#more musicals for you — enjoy!

[sirazaroff]

I dedicate this post to the funniest beef ever

[bu99erfly]

LOOSSEMBLE TTYL, 2024

[nezoriy]

but there are dreams that cannot be

[partial-prints]

If you love vampires, listen up!

Do you enjoy vampires, 80’s music, a healthy dose of homoeroticism - all with a theatrical flair? Well look no further, for I submit to you Dance of the Vampires.

(More cool pictures at the very bottom)

What is it you may ask? It’s a musical about a vampire who seduces a girl and invites her to his midnight ball - an offer she simply cannot turn down. The whole thing sorta gives Phantom of the Opera vibes, but like, wayyy less creepy (despite it being a literal vampire). I will say now that yes, Tanz der Vampire (the original title of Dance of the Vampires), is in German, but there is a full recording with English subtitles on youtube, so please don’t let that prevent you from watching it. Now if you’re still reading, allow me to elaborate on the 80’s music and homoeroticism that I previously mentioned.

Let’s start with the tragic gay romance, because I’m sure that’s what you want to hear about first. While not a main part of the musical, the main vampire’s son falls in love with - gasp! - the vampire hunter’s apprentice. They dance together, and with stage magic involving a mesh screen and an actor on the other side dressed identically to the apprentice, it appears as though the vampire has no reflection in the “mirror”. Of course, the feeling is not mutual, as the apprentice is only at the castle to rescue the girl, who he is in love with.

Now, onto the 80’s music. Surely you’ve heard of the song Total Eclipse of the Heart, or the singer Meatloaf (even if it was just his role as Eddie in Rocky Horror Picture Show). Well, the man who wrote that song and a majority if not all of Meatloaf’s work, was Jim Steinman, who composed the musical. The soundtrack contains a decent amount of electric guitar, even a bit of synth at parts, and all around just sounds awesome. However, he only had about a month and a half to compose it all, so he reused some stuff he previously wrote, including a couple Meatloaf songs and Total Eclipse of the Heart, a song he originally wrote for a Nosferatu musical that ended up not getting produced. It was actually originally titled “Vampires in Love,” so what better song is there to fill the place of a big love duet between the girl and the Count?

Tanz der Vampire is my favorite musical ever. I’ve loved it ever since Count von Krolock appeared on the screen and first began to sing, and you may love it too. So I implore you. Please do yourself a favor and check it out. I’ll provide a link of a full recording with English subtitles here, but it should also be the first result on youtube when you search “tanz der vampire english subtitles.” (That production also has Drew Sarich as the Count, my personal favorite.) I should add though, do not watch the broadway production because it’s terrible.

If you’re still not sold, I’m not sure what else I could say to convince you, but hopefully you at least found this interesting and learned something new. If you want to know more about Tanz der Vampire or would like to hear about other musicals about vampires, please let me know and I can answer any questions. (If even one person watches it because of this I’ll consider this a success, and if you do watch it please let me know because it would really make my day.)

And now I’ll leave you with some pictures of Tanz der Vampire as a last resort to convince you how awesome it is and that you should watch it. (I also put in the alt text the song each picture is from for anyone interested)

*ooo the set design and costuming have hypnotized you… you want to watch it now… do it for the vampires…*

[linddzz]

Jayce is literally a guard dog from the moment he met Viktor and I just know that he can be wayyy worse in fics if people weren’t playing it safe

So small disclaimer that I can't say much about how he's portrayed in fics or if I have any thoughts there. Tbh when I'm first getting into writing my own stuff for a ship I don't read or seek out a lot of other fics for a mix of weird brain reasons. A mix of a lot of doubts from comparing myself, but also I like getting a solid feel of my characterization without too much general fandom influence getting in there or end up accidentally stealing a concept/dialogue that just sticks in my brain.

(exceptions tend to be made for mutuals who I know are excellent writers already in which case I will psych myself up to not fall into the self comparison issue dkdjdkdk)

ANYWAY!!! Tbh I'm not surprised that there's not a lot that goes super dark on the possessive Jayce OR possessive Viktor just because they are such a weird little mix of legit fun and goofy and dreamy eyed for each other, AND canon pretty much laid out the dark side of their relationship I think. Jayce had already been confronted with Viktor's impending death, they already had their conversation where he had to promise to destroy the hexcore, which was them both in a way accepting Viktor's death. And he immediately broke that the second he was actually confronted with that death.

It's not dark to me as in "grr no one can touch you but me I'm going to lock you up in the lab to make sure you can never leave me and nothing can ever hurt you" which is how most dark possessive fics/romance lit tend to go. And I guess it can be hard to tap into what IS very dark and fucked up about Jayce and Viktor's codependence in a way that doesn't erase how wholesome they can and do come across in canon.

