#tgc bootleg

[itzmoth]

[thatisntverycombefair]

congrats on pierre from tgc for being the most soggy cat coded character ive ever seen/aff

[virgoblush]

hi if anyone has the bootleg of the great comet with shoba narayan as natasha (and i think dave is in it as pierre) hook ya girl up p Le as e

[mindcontorted]

can we take a moment to acknowledge the swimming motion analtoe does during the duel because MY GOD

[xeebs]

Y’ALL I FOUND A PROSHOT OF GREAT COMET!!!

[aesthetically-pleasing-trashcan]

definitely not a preludes audio recording 👀👀

merry christmas hoes

act I: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VaJX3NpmydeY8e1GPxwNrXq4CcuGip8j/view?usp=drivesdk

act II: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r9x6WuZzubkP-lj24p7Bszf81V26gtEP/view?usp=drivesdk

[musicalmatrix]

These Boots Were Made for Watching

*ahaha I think I’m so funny with my title

Alrighty, so I’m breaking down and posting my bootleg list on here. Please be aware that I’m a v casual bootleg collector (aka only links to videos & not good cast info) and am just here so my friends and I can watch some shows, but I also obsessively collect any bootleg of any show presented to me because I’m like that. I’ll put my wants at the bottom. 

Contact me if you have any questions or want more details on anything. I’ll only gift until I get tired, but I’m always up for a trade.

Updated 1/30/2017

Musicals:

13! the Musical

21 Chump Street

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

1776

Amelie (Sam Barks & Pippa Soo)

Aida (Idina)

Aladdin

Allegiance

American Idiot

Anastasia (Hartford & OBC)

Annie

Anything Goes (Sutton Foster)

Assassins

Avenue Q

Bare: A Pop Opera

Beaches

Beauty and the Beast

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Be More Chill (crappy but still)

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Big Fish

Billy Elliot

The Bridges of Madison County

A Bronx Tale

Bonnie and Clyde

The Book of Mormon (OBC & Ben Platt)

Bright Star

Cabaret (Emma Stone)

Carrie (OBC & Alice Ripley)

Catch Me If You Can

Cats (Revival & Stephanie J Block)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (OBC)

Chicago

Cinderella (Carly Rae Jepsen & Laura Osnes & Keke Palmer)

Come From Away

Dance of the Vampire

Disaster

Dear Evan Hansen

Dracula

Dreamgirls

Dogfight

Elf

Elisabeth das Musical

Evita (Revival)

Falsettos (Revival)

The Fiddler on the Roof (Revival)

Finding Neverland (OBC & Jeremy Jordan)

First Date

Follies (Bernadette Peters)

Frozen

Fun Home

The Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Gigi (Revival)

Grease (Laura Osnes)

Gray Gardens

Groundhog Day

Hamilton (OBC & Javi Muñoz and Lexi Lawson & Chicago)

Hair (Revival)

Hairspray (Aaron Tveit & Andrew Rannells)

Heathers

Hedwig and the Angry Itch (Andrew Rannells)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

If/Then

In the Heights (OBC & Javi Muñoz & Krysta Rodriguez & Tour w/ Lexi Lawson)

Into the Woods

Jekyll and Hyde

Kinky Boots (OBC & Brenden Urie)

The Last Five Years (Betsy Wolfe)

Legally Blonde

Les Miserables (Revival & 25th Anniversary)

The Lightning Thief

The Lion King

The Little Mermaid

Little Shop of Horrors

Little Women

Love Never Dies (Sierra Boggess & Anna O’Bryne)

Mamma Mia!

Matilda

Memphis

Merrily We Roll Along

Miss Saigon (OBC & 25th Anniversary)

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Josh Groban & Scott Stangland)

Newsies (OBC & Corey Cott)

Next to Normal (Aaron Tveit and Kyle Dean Massey)

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Oliver!

