#pride and prejudice musical theater extended universe

[deep-down-in-drowsy-town]

Hey guys! While I've been away I've been working on a (very long) video essay about musical theater adaptations of Pride and Prejudice

And I wanted to share... this

Enjoy:)

[mysticdragon3md3]

So I finally watched Promare.   TL;DR review: I smiled so much my face hurt. ^_^

SPOILERS SPOILERS  SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I was a little worried about watching this movie subtitled in the theaters, because my eyes don't read subtitling as fast as they used to.  But thankfully, I was able to keep up.  And I'm really glad I did watch it in Japanese, because I was able to hear Galo use the kabuki cadence!  ^U^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Along with his mie poses, it was just like the aragoto genre!  LOL  *U*  I love it!!!  Really added to his other references to Japanese culture.  From his favorite weapon, to those traditional firefighters he kept lecturing about, to even his taiko drummed theme music!  It was very cohesive.  ^__^

I watched Professor Thorig's review before watching Promare, and though I stayed away from the spoiler section, it did tinge my perspective a bit.  They mentioned some things that I started to look out for.  

I think Trigger just wanted an excuse to experiment with CGI.  LOL  ^o^ There was SO MUCH COMPUTER ANIMATION IN THIS MOVIE.  O___o  I seriously didn't expect it.  Usually anime series/movies isolate computer animation to certain sections where they really needed its help.  But Promare was like Trigger wanted to use the whole movie to experiment, play, and get experience with computer animation, in any little way that they could practice.  I had heard that squares and triangles were used to symbolize different factions in the story.  But I feel like Trigger just picked those shapes because they are the easiest, most basic building blocks for computer animation. I mean, as a studio more well known for their frequent, fluid, and lovingly-indulgent hand-drawn animation, it's kind of weird how much computer assistance this movie had...Unless playing and experimenting with computer animation was the point of this movie.  If this is one of their initial big steps into really using computer animation, it would also make sense to start with the basic shapes (triangles, square) and then just build the art style of the entire movie around that.  So that rather than being a limitation in their current CGI capabilities that they were restricted to working with, it seemed more like an intentional cohesive style.  Anyway, I thought it looked awesome.  ^u^!  All of it.  *U*  I've always loved and preferred stylized art styles.

I only caught 2 Trigger/Gainax references.  Obviously the big drill for a multi-pilot mecha, was like Gurren Lagann.  But also, after Kray Foresight excused his destruction of buildings by saying everyone in the ark was already in underground shelters, I was so sure, one of the protagonists would accuse him of lying again.  But no one did.  In fact, no one said anything.  There was no response to that line, to give it any kind of real relevance to that scene or contextualize its purpose of being said in this movie.  Then I realized it was an Evangelion reference.  ^o^ LOL

Like many other people, I saw "The Marvel Symphonic Universe" video essay by Every Frame a Painting, and can't stop thinking about it whenever I watch a new movie.  But anime and videogame soundtracks seem to generally be less effected by the homogenization or invisibility of music scoring in contemporary Hollywood.  I haven't stopped listening to Persona 5's soundtrack for the past 2+ years.  And I am just amazed by the music of Promare.  Even just Lio's theme has so many layers and things going on in it.  *o*  Promare has so much distinct music, that's meant to be noticed, sticks in your head after the movie, resonates with climactic scenes, and I'm re-listening to it right now. ^_~  Trigger knows how to make music to get you pumped.  ^-^  

Also very surprised to see Production I.G. in the credits.  *o*  I mean, I know Trigger and Production I.G. worked together before, but I didn't know they were working on Promare together.  O.o

One thing that bothered me was how Lio kept saying the Mad Burnish pride themselves on not killing anyone, but then at the end, he's setting fire to the whole city?  And I really expected the story to back-up what Lio said by revealing that the pharmaceutical building they attacked at the beginning, was actually up to shady stuff.  But they never got around to that.  So then 30 years of "terrorizing"/"attacking without killing", and no one innocent was killed while setting _entire_ buildings on fire?????  Meh, whatever. This movie wanted you to be assured of Lio's goodness, but at the same time, a Trigger anime has got to have giant city-wide destructive battle scenes. ^^;  This movie was too much fun to drag logic into it.  

