#like unless this guy is supposed to be.. in a profession like. mathematician.

[obstinaterixatrix]

okay so there's this musical called weird romance and it's basically a two for one, act one and act two are stand-alone one-acts based on speculative fiction (one's an old novella the other's from a twilight zone episode. alan menkin does the music and some of it is. well it's not his best work. it's pretty whatever. but SOME of it is actually really interesting, and also when the lyrics are blah they're pretty blah but when they work they're really good. also not all the songs are on youtube. anyway act one is about in the future where ads are illegal but companies use celebrities as a workaround by just sponsoring them and having them say they use products (or something like that) and the main character is a girl (woman? I have no idea how old she is in the musical) who's unhoused and has chronic illness and is mega depressed and a scientist brand guy pops in and goes like HEY!! YOU HATE YOURSELF!!! COME PILOT THIS PERFECT BODY WE MADE!!! and this song is really fun. also the original off broadway guiteau from assassins is here.

this is the second song of the musical but I'm skipping the first because it's a sad ballad for the main character and it. kinda sucks. listen to this good song instead. anyway there's a reason I'm walking through this, first of all off broadway guiteau does a great terrible unethical brand scientist, the way he says "she's meat" is pretty awful, so good bad vibes. also there's a lot of interesting rhymes that make sense considering the scientist-brand-guy's character, so that's fun

okay so stay with me, there's another good song but it's not on youtube, called something like Pop! Flash! Bang! basically training the main character to be The Perfect Celeb. and then there are some less good songs I think probably and then there's this song

I like it because it's pretty catchy but I REALLY like it because of the "😬 we'll have to talk about that 😬" bit, I thought it was pretty fun. I think the bit after that is kind of awkwardly composed and the lyrics are also kinda. well not as strong as the beginning imo.

anyway there's this song somewhere in-between I'm not going to like. so basically what happens is that the main character falls in love with someone who is. I think. the scientist's son? but the son doesn't know about the whole 'puppeting a body from a machine' thing so the main character has a duet with the body (I think) where they're like 'maybe if I tell him he'll accept me' 'BUT MAYBE NOT' and the reason I can't stand it is like. I don't remember quite what the lyrics are but there was something like "but maybe it would be less bad" and there was something about the way it was phrased or the delivery or the juxtaposition with the other lyrics that made it feel so juvenile and trite. like it *sounds* like something someone would say but dialogic authenticity (that's not a real term) kind of sucks sometimes, like people just say things and repeat things and speak redundantly or in a meandering way (like I'm typing now) and the point of dialogue isn't to be completely authentic to how people speak, it's to be a convincing representation that evokes the feeling of authenticity (while sprucing up the place and attending to character voice and efficiency). and maybe the point is to be a little juvenile, but I don't think it really works EXCEPT in this NEXT SONG

AND THIS is ACTUALLY the entire reason I'm making this post, the love interest is singing a reprise of his love song solo and I think it's a little trite BUT. HERE. it works because there's a GREAT contrast of the love interest doing this cheesy love song and the scientist (his dad) going like "lol. lmao. this is so stupid. let's fry her brain while this is going on." anyway that's act 1, act 2 also exists and it's solidly fine. there's some good songs. not as good as one that has a guy watching his son propose to his science experiment and going like Time For Love To Lose