#lempicka broadway

[moxyphinx]

it's just the two of us AMBER IMAN & EDEN ESPINOSA in LEMPICKA

[lempickathemusical]

We do not control the world  We control one flat rectangle of canvas at a time LEMPICKA (2024)

[thetisming]

Broadway has turned into something commercialised and all about money, rather than stages for stories to be shared. people only care about how much money shows make, but people never give new shows a try so amazing new shows that tell important stories and production and soundtrack and actors close. if there's not a big tv (specifically tv, people don't care about actual BROADWAY legends anymore) name for the media or it's not a revival people don't care. new musicals that tell historical stories that shouldn't be forgotten close after a few months, no matter how amazing the story or score or set or actors are. Broadway isn't about the heart anymore, it's about money and big names. it's barely even for theatre people.

Lempicka is closing and i am devastated for so many reasons. Harmony already closed earlier this year.

Tamara de Lempicka was a famous painter. she was married to a rich man, and originally painted their daughter or landscapes and things like that, but she eventually painted Rafaela -- her girlfriend. she painted her mainly naked and they loved each other. she was a bisexual painter, and more than that a brilliant painter, and she is being forgotten. she was part Jewish, too. she fled to Paris with her husband, which is where she met Rafaela.

there's a musical about her. it's closing on May 19th. it opened officially on Broadway on April 14th. both this year.

The Comedian Harmonists were a band. they were an internationally popular German band between 1928 and 1934. 3 of the 6 of them were Jewish. Nazi Germany started in 1933. you can probably piece together what happened, but i'll tell you anyway. they were separated and erased. they were not forgotten, they were erased. Nazis destroyed almost all of their recordings. the Harmonists never saw each other again. their names were Ari Leschnikoff, Harry Frommermann, Robert Biberti, Roman Cycowski, Erwin "Chopin" Bootz and Erich A. Collin.

there was a musical about them. it closed on February 4th, and opened officially on Broadway on November 13th (2023).

do not let Tamara or the Harmonists go forgotten. listen to Lempicka and Harmony. research the people. find bootlegs of the musicals if you can. learn about them. teach about them. please, don't let people forget about them.

this isn't about the musicals closing, these are about important people being forgotten and erased from history. please, don't let this happen.

[maliwart]

Still really just thinking about Lempicka 24/7

[grilledcheeseandguavajelly]

In honor of Lempicka opening one year ago today, here’s an incomplete list of all of the moments on the cast album that absolutely ended me:

This one’s for you, @pearplate 🤍🫶🏼

*Disclaimer: please note that this list was compiled after listening to the OBCR for the first time. I hadn’t seen the musical at that point, and I was very much along for the ride!!

Alright, here we go 🙈

1. “COME MY GIRL WHAT DID YOU EXPECT, THAT THE WORLD WOULD NEVER CHANGE”

And it will ALWAYS be first on the list because I literally fell on the floor when I heard it the first time and then broke down sobbing at the beauty and complexities of this composition. Basically this was the moment when I realized that this album/musical was going to change my life and I didn’t handle it well but it’s fine I was home alone so I only startled my dog when I screamed

(Everything else is in no particular order 🥰)

2. “I will speak, ask her name, ask her back to my rooms, in the afTERNOON SUN inhale her perfume”

3. “WOMAN IS PLANE LINES FORM WOMAN IS PLANE COLOR LIGHT” the fast one from pari will always be pari will always be pari will always be pa

4. The way Eden sings “a thousand different blues”

5. The pounding, pulsing drums and strings that melt into the overture pouring through the end of “perfection”

6. “Paintings can be turned to money, money can be turned to jewelry, in case we have to leave in the middle of the night, in case, in case, in case, in case”

7. “Heart STOP— am I losing my mind? She is just a woman who’s pretty. But she’s flesh, she is chrome, she is steel, she is bone. Her eyes looked right through me like nothing”

8. “The center will hold”

9. Just the placement of the entirety of “in the blasted California sun, no grey can survive. Where is my blessed blue, deep and ancient, glistening on canvas since the Medicis? Where is the grey of the Paris sky? The grey of her eyes?” 😫

10. “Lascivious panting”

11. “It is a bitch to outlive your own context”

12. The delicate “Rafaela” melody that plays two octaves up after Tamara says “woman is…powerful”

13. “Flicker, maTCH, light”

14. The final “shhh” at the end of “Starting Over” sounding like the steam of the train slowing as they arrive in Paris

15. That guy just full belting “OHHHH YOU STOLE THESE FROM US, OUR LABOR MADE YOU SHINE”

16. “Cobalt, viridian, cocaine, valerian” (I mean honestly get lit)

17. “A painting is not a woman.” “But I am painting a woman 👀”

18. “It’s just us, the sound of— sound of the rails, the baby’s asleep— and the baby— oh” and the STUNNING HARMONY ON “ohhhh, and we’re free” *sobs because it’s too. fucking. gorgeous*

19. “Do you know who I am?! An old woman who doesn’t give a damn that history has passed her by. HISTORY’S A BITCH, BUT SO AM I—“

20. “It. Feels. Good.”