Once (OBC & Arthur Darville)

Peter Pan (Tour)

Phantom

The Phantom of the Opera (25th Anniversary & Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess & Julia Udine & Matt Cammelle)

Pipe Dream (Revival)

Pippin (Revival & Kyle Dean Massey)

The Pirate Queen

The Prom

RENT (OBC & Aaron Tveit)

The Scarlet Pimpernel (OBC & Revival)

School of Rock

Shuffle Along (Revival)

Sister Act

Something Rotten

South Pacific (Kelly O’Hara)

Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark 2.0

Spongebob the Musical

Spring Awakening (OBC & Krysta Rodriguez & DW & Matt Doyle & Christy Altomare) 

Sunday in the Park with George (Revival)

Sweeny Todd

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Tuck Everlasting

Urinetown

Violet

The Visit

Waitress (Jessie Mueller & Sara Barielles)

War Paint

The Wedding Singer

West Side Story (Karen Olivo)

Wicked (OBC & Nicole Parker and Aaron Tveit & Willemijn Verkaik & Eden Espinosa & Donna Vivino & Stephanie J Block & Shoshana Bean & Mandy Gonzalez & Jessica Vosk & Kara Lindsey & Teal Wicks and Adam Lambert & Rachel Tucker and Lee Mead & Marcie Dodd and Ally Mauzey & Jennifer DiNoia & Donna Murphy and Kyle Dean Massey and Alli Mauzey)

Wonderland

Young Frankenstein

Audios:

The Band’s Visit

Dear Evan Hansen (Michael Lee Brown & Colton Ryan)

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Dave Malloy and Pippa Soo & OBC & OBC w/ Dave Malloy & Dave Malloy and Ingrid Michaelson & Oak Onaodowan and Ingrid Michaelson & Scott Stangland and Lauren Zarkin & Last Performance)

Hadestown

Hamilton (San Francisco & LA)

Mean Girls

Spongebob the Musical

Wicked (Jonah Platt and Kara Lindsey)

Plays:

Be More Chill

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Much Ado About Nothing (David Tennant and Catherine Tate)

Peter and the Starcatchers

What I want:

The Last Five Years (Sam Barks)

Any Wicked I don’t have

Eclipsed

Any musical in German

Any POTO I don’t have (esp w/ Sam Hill)

Jane Erye

It Shoulda Been You

The Humans

Hamilton (Mandy Gonzalez)

Addams Family

Cry Baby

[peachybeesplease]

quick post before going back to studying but I would literally kill a man for a tgc bootleg with oak as pierre

[bobbymalerr]

what bootlegs?

[toembracehimandclingtohim]

disclaimer: 

there's a really small chance this will happen, as Dave Malloy said:

“alas i think not, the logistics and expense would be an awful lot. and honestly i don't really think it would translate very well...”

However, since you only have to enter your name (and email), it won't hurt to do it I think. If it turns out to be useless at least we've somehow shown that we wanted it, right? 

I completely agree with the fact that the show is best experienced live and a recording will not come close.

Thay said, I'd rather have something than nothing. They just have 20 more performances, after that it's over. Maybe a tour but that will not have the same staging and it will not be with the original cast, sadly. There's a big chance TGC will slowly fade away, even though it has a dedicated fan group.

I think it would be great if this show would be preserved for people to see and I'm sure it will convince everyone that the show is indeed better experienced live (I'm sure they can make it more convincing by letting the cameras sometimes focus on interactive parts the viewer is missing out on because he's not physically there)

The Great Comet has been revolutionary in a lot of ways, the casting, the music, the staging, the interaction.. It's been basically revolutionary on every front. Why not also in this way?

If it's filmed professionally it will probably stay in a lot of people's minds for longer than it would if it would just close and we wouldn't hear from it again. Some of us here will not forget it, but many people will. I truly believe that a professional recording will increase the chances of this beautiful show being revived in the future. I think this is their chance to make The Great Comet a thing for more people than just who've seen it/the fans. 

[tveitz]

so who do i have to kill to get a great comet video bootleg with phillipa soo as natasha

[c0rpsedemon]

ah yes, my comfort media [gestures to a horror movie from 2009, shakespeare's most famous tragedy, the les mis tenth anniversary concert, a poem from 1858, dttm hellfire and a poorly filmed bootleg of tgc]

[cynda-ppreciation]

I also found some EXTREMELY BLESSED Cyndaquil art.

