#once on this island musical

[awhitewomansinstagram]

If you ever feel like you’ve made bad decisions just remember that somewhere out there is a theatre director at an all-white high school about to choose the spring musical

[zarnzarn]

(check the tags for more and also the tag for other fics in the story!)

athena, scowling as she gets bullied into marrying the people she pined over for the last 1000 years, suddenly realising something: wait a minute

odysseus: what?

athena, frozen: wait a damn minute you know what this gives me rights to do

penelope, also realising: oh fuck yes

odysseus: I don't like the sound of whatever's happening here what are you two fucking talking about?

athena, grabbing the marriage wine and tossing it back, then kissing her new wife and husband and handing penelope a spear as she picks up a mace: we'll be back shortly, you can start celebrations without us.

penelope: do u have anything that can start a fire

athena, pulling out an old contract and scanning it before throwing it over her shoulder: yes. are you scared of heights or can we fly.

penelope: fucking bring it I've waited years for this moment

zeus: where are they going

hermes, picking up the contract: they're going to... Ogygia? Oh fucking shit they're going to fucking kill Calypso- hey, hello, WAIT-

[oof-i-did-it-agaaiiin]

Thinking about how many musical tragedies feature the narrative almost as a character of its own. Like a force within the story, divided from the characters. Out of their control at times.

Orpheus had to turn around, that’s just how it goes. That’s the way the story is told.

Tony had to go and get himself killed. Of course he did. He’s Romeo. The story wills it so.

Jesus must die. No matter how much he wanted to live, no matter how much the people around him wanted him to live. It’s his role to die.

Alison can’t go back and change the events of that last car ride with her father. It’s set in stone, there in the past where it will always remain.

And then there are musicals like Once On This Island and Ride The Cyclone that embrace the role of inevitability in their stories and find joy anyway.

And then on the exact opposite side of the spectrum there’s the radical freedom from the narrative that’s seen in Into The Woods. The narrator is dead and now the story is no one’s but the characters. And there’s the lack of protection that comes with that, the chaos and confusion. But it’s theirs and it’s tragic but they make the best with it.

Those themes of Inevitability vs. Freedom and the meta understanding of story within a story. I can’t seem to get enough.

[black-is-beautiful18]

The theater community needs to have a serious conversation about whitewashing. Black and brown performers and those that enjoy theatre already have these conversations, but white thespians are light years behind for some unknown reason. I literally almost got into it with some white lady about the Urchins in Little Shop purposely being Black cuz according to her Black characters are only important enough to remain Black if they’re there to teach lessons about racism. Then had the nerve to call me close minded and racist. This was in the comment of an article uncle addressing this very thing mind you🧍🏾‍♀️.

[owlpuddle]

[doyouknowthismusical]

[fireworkss-exe]

MUSICAL BEATDOWN 2023 LINEUP

Newsies vs. Ride the Cyclone

Chicago vs. Once On this Island

Hadestown vs. Les Mis

Little Shop vs. Great Comet

Heathers vs. Falsettos

Carrie vs. JCS

Hamilton vs. Six

Phantom vs. Book of Mormon

[wrinklemcdinkle]

is this a weird crossover of fandoms. probably. but-

riptide pirates as trolls!!!? ouuughwa? gillion and the tidestriders whaaat, they started their tours after the 2nd movie.. trolls were kinda suspicious of them for a while with good reason but now they’re well renowned!

i just think they’re neat :D

[earmo-imni]

No-SGRUB Once On This Island Gamkar AU

Featuring Karkat as Ti Moune and Gamzee as Daniel

Rich highblood heir is running around being reckless while the poor mutantblood watches and gets a pale crush on him. When Gamzee gets his ass kicked through yet-to-be-determined events and almost dies Karkat saves him and keeps him alive long enough for a friend (Sollux? Kanaya?) to go and fetch other highbloods to take Gamzee back to highblood territory where he can get proper medical care. Problem is, Karkat has now fallen head over heels into his pale feelings for Gamzee, so he decides to follow him and take care of him. He makes it, but shenanigans ensue as while Gamzee reciprocates, Gamzee is also bound by expectations of his caste and his status as heir to the Grand Highblood, and his fellow highbloods and said Grand Highblood do not look too kindly on Gamzee hooking up with a lowblood, much less a mutantblood. They proceed to try to break them up/murder Karkat.

Now, the musical ends as a tragedy, but it’s framed as still a good story to be celebrated. The book the musical is based on is just a tragedy, plain and simple. My personal preference is to have this be an almost-tragedy: Gamzee gives in to pressure and kicks Karkat out, but Karkat refuses to leave and desperately stays outside whatever highblood compound Gamzee lives in in this au. This results in other purples nearly killing Karkat for his blood, only for Gamzee to break and save him and run off. This is definitely not fueled by my desire to fix the original musical This would probably spawn a hypothetical sequel involving a full-on rebellion developing, led by the beta trolls.