21. The 9/8 + 6/8 time signature on “Woman Is” and then the way it shifts into the triplets over “your cry, shattered, your heartbeat, your heart beat, your heartbeat”

22. The cowbell in “Don’t Bet Your Heart” because why is it everything 😂

23. “Withtheknowledgeoftheknifesedge”

24. “Beauty takes my name, takes my soul. Beauty is the hand at my throat. Beauty, her mouth red with my blood. Come back, give back my soul. Let me love you, beauty” 😫

25. Also just the piano and strings on ^^that moment because hnnnnghalskaksjalslflgjdjakjskskdkf

26. “No more paintings of naked women or bowls of fucking fruit”

27. “My wife, my little mouse, stronger than I EVERRRR DREEEEEAMED”

28. “WAAAARM DAAAAWN, bodies and BREATH, I am ALIVE. Damp sheets, watching your body rise, TANGLED HAIR ON THE PILLOWWWW”

29. All of the time signature shifts in “Our Time” 🙌🏼

30. Eden’s laugh right before “wouldn’t that be nice?”

31. Whatever the hell is happening with that riff/pizzicato on the strings during the “please, take this bracelet from my wrist, as a sign that we are friends” melody as it repeats

32. That 12/8 time that comes crashing in right as Eden sings “tonight we’re still free” UNGH ��🏼

33. The little piano intro from “I Will Paint Her” coming back in “The New Woman” as Tadeusz sings “a million miles of road… don’t ask me to just watch you leave” and fades away every time Tamara sings “I’ll never leave you… how could I leave you?” And back and forth and back and forth and the longing and maybe it’s Tadeusz having his muse moment and realizing he can’t live without her or maybe it’s Tamara finally realizing that he feels for her what she feels for Rafaela and understanding how deeply her heart would break if Rafaela left her like he was terrified she was leaving him— I don’t know but it makes something rise up in my chest and I can’t really handle it

34. “Ha— New York. I’ve got jewelry older than New York 🙄”

35. The key change (I think it’s a key change) on “I’m HEEEERE” during “Stay” and then the way her little riff rounds out into something that sounds so much like Tamara’s style and tone as she goes into “your PAINTINGGGGG” and then falls back into Rafaela’s tone as she says “ohhhh I think I’ll stay”

36. “Do you know how I got you out?! I LET THEM DO ANYTHING TO ME, WHATEVER THEY WANTED!!! AND YOU KNOW WHAT?! IT DIDN’T TOUCH ME— I WALKED OUT OF THERE CLEAN. BECAUSE I HAD YOU. BECAUSE I LOVED YOU”

37. Honestly just the drums through the entirety of “Woman Is” because LORD HAVE MERCY

38. “Seven…”

39. “You should have left me there to diiiiiiIIIIIIIEEEE”

40. That. Fucking. Harmony. On “a month at the chateau” 😫

41. “Alright— we’ll do this now.” “It’s her or me.” “Is that the best you’ve got?” Honestly GO OFF EDEN

42. The sheer depth of Amber Iman’s voice through all of “The Most Beautiful Bracelet”

43. “Your eyes so cold… how can they be… like the Black Sea… so cold your heart stops before drowning”

44. “ONE- one- ONE braceLET, replace three stones with GLASS. PApers for KizETTE and me, a LIttle ink and we eRASE the PAST. My FAther’s reLIGION, noT Jew, but CHRIStian”

45. “The heartbeat fluttering beneath her skin. The fingers curled around a glass of gin.”

46. “LEAVE HIM— be with me…” RIP ME I DIED. DEAD.

47. “Crawling up from nothing I created for MYSELF, something that the world had never seen. I painted what a woman could be”

48. “Here it is, here it comes, staring down the barrel of the gun.”

49. “Fight for this now— come on *clap clap*” (yes I am pretending the claps are in the soundtrack and not just the promo shot because I CAN)

50. I am going to say this ONCE— there is some beautiful poetry in the parallels and contrast between “Wake Up” and Rafaela singing “when I wake up, you’re painting. When I wake up, you’re here” and I haven’t completely dissected it yet but oh my dear lord

51. “When?” “When the world is not in flames” “WHEN WILL THAT BE?!”

52. Just. Just— just everything from the triplets in “Here it Comes” swelling into the entire ensemble singing “REVOLUTION” and then the reprise of that little piece of “THE WORLD SPINS, WHO LIVES WHO DIES” as the climax building into “when everything SHATTERS, what MATTERS” I die. I DIE.

This list could go on forever, and I have at this point listened to the cast recording over fifty times, and I’ve seen the show three times. So I will end it here, but please remember, this is a very, very incomplete list. And please, for the love of god, do yourself a favor and go listen to this OBCR 👏🏼🤍

[paintingdaylight]

Lempicka sketchbook page 🤭 the color one is my fave but might work on this idea more!

