now this was an insane trip. New York has always been on my list of places I wanted to visit. I mean it’s home to Broadway and being the absolute stagey bean I am, I was naturally going to visit at some point.

Had a some trials pre going though. So me and Sarah were originally going to see Kinky Boots as I was desperate to see Danielle Hope as Lauren in the show. Also Kinky Boots is just one of those shows which is so good for the soul. Then it got announced it was closing early. Okay. Sad but plenty of shows to still see. So we booked Almost Famous. Now I didn’t know anything about it to be honest other than it had Chris Wood in it and I’d seen him in some tv shows and was like, it would be awesome to see him live and in a musical. That show closed early. I was starting to feel like this trip was cursed or I was. Haha. So me and Sarah had chats and we came to the decision that we would see Wicked as it was Brittney’s last show as Glinda during our trip so we kind of had to. We also were able to get tickets for the Behind The Emerald Curtain tour which they do and it was luckily on when we were there. We also booked Moulin Rouge as I really wanted to see Derek Klena as Christian and we both were keen to see Hadestown as our Broadway exclusive show. We both wanted to see a show in New York we couldn’t see in the UK. We also visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island which were so interesting and rich in history. The Museum of Broadway was a MUST visit for me and Sarah. We did that on our first day in New York and it really set up our trip so nicely. They have a Playbill room which is a really good visual indicator of what is currently on on Broadway. Also I fully made sure to have a lil photoshoot with the Nederlander playbill sign. (Sarah was SO THRILLED that I fully took 10 minutes for my photoshoot) nothing was currently playing at the Nederlander when I went or else I would have fully seen whatever was in at that time. (For context - the Nederlander theatre was home to Newsies when it was on Broadway)

The Museum of Broadway had so many artefacts and exhibits from so so many shows. I saw a pair of shoes which were worn in the original Broadway production of Grand Hotel. A stack of Newspapers from Newsies. But the most insane thing which they had was a model of the Gershwin Theatre. Stage, dressing rooms, front of house. THE MERCH DESKS. LIKE ACTUAL MODELS OF THE MERCH DESKS. Safe to say me and Sarah lost our damn minds over this model. I also didn’t realise that my theatre collection was missing a model Merch desk so that is something I need in my life!! 

Hadestown - this was our first show and it seemed very fitting that our first show on Broadway was a Broadway exclusive. I knew nothing going in and it can be a risk as I may have sat there so confused but I sometimes think going in knowing nothing is great as you can just sit and enjoy. My mind was blown. The performances from the whole company were outstanding. It felt very much like they moved as one and the roles were equal. It was very special to watch such an ensemble piece, it’s quite rare to come across a show like that. It was so great to see Eva Noblezada on stage again, gorgeous vocal from her and she absolutely stole the show for me. All I’ve Ever Known had me transfixed and her and Reeve Carney performed so beautifully opposite each other. 

Hadestown is currently playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway and will be opening at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End in February with Previews beginning on the 10th. 

Moulin Rouge - now do you remember me saying we booked as I wanted to Derek Klena as Christian? Well it was announced he was taking a sabbatical from the show for another role and Aaron Tveit was returning to the role for that time. Now sad I wouldn’t see Derek, super exciting to see Aaron who originated the role in the musical but I was concerned. Like most people on the planet I’d seen the Les Mis movie where Aaron played Enjolras and he was outstanding. Loved him in the role as the blonde charismatic revolution leader, like absolutely in awe of his performance and talent but I was concerned I wouldn’t feel the same watching him perform live. Weird as that is I know. Honestly though, SO GLAD I got to see him live in the role. I didn’t think it was possible to be more in awe of someone but here we are. Aaron blew me away. Roxanne. DAMN. 🔥🔥 Speechless. The whole show. Vocal. Phenomenal. Acting. Masterclass. 

Ashley Loran as Satine. Omg I didn’t know perfection existed until I saw her in the role. She came down on the swing for Satine’s entrance and my jaw hit the floor. What. A. Vision. Such a presence. Dancing was incredible, she led the company in Satine’s opening number wonderfully. So playful. Gorgeous vocal throughout the show and every time she sang I got goosebumps. Powerhouse!! Again. A Masterclass in acting and what a leading lady. 

Ashley and Aaron were insane together. The Elephant Love Medley which closes Act One, is my favourite moment in the show and they did not disappoint. They melted my heart and played opposite each other so beautifully. This show was my trip highlight and those two solidified it with their performances.

I didn’t expect to leave with adding two Broadway performers to the stagey favs but here we are. 🤷‍♀️🤪

It was weird sitting in the theatre before the show started and looking at the set as it felt like I should be watching the London company but I was gonna be seeing the Broadway company. The strangest feeling. Haha. 

Moulin Rouge is currently playing at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway and at the Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End. 