The dark is in the devotional romance of it, the almost instant codependence, it's in how beautiful it all is (like how Viktor's evolved forms are both beautiful and deeply unsettling for all their elegance). It's in thinking for just a liiiittle bit and realizing that Mage Viktor is knowingly dooming timelines by sparking Jayce's fascination with magic (and by making himself the thing that starts Jayce's obsession).

The dark possessiveness for Jayce is best captured when the partner he broke his biggest promise to, whose heart he replaced with the hexcore, stumbled out as something metal and inhuman. The dark side of Jayvik is; when Viktor's voice came out warped and mechanical as he stared at his own hand with confusion and fear, asking "What am I?"

Jayce smiled, laughed with that bright loverboy earnestness, and said "You're alive!"

[grey-wardens]

You're impossible.

[copia]

THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF GHOST ⛧ DAY ONE

first song you heard — Mary On A Cross

September 1969; Papa Nihil and the beginning of the Ghost Project take to the stage at the Whiskey a Go Go club in Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of Sister Imperator. Fifty-three years later, in Tampa, Florida, Papa Emeritus the Fourth performs Mary On A Cross, unaware that he is singing the story of his parents—and that of himself.

[mastersprogram]

Y’know Another Great Song Not on The Album? “Good Ol’ fashioned Wedding”!

You guys LOVED The Last Beetjuice video post, so it’s only Fair That I share Another One!

[glitteringpoet1685]

Armand in the musical screaming "Lies. He loved me!" after Lestat tells him what Marius said about him and then immediately pushing Lestat off the roof??? 10/10 no notes.

[wewerebornsextuplets]

everyone should think too deeply about small oc details forever btw. it makes life better

[gabriestat]

gay people cannot break up normally it always has to be something like "it was me. i called the cops. but you're still in charge, benson" and get like four women and cops involved

[fyoht]

season 2 + nods to 'crowley was raphael' truthers

[clottedscream]

“it’s just a warmup sketch,” i say to myself. “i’m just gonna warm up on shading and coloring. i’m just warming up on anatomy.” my spine crackles from sitting in shrimp stance for 2 hours. “just to warm up.”

[harvestingsun]

Entire knuckles 🎳✨Wade Whipple✨🎳 show in a nutshell

[alaskan-wallflower]

this is lowkey just my little rant on the outsiders fandom because it’s gotten a lot more toxic post tony awards and i wanna kind of address it

i feel like a lot of “bigger” blogs are held at too high of a pedestal. this fandom doesn’t feel like a group of people just enjoying something together. sometimes it feels more like a caste system in a way, where the bigger blogs/people who frequent the musical more at least are held in higher regards than those who have not. sometimes it feels like the smaller blogs aren’t heard as much, y’know? and i kinda find that funny for the outsiders fandom, where the book is literally about equality and how nobody is actually an outsider. but sometimes with these caste system esque viewings it feels almost like whatever they say has to be right. and i don’t think that’s fair.

another thing is the way the musical and the movie/book feel like they’re two separate fandoms. and i get it they’re different. but at the end of the day it’s the same story. and it feels like most of the toxicity from what ive seen comes from the musical fandom. and i get it, but i feel like what the cast says about their characters (to an extent) shouldn’t really be seen as canon. they didn’t make up the characters save for a few. hinton made them up. and therefore what the cast members say about their major characters is purely headcanon. i think people forget that sometimes.

another thing is i’ve had people confide in me and admit that they’re nervous to share some of their content because what if people don’t like it—like in all honesty i think the reason this fandom is so secretive is because of the way more well known/bigger blogs are put on a pedestal. i’ll admit, i too fall into this trap of being scared to say something because i don’t wanna get all these nasty messages. but the thing is, you don’t have to vaguepost about a blog or content you don’t like. you don’t have to send mean anons to people who don’t ship what you do. you don’t have to say people “don’t get it” because they don’t headcanon the way you do. and you know why? it’s because of the good ol block button! heaven knows i’ve used it with many bigger blogs on here and i assure you, blocking out people and content you don’t like or agree with is very helpful. it makes the fandom feel better.

anyway that’s my rant. agree or don’t. jsut had to get it off my chest. everyone has a safe space on my blog. i’m trying to create a space where people don’t have to be afraid to share their thoughts and opinions. just because there are bigger and more well known blogs on here doesn’t mean that there are special privileges that come with it. that’s a bigger problem in the fandom. just because you frequent the show and have a decent following doesn’t mean you deserve anything more than the rest of the poeple in the fandom.

that’s all. agree or don’t idc lol