I find that a lot of Trigger properties have this moment where logic just isn't happening, but ya don't care.  LOL  Usually, I say that anime emphasizes conveying emotional experiences, so when it works on an emotional level, logic is negligible.  And even when Hollywood movies do that, we can forgive plot holes.  But wow, Trigger really takes advantage of that!  LOL  But hey, they've built up the cache!  All their characters are always so immediately endearing and cool, that you'd forgive them for anything and go along with whatever ride they take you on.  Sometimes things happen, it's not explained why (sometimes only after the fact), and you just have to go along with it.  Why are they punching the planet?  Meh, it looks cool.  Why are they fighting inside the ark?  Why does it look like a sunlit skyscraper city inside?  Why is the volcano's magma acting sentient to help Lio?  When was a Burnish able to give another human their fire?  How was Lio’s arms able to regenerate after they were turned to ash, after he made ash sound so final before, even enough to overcome Burnish fire’s regenerative powers?  Why is this able to do this?  So we can get to the next plot point. Or in the case of Deus Ex Machina: Because it looks cool.  ^o^  Sometimes the lack of explanations make the stakes vague at some points, but I'm sure that's just because I'm stupid.  I feel like everything is assumed to be explained by emotion and "fighting spirit", and thankfully, those are my jam, so I'm fine with it.  ^o^  

And I feel like some of the names referenced Greek mythology, but I couldn't remember enough to know why.  Like Aina's sister Heris, was pronounced like Eris...who I think was a moon goddess of the moon's phases?  ...Oh wait.  “Eris was the ancient Greek goddess and personification of strife. She...was the force of suffering for mankind, and she delighted in the pain of humans.” (https://www.reference.com/art-literature/were-powers-greek-goddess-eris-8d18b7664ac3d43b)  Well, I’m glad Heris didn’t “delight” in the Burnish’s suffering, even though she had to put them through a lot of that strife.  Then there were terms for the ark/spaceship or something. I can't remember, but it sounded like terms I had heard in Greek mythology or something.  Even the name of the city “Promepolis” sounded very ancient Greek.  And the final mecha at the end too, “Deux Ex Machina”...  But then there were lots of Roman mythology references too.  Like Vulcan.  And Ignis’s name was Latin.  Possibly along with the other Burning Rescue members.  o.o?  

Also surprised to find so many now "old school" A-list dub actors cast in this movie.  Johnny Yong Bosch was Lio Fotia?!?  O.o  I gotta hear that now.  Crispin Freeman as Kray Foresight.  I wonder how much he contrasted Kray's mostly quiet tone vs when he went crazy near the end?  And it was so cool to hear Kari Wahlgren also in this movie, after she dubbed Haruko from FLCL.  And always good to hear Michael Sinterniklaas, Matthew Mercer, and Yuri Lowenthal.  ^-^  I gotta start paying attention to all the new dub actors' names from nowadays too.  ^^;  

JUST A WARNING THAT THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IS PROBABLY CONTROVERSIAL.  DON'T @ ME.  I WON'T RESPOND.

One of the biggest things that Thorgi commented about Promare, was the "currently relevant real world reference" that the metaphor of this movie's story was. Thorgi was very vague about that in the non-spoiler section, so I tried to figure out what he could have meant, while I was watching Promare.  At first, I thought it was just about racism and prejudice.  But at the point where the pizza maker was getting arrested, he wasn't even a terrorist, and his skin was brown...and the Freeze Force was coming in like over-militarized police, AFTER the leader of the "terrorists" was arrested and everything should have supposedly been peaceful now...and Aina started disputing Vulcan's arrests by pointing out that such arrests were only according to special anti-terrorist laws and shouldn't be lawful during peacetime, especially vs a non-terrorist, but Vulcan was over-extending the special circumstances of the anti-terrorism laws anyway, even vs non-terrorists, just so he could arrest people for just existing...And then I realized that the Freeze Force was characterized by ICE bullets and ICE weapons, and these ICE officers were running in to arrest people who were just peacefully living their lives, and treat them like terrorists...  It became painfully clear that this movie may have been talking about a lot of the problems going on in America right now.  (I say "may have been", because I realize how arrogant it is to assume everything is about you/your culture.  So I could also be wrong.  Then again, Thorgi even noted that the pizza scene looked just like New York City's Times Square.  And they were eating _pizza_!  Isn't that one of the things that NY prides itself to be known for?)  And I'm glad!  It pisses me off when people blindly brag about how "perfect" America is, by *assuming* everywhere else sucks (when they haven't even looked at other cultures), and get angry if anything about it is criticized.  Not only is not criticizing systems the complete opposite of what all my schooling in American history/culture advocated about American rebellious spirit, but that's how you get a society that builds up festering problems.  And if there are too many blindly nationalistic people in America, then I'll gladly welcome other cultures/artists to criticize what we're letting happen over here.  Then again, Promare could all be just a very generalized metaphor about discrimination anywhere.  After watching the movie, I watched Thorgi’s spoiler section and he mentioned that the movie released on “Bi Visibility Day” and implied Galo might be bisexual/homosexual after the CPR scene was framed kind of romantically and really held on it.  Frankly, that CPR scene between Galo and Lio was very different from the previous similar scene when Lio tried/failed to revive a Burnish girl who turned to ash anyway.  Compared to that scene, the Galo/Lio CPR was more like a kiss.  So maybe Trigger was very intentionally trying to allude to LGBTQIA+ minorities also being discriminated against, with their movie’s metaphor?  I would very much like Galo as bisexual representation to be confirmed canon.  ^-^  

[deep-down-in-drowsy-town]

Y’all I need some motivation help please?