Behind the Emerald Curtain - this is something which is exclusive to Broadway. We don’t have anything like this in the UK. It was a behind the scenes talk and Q and A with a couple of the cast members of the show. We got to see how the show was put together and then see a few of the costumes and props up close and we could actually touch the costumes. It was such an insightful experience, so the Tony winning Elphaba dress (you know the one!) - the colours in it represent that Elphaba is a child of the earth. Would recommend anyone checking it out if you’re in New York and this is on when you go. 

Wicked - now it’s always special to be in the audience for a cast change or a performer’s first or last show. Me and Sarah were lucky enough to be able to go to Brittney’s last performance as Glinda on Broadway. This concluded the shows we saw on this trip and we couldn’t ask for a more fitting show to end it with. 

Brittney was INCREDIBLE. From start to finish. Breathtaking. She absolutely stole the show, as she should. Comic timing was outstanding, the vocal. Oh my. Goosebumps. It felt like I was watching a piece of magic up on that stage and not a dry eye in the house. 

Wicked is currently playing at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway and at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London’s West End. 

On this trip I got to meet one of my best friends irl. It was so lovely to see Shelbi and explore New York and also to meet the New York pogo squad. Shoutout to those guys. Looking forward to seeing them again when I’m next in the city!

Shelbi took me to Grand Central Station and oh Lordy it was so pretty. She also showed me Bryant Park and the Library. We also ended up in Theatre Circle, which we stumbled across accidentally when we were hanging out. Theatre Circle is a Merchandise shop opposite the Majestic Theatre (where Phantom was on Broadway) so NATURALLY we had to go in and have a look. What happened? Well I basically had a breakdown and was nearly in tears as I found a bit of Newsies Merch in there 🤪🤷‍♀️🙈 long story short RE Merch shops, this one, Broadway Up Close and the one Araca owns on Shubert Alley, I’m basically going with an empty suitcase to fill up next time as I’ve got my eye on a lovely Beetlejuice hoodie which looks like the cosiest thing ever!! 

Blood Brothers

It’s always a treat to see this show again. This time it was on my home turf at my local theatre I saw the show. I went to see Richard Munday as the Narrator in the show. One of my favourite performers in an iconic show as my favourite character. No way was I going to miss this and it didn’t disappoint. Richard was insanely good. Strong vocal, excellent acting. I’m getting chills just remembering how good his performance was. It was also so lovely to see him on stage again and to say hello after so long! 

Strictly Ballroom the Musical

When I say it was a show 3 years in the making I am NOT joking. Haha. Me and Sarah had this booked literally in 2020 so it took some time to see it 🤪🙈

Absolutely worth the wait though. Kevin Clifton as Scott Hastings was such a perfect casting for the role. Faye Brooks as Fran. FLAWLESS!! Outstanding choreography, brilliant performances and to be front row for it was mind blowing. York is such a beautiful city so getting to have a wee adventure up there and to go to the most magical place ever (the place where you can get a roast dinner in a massive Yorkshire pudding. Honestly, heaven!) was so lovely. I’ll deffo be back in York, even if it’s just to go for a roast 🤪

Newsies 

Now you could argue that I spent most of my free time at the Troubadour Theatre seeing Newsies in 2023. And you wouldn’t be wrong 😜 ZERO REGRETS HAD!!

From my birthday, to one of my best friends: George’s birthday, to cast change, to the final show at the Troubadour and many many trips in between. So many moments and highlights to talk about so will try and condense as much as possible. Sitting front row of Brooklyn for George’s birthday was pretty damn special. Getting to see the show from so close, to say it was magical would be the understatement of the year. 

So many outstanding covers I was able to see throughout the run. Bobbie Chambers as Katherine, Damon Gould as Davey, George Crawford as Jack, Matt Trevorrow as Jack, Morgan Gregory as Race are five which stand out to me. It was a pleasure to see the Newsies company so many times. To be there at Cast Change for Newsies felt so special, having been there at the their first show so to be there at the last was lovely and very full circle.

I will say the first show I saw after Newsies won Best Choreography at the Oliviers was so so special. Seize The Day is my favourite song in the show and choreographically it’s stunning, I did tear up seeing the lads perform it for the first time. They gave so much in the whole show but in that number especially. They deserved to win the Olivier so much. 

The final show. Holy shit. That was out of this world. I thought the first show was insane. Closing night was next freaking level. Every number. Standing ovation. Seize The Day Standing Ovation went on for so long you could see it in the boys' faces it meant so much and they gave it their all in that number. I was so thrilled Bronté got a standing ovation for Watch What Happens. Gorgeous performances from the whole company. It was a magical night and I can’t thank this company enough for every show they did. This show holds such a special place in my soul (yep soul) and I will forever be grateful to each company member.