[himblebo]

In Act 2 of Lempicka when Tamara and Rafaela enter Le Monocle for the first time they look around at all the women together and Rafaela says “a room full of nothing but US” and Tamara says “let’s never leave” and guys I just went to a lesbian bar for the first time (okay it’s actually a deli but they turn it into a lesbian bar at night) and GUYS? That is the safest I have ever felt out drinking and dancing and I felt so natural and I was surrounded by other queer women and that’s. That’s the first actual queer space I’ve been to in YEARS and especially post-pandemic. And I’m feeling such an overwhelming mix of emotions right now because I didn’t realize how isolated I felt from the queer community in my day to day life (ie not online). I just. God.

Dedicated queer spaces are so important. Lesbian bars are so important. This is the only one I’ve been to but I’m VERY aware that these days there are fewer and fewer of them but I just. I didn’t know how badly this kind of place and experience and connection to community was missing from my life until I suddenly had it tonight.

[wild-feminist]

don’t mind me, just sobbing at work over amber iman & eden espinosa in “Speed” 😭😭

[droughtofapathy]

Too late, no one stopped me. Let's dig into this, shall we?

In Shubert Alley, Lempicka has a big poster advertisement along the wall with all the other Broadway shows currently running. The bold-print, fancy New York Times review pull-quote read as follows:

"A STIRRING, EPIC BLOCKBUSTER MUSICAL."

Now, that struck me as a little suspect because I couldn't recall Jesse Green of the Times saying any such thing. Lo and behold, I did a quick search, and then a deeper search, and then a full internet scour, and those words have never appeared together to describe this musical. Some of those words do, however, appear as separate words in the Times review for the WILLIAMSTOWN production from 2018, which is, by now, a vastly different show (see below). And some of those words were not used to describe Lempicka at all.

Once upon a time, marketing teams had to get approval from papers to ensure their pull-quotes were accurate. This is...not only just a quote with the context chopped up. It's a ransom note magazine cutout. None of those words (except, y'know, "A" and "musical") appeared in the Broadway review of this show.

Furthermore, earlier today, this graphic went live on Lempicka's socials:

We've already discussed how (now an entirely new quote from the one used before) the Brantley quote isn't accurate. It's even more egregious now because it includes the reviewer's name, which I feel like might be against some kind of regulation somewhere(?) it's been several years since I studied libel law. But let's go to the Jesse Green quote. "An overeager blur," is not a string of three words that ever appears in Green's review.

So. What are we doing here? Why are we making up a negative quote when there were so many actual quotes to choose from? I mean, darlings, there were disparaging remarks so frequent it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel.

In trying to make a (not untrue) statement, the marketing team instead feels as if it's catering to the fast-paced "gotcha" tone of the internet. But a snappy comeback at a middle-grade level doesn't hold water if it's so easily disproven. Who is running this team? I just wanna talk.

[awkwardjewishtheatrenerd]

For today's Throwback Thursday, we recognize the short-lived musical, Lempicka.

Lempicka March 2024 (Matinee) Broadway Preview - $9

Cast: Eden Espinosa (Tamara de Lempicka), Amber Iman (Rafaela), Andrew Samonsky (Tadeusz Lempicki), George Abud (Marinetti), Natalie Joy Johnson (Suzy Solidor), Zoe Glick (Kizette), Nathaniel Stampley (Baron), Beth Leavel (Baroness), Alex Aquilino (Ensemble), Lauren Blackman (Ensemble), Stephen Brower (Ensemble), Kyle Brown (Ensemble), Holli’ Conway (Ensemble), Abby Matsusaka (Ensemble), Jimin Moon (Ensemble), Khori Michelle Petinaud (Ensemble), Ximone Rose (Ensemble), Nicholas Ward (Ensemble)

Notes: MP4 format. Filmed from center rear mezzanine. Mix of wide shots and zooms. Overall relatively steady shot, some obstruction often due to the heads in front of me at times. And yet able to get very good feel for this (hopefully not frozen yet) show. Wideshots are washed out, and George Abud is the main offender with Eden Espinosa close behind. A few dropouts, the longest being about a minute and a half when changing the camera battery in Act 1. NFS forever except through master and NFT through April 24, 2029.

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBm4rz

[memesandmusicalss]

LEMPICKA IS CLOSING SOON??? IM NOT OKAY

[moxyphinx]

AMBER IMAN as Rafaela & EDEN ESPINOSA as Tamara de Lempicka LEMPICKA the musical

[lempickathemusical]

LEMPICKA + Act II songs

[thetisming]

guess my top 3. lol

[maliwart]

If you don’t follow my main blog you might not know that I’ve fallen in love with Lempicka and I can’t be stopped

[grilledcheeseandguavajelly]

So are we going to talk about eden espinosa walking the tony carpet with her nipples out orrrrr 👀