So. Context. A little while ago I came across some cursed knowledge: there are more at least a dozen Pride and Prejudice musicals in existence. At least 12 times throughout history, someone has attempted to turn Jane Austen’s classic social problems romantic comedy into a full-length work of musical theater.

Since then I’ve been on an obsessive quest to find, watch, and review them all. The idea is to turn all of my thoughts into a long video essay, so everyone has a comprehensive gateway into the Pride and Prejudice Musical Theater Extended Universe.

The problem is, video essays are hard to make. They take a lot of time and energy. And at this point I’ve hit an impasse. So to motivate myself, I want to gauge the interest of the tumblr community. So…

Thank you all!

[deep-down-in-drowsy-town]

Okay! OMG this is like my favorite thing to talk about i'm so happy

Let's start in 1954. The first every Pride and Prejudice musical. Written by Abe Burrows (the man who wrote for Guys and Dolls), First Impressions is a landmark. It is also a fever dream shit show. Spoilers: they try to make Mrs. Bennett the main character, to...questionable results. As far as I know there is no recording, but there is a soundtrack you can listen to.

Next up. Bernard J Taylor's Pride and Prejudice: The Musical. This debuted in 1993, and it's... decent. It's kind of slow paced, the lyrics are forgettable, but it is a straightforward rendition of the story, so whatever. If you're really curious, you can listen to the soundtrack here.

Then... oh boy. OH boy. We come to Lawrence Rush's adaptation. This is... I can talk about how much I love this musical for hours. It just does EVERYTHING right, with an absolutely GORGEOUS score and a- okay, just listen to this song:

THAT'S how you write a Darcy ballad!!! god. i'm in love. Anyway, you can watch the full 54 below concert here. I highly recommend.

Next! The Rita Abrams/ Josie Brown P&P Musical. This show is incredibly fun, and was clearly written by two real fans of the novel. I especially love this comedy number, by the lovely Mrs. Bennet:

This show also contains a pretty sick Darcy ballad, which is beautifully reprised at the end...

What's next? We got Richard Croxford/ Mark Doughery's take. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this is lost media- all I can find are two articles referencing it. Of course I'll keep looking- if someone finds more that would be MUCH appreciated!

Then, we got Jay Richard's take. This one is another tragedy. The composer managed to release one single from the show, this incredible Jane/ Bingley duet:

And then... he ran out of money. It was never produced. Which is tragic, because judging from just this song this would have been an INCREDIBLE musical.

What we DO have is Lindsay Warren Baker/ Amanda Jacobs' adaptation. There are actually a couple of versions of this show: the old version was simply called Pride and Prejudice: The Musical, and the more recent version is called Austen's Pride. This show is, quite simply, a masterpiece. Just check this out:

The moment there is a full official soundtrack and/or proshot, I'll be all over that. For now...

But wait! There's more! Pride and Prejudice (sort of) is a very silly parody of the novel, with an all-female cast and an upbeat pop score. Pretty fun stuff.

Then we got Prejudice and Pride, formerly known as American Pride. This is one of the more unique takes on Pride and Prejudice, being a gender-swapped folk musical set in modern day rural Tennessee. It's weird, but it somehow works. Check this out:

There is also a proshot of the off-Broadway production, which you can buy directly from the creators!

Speaking of unique takes on P&P, did I mention I Love You Because? This is just barely a P&P musical- they basically invent a whole new plot- but the characters and basic themes are there, so it counts. It's also just really good, and the Lizzie character (oh yeah it's also gender-swapped) is hilarious:

(you can also watch the whole musical here!)

And FINALLY, the most recent P&P musical: the dutch lesbian one! This one is being produced at the moment, and though I don't speak dutch, I can tell its really good, because, well, LOOK AT IT:

And... that's it. As far as I know, every single P&P musical. There are a few edge cases and other things, but you'll have to wait for my video essay to see that :)

Have fun!

Hey guys! While I've been away I've been working on a (very long) video essay about musical theater adaptations of Pride and Prejudice

And I wanted to share... this

Enjoy:)

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

Omg bless you for this

I have never felt so loved

Hey guys! While I've been away I've been working on a (very long) video essay about musical theater adaptations of Pride and Prejudice

And I wanted to share... this

Enjoy:)