I do want to give a special shoutout to Sam Bailey who portrayed my favourite Newsie, Specs, so wonderfully. He took such brilliant care of him and was the perfect Specs. In Seize The Day Sam shouts ‘boys’ when the lads start to walk away during the number and it broke my heart every time. Such a lovely lovely touch. 

I can’t wait to see what happens next for this show but until then I’ll carry the banner in my heart until the next bunch of Newboys bring it to life on stage again ☺️🎭🎶💛🗞️📰 hashtag Newsies Forever 

New York part 2

SOOO… Went to New York again. Hehe 🙊 another super fun trip exploring the city. I know I could never get bored of this city as there is just so much to see, do and explore. Like London, I will never get tired of New York. This trip was a little more flexible in terms of seeing shows what day. I had my list I wanted to see but I only pre booked Hadestown for the first night in New York (which idiot thought that would be a good idea to see a show after an 8 hour flight? This one right here 🙈🙈) it was so lovely see the Hadestown Broadway company again and they were just as phenomenal as the first time I saw them. 

Sweeney Todd - now as a young British theatre fan I came across this show called Wicked. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. 🤷‍♀️😜🙊☺️ but I watched a lot of Bootlegs of that show and others. Lots of great shows out there. Now for me I watched a certain bootleg with Annaleigh Ashford as Glinda and oh my word. She blew me away. She instantly became one of my stagey favs and I knew I wanted to see her perform live. So in 2020 (remember that crazy year?!) Sunday In The Park With George was going into the Savoy Theatre and Annaleigh was coming over to be in the show. Then the craziness happened which meant the show was cancelled and it never came to be. I was gutted as I thought I’d never get the opportunity to see her perform live. It was announced she was going to be in Sweeney Todd as Mrs Lovett and I was like 👀 will this happen? Will I get my chance? In my February trip I had photos with her production shot outside the theatre (I theatre girl nerded HARDDDDD. Haha) and was like this is probably gonna be the closest I get. I had no idea I would be back in New York in less than 3 months with the aim and determination to see her perform live.

I dragged my friend out to dayseat for tickets. We were first in the queue at 6:45am (Starbucks opened at 6:30am or else we’d have been there earlier). No one was going to get in my way from securing a ticket to see the show. Now obviously it’s a risk as per the terms and conditions ‘the producers can not guarantee the appearance of any performer due to illness and/or holiday’ but I was risking it. Fast forward to the box office opening and they still have seated tickets to sell before standing tickets could be sold (that’s what we were queuing for). Me and my mate were deliberating the $99 tickets in the Mezzanine when the box office clerk says she’s got a pair of tickets in the orchestra stalls for $69. Sold. I’ve never been so excited before in my life. I didn’t need to stand, which my friend was super happy about and I had a ticket to see Annaleigh perform live. I was BUZZING and had a rush of adrenaline. I was soaring the whole day. When it came to showtime, I want to briefly discuss the Merch stand. Bloody good display and such an excellent range of Merch. The hoodie was purchased, naturally (is anyone surprised??). The show blew my mind. The whole company was just outstanding. It was all so fluid and flowed wonderfully. The opening set the scene and it made me so happy to see Josh got a cheer on his entrance and when it came to Annaleigh’s entrance I was gonna cheer for her (thankfully I wasn’t the only one) and I had the BIGGEST smile on my face every time she was on stage. She stole the show for me (this surprises no one) but she was always going to command my attention. Excellent acting, vocals were insane. Loved the on stage chemistry her and Josh had as Mrs Lovett and Sweeney Todd. She was EVERYTHING and then some live. I’m so thrilled I got to see her perform live. Big bucket list item ticked. 

I will say this one thing I ADORED about the show (I’m hoping they bring this production over) - when Mrs Lovett was telling Sweeney essentially his story it was all done in shadow up on the walkway above them which was simple but oh so effective and it really stuck and stood out in my mind. The set was so so good. Overall I’d go as far to say it was a perfect production from casting, choreography, set, everything. Also I’m gonna go and say it - Annaleigh was robbed of the Tony. In my mind that is. 

Sweeney Todd is currently playing at the Lunt Fontaine Theatre on Broadway and stars Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett from February 6th. 

Shucked - so this an interesting story. Me and my friend dayseated for Shucked. Now I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest or how I’d fare with a show about corn. This is a bit of an odd tradition but basically if a show is in the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway I would see it regardless if it was a play or a musical. The Nederlander was home to Newsies on Broadway but I thought with that tradition it would be a great way to see shows which I wouldn’t necessarily automatically see. So anyway, went to the show and oh my goodness. Me and my friend turned to each other at the interval and we both went we love it. Really enjoying it and it was only the interval. It wouldn’t have even been on our radar to see it had it not been in the Nederlander so it was one of those lovely surprises. I came out of the show so so obsessed with it. It was a fun show with a lot of heart and soul. So comical and the ending (which I will not spoil) I did NOT expect. It was brilliantly written, hilarious, expertly performed by the whole company. If there was time I’d have absolutely seen it again had I had another night in New York.