Alternatively, befitting the original “this is a tragedy, but it’s a good story to tell” ending of the musical, Gamzee and Karkat die together, fighting the other highbloods, and their story becomes a popular tragic romance among lowbloods.

Also the gods of the original musical would probably be the Ancestors, both living and dead. The dead ones are just chilling as ghosts, it’s fine.

[glimeres]

2002, Rosie O'Donnell Show - LaChanze performs Waiting For Life from the musical Once On This Island

[toyherb]

every time I see elliot and leah together they're having a blast. besties b4 the resties

[thewickedbohemian]

Dream Animated Movie Musical Tournament Seed Round Group F

For information on this tournament as well as the seed poll for group A go here

Why these musicals should be animated movies (in my opinion)

Once On This Island: it's basically a fairytale (so kinda feels like a Disney musical without really being one) and animation would be the only real way you could capture some of the things this show tries to do on film (just imagine "Mama Will Provide" alone and see the potential here)

The Music Man: classic old-fashioned musicals always seem like they could work well as animated movies to me and The Music Man seems to be one of the most still-beloved from that era (also the closest thing it's had to a movie recently, that 2000s one with Matthew Broderick, is kinda not well liked among fans of the musical so, like Harold Hill, this could deserve a chance at redemption)

Newsies: on the one hand it's a successful Disney musical adaptation of a successful Disney movie so some cynics might say the next step is to make a movie of that musical for even more money, on the other hand due to things like the addition of Katherine the stage musical does feel like enough of a unique entity it could be made into an animated movie without feeling like Disney's doing that kind of recycling (also one of the closest things Disney's ever done to a project with a pro-labor message, we could use that right about now)

City Of Angels: due to the dual-world nature of the story this could either blend live-action and animation (but animation less goofy than what Who Framed Roger Rabbit did) or black-and-white and color animation, either way this would definitely push some boundaries

Venice: although to some the book could use a few touch-ups (but that's what the second look a movie'd give a show like this is for) I still think at its best it's an underrated powerful show that deserves a way to reach a wide audience and as for why animation it'd help provide a layer of distance between some of the content both for soft-hearted viewers when the plot, y'know, Goes There, and for those in positions of power such that they might feel its political content hit dangerously close to home otherwise

Spring Awakening: the messages of this show are timely enough for it to deserve a movie and animation would both help the distance like with Venice and play into the whole dark romanticism of the show's aesthetic otherwise (if I had my druthers over how this would be an animated movie it'd (even if it had to be "drawn" via computer animation and would have to be 3D-animated as long as it could look close to the 2D vibe) do that thing Batman: The Animated Series did with the black backgrounds but have a more "flowy" sort of style like a dark version of certain Disney movies' aesthetic)

Caroline, Or Change: this is another one where it just feels like it'd work better animated but I don't quite know how to say how but this powerful story does deserve to get more notice

[haveyouseenthismusical]

[black-is-beautiful18]

I'm a white theatre person in a mostly white theatre community and you are spot on with them being lightyears behind - pretty much every theatre company I know of locally will have on their website and also on the audition postings that they 'accept anyone etc' but will continue to cast white/able bodied/skinny near exclusively.

No cuz everyone must be everyone.

Take Wicked for example. The West End is the first to have both a Black Glinda and Elphaba. Broadway has only had a Black woman play Elphaba as a swing, which is just as important, but they have yet to cast a Black performer in any prominent role outside of Brittney Johnson as Glinda a few years ago and Taye Diggs as Fieryo in their early years of being on Broadway despite said character literally being a POC in the books! Nessa Rose is always played by an able bodied performer as if there aren’t disabled performers who are very talented and very capable of playing the character. It makes no sense. It’s ok for a Black man to play the Phantom but it takes literal YEARS for a Black woman, or any woman of color for that matter, to play Christine only for Broadway to end its 20+ year run a freaking year later. Then they say “Well we should be able to play whoever we want” but when you get a Black Juliet, a Black Macbeth, a Desi man playing the Green Knight, a Black woman playing King Edward, etc we get called every slur they can think of because that statement is truly only meant for them. It is an excuse for them to disregard the importance of Black and Brown performers and everyone who works in theatre including the fans. Cuz why do you think you have the right to play TiMoune when we can’t even play a freaking fairy in a Shakespeare play without someone saying it’s unrealistic for us to have the role due to the color of our skin???? We can’t even get proper representation in freaking Hadestown which is a show that prides itself on being “diverse”. The audiences are just as much at fault too. Their racial bias is the exact reason why ticket sales plummet as soon as a Black or Brown performer is casted in a lead role. I can’t even find videos of Yola and Phillip Boykin as Hades and Persephone for god’s sake! Two dark skin and plus size performers! Grammy and Tony award winners! We have to prove ourselves to everyone including directors despite our credentials and it’s sickening.