Shucked has closed on Broadway but it’s due to be coming over to the the West End, I personally can not WAIT to get Shucked in London. Shucked is also due to be a feature film so keep ya eyes peeped for that. It’s not to be missed!!

Moulin Rouge - yep. I went back and saw the show on Broadway again. Derek Klena had returned to the show and I was determined to see him as Christian. I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. I booked a ticket for the Saturday night performance the day I landed in New York. (I got into New York on the Wednesday) I must have looked absolutely crazy, 8 hours on a flight and a bit frazzled and I literally couldn’t have made it clearer to the box office person that I wanted to see Derek in the show. I must have checked that he was scheduled to be on at least four times. I didn’t fly over 8000 miles again to not see him in the show. Haha.

Again for context - way back when, I had watched a bootleg of Derek as Fiyero in Wicked and listened to his vocals in Anastasia so I was aware of his work. Like with Annaleigh I really wanted to see Derek perform live. He was every bit as phenomenal as I thought he would be and more. The vocal. THE VOCAL. I can’t express the goosebumps I got every time he sang, Elephant Love Medley melted my heart and Roxanne. ROXANNE. It was like my heart was ripped out and stamped on and crushed and I was so happy about it. Derek was outstanding as Christian and so so worth the wait to see him in the role.

I do also want to give a special shoutout to the lovely Sophie Carmen-Jones who was Nini. Having seen her in London many times it warmed my heart so so much to see her as Nini on Broadway, it felt like there was a little piece of home. Sophie was flawless, as she always is. Stunning performance. 

Derek Klena returns to the role of Christian on Broadway from February 6th alongside Courtney Reed as Satine (so keen to see them together. Know they are gonna be fire!!) 

Operation Mincemeat 

Now whilst I’ve technically seen this show twice I only really remember the second time properly. I got very distracted during Act 1 of my first visit so went back to watch the whole show and to not get distracted by anything I sat front row of the stalls, naturally. 

I had the same company both trips aside from who was playing Montague. I had Natasha the first time and the second time I had Holly.

Now this show really caught me by surprise. I thought I’d go in, see it, come out and be like. That was nice. Enjoyed it. probably won’t see it again. How VERY wrong I was. I’m literally obsessed with it. The talent in that company. Off the charts. Dear Bill gets me every time and not a dry eye in the house. Making A Man and Useful are two of the songs I’ve played the most of the whole soundtrack. Comedy which then delivers hard hitting emotion. I can’t sit through the ending without crying. 

Sitting front row and getting to see the emotion and facial expressions and performances from so close was incredible. I will say Holly absolutely stole the show for me. I couldn’t take my eyes off her and Making A Man had my jaw on the floor. 

I do also want to say I didn’t have my programme when I saw it the second time so at the interval I turned to my friend George and go ‘Monty is brunette this time. They were blonde last time’ George ‘is that all you noticed?’ Me ‘yeah…’ George ‘anything else? Like the fact it’s a DIFFERENT PERSON’ Me 😳😳🙈🙈 so then we went on a Google and discovered I’m an idiot! Excellent casting though with Natasha and Holly is what I’m taking from it. 🤪☺️ you MUST go and see this show. Beg, borrow, steal a ticket to see this!

I’m currently working out when I can see it again. 

Operation Mincemeat is currently playing at the Fortune Theatre in London’s West End. 

Mates in Chelsea

So my final show of the year was a new play, Mates in Chelsea at the Royal Court which I was able to see three times. A play Anne? Are you feeling okay? If I said the name Natalie Dew would it all make sense? 😜 hehe

Yep. This was the first time I was getting to see one of my stagey faves perform LIVE. It had been four years since I saw Nat perform on stage so I was thrilled to be able to see her in this, quite genius play. I throughly loved it. It was funny, heartfelt and at the end it really made me think. Also got quite confused during the second act when we were seemingly in Russia? Don’t worry fam. It all made sense in the end but I was FULLY confused for the whole monologue. 

It was so so great to see Natalie on stage again, and in ways I hadn’t seen her as before. I jumped out of my seat every time her character told their boyfriend to ‘sell the fucking castle’. I don’t own a castle but every time my first thought was ‘must sell my castle for Nat’ 🤪🙈 

Phenomenal performances all round from the whole company but nothing made my soul happier to see Nat on stage again. Truly ended my year in the best way possible! 

So that pretty much wraps up an insane year of theatre for me. Never did I think I’d be discussing TWO trips to New York in one blog post. Hey, at least I can say ya girl was well travelled for the theatre in 2023. 

If you’re still here, thanks for reading, apologies for the lateness and make sure to come back next time to see what makes the cut and where adventure took me in 2024…

Until next time, cheerio!