The bootlegged nature of the cards becomes obvious upon close inspection. But there’s nothing wrong with that art. It even has my preferred dark colors! Pretty awesome!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a Typhlosion to complete the set. But I’ll have to see if I can find the art, since this was really cool!

Enjoy!

Pokémon TGC art

So I was chatting with several other members of the Pokéganda community and we got on the topic of the Trading Card Game and started sharing cards with one another. I unfortunately never got into the TGC as a kid, since the Trading Card craze kind of passed me by. But a few years ago, I picked up some bootlegged cards at a flea market with the intention of playing with my siblings after playing the Gameboy version of the TGC. But I lack the energy cards to play, so they ended up collecting dust in a ziplock bag im a drawer somewhere.

So I got them out today to show off some of the really weird and bad bootlegs and in the process, found some Raichu cards. And thought I’d share them here. Some of them are only alright.

I don’t know if that’s CG or whatnot. But it doesn’t look nearly as good as some of the other art.

I mean, look at this blessed boy, chilling night and day.

But also ready to throw down if you are. I mean, that thunder throw implies that he literally throws a Pokémon into another Pokémon. Hardcore.

But probably the best thing is THIS BLESSED ART. LOOK AT HOW CUTE MY SON IS. HE’S SO CAREFREE. THIS ART MAKES ME HAPPY.

I’ll be sure to post more Raichu TGC stuff here if I find any. Thanks for reading!

[teatreethot]

UNPOPULAR MUSICAL THEATRE OPINIONS (im so sorry)

Okay first of all, I am a theatre kid. I literally did Phantom Of The Opera cosplay when I was 3 because I didn’t want to make an animal mask with the paper plates. Also, this is MY opinion. So please don’t spam the comments calling me a fake fan. This fandom is already toxic as it is.

- I don’t like Starkid. I’ve watched every Starkid show and honestly none of them are funny or entertaining.

- Hamilton, DEH, Heathers, BMC, BOM, Falsettos and Six are all incredibly overrated. Lemme explain why:

- Hamilton is overrated because Jesus Christ. I’ve listened to Hamilton since they were off Broadway and can I just say, while it is an amazing piece of art and is somewhat educational (literally half of it is fanfiction) the fandom has taken it out of proportions and destroyed it. It’s just gotten so cringy because of people who like it a bit too much. 

- DEH and Heathers are both good musicals. They are not bad okay. I’m not saying that but I feel like they are a bit too overhyped. Especially DEH. ‘Treebros’ is necrophilia and we don’t have that stuff on this blog okay. Again, I’m not saying that I hate them, because the music is good, but there are better things.

- Side note: DEH should not have won Best Orchestrations at the Tonys because The Great Comet was by far superior.

- I hate Be More Chill. I can’t even explain why. The thought of it makes me cringe. I can’t look at the cover of the soundtrack without flinching. I’ve listened to the entire thing and I regret it. I will never like it.

- BOM, Falsettos and Six are all great musicals, but everyone just keeps talking about them. Like yes, I know about BOM, and yes I know that it’s funny and has good music, but it’s not better that Phantom Of The Opera? And Falsettos is good but it is so goddamn overhyped. It was NOT robbed at the Tonys, because ti had a very limited cast and no ensemble so it was pretty obvious that it was going to be lost between things like DEH, TGC and Hello Dolly!

- Side note: I don’t think Hello Dolly! should’ve won all of the things it did but I’ll get to that later.

- Six is good. But it is so annoying. It was great at the start but the only songs that people actually listen to are Don’t Lose Your Head and Don’t Lose Your Head. I’m so sick of it.

- Anyways, classics like Phantom and Les Mis and anything Lloyd Webber or Sondheim are far superior to modern day musicals because they encompass the true spirit of musical theatre.

- The 2017 Tonys.

- The 2017 goddamn Tonys.

- I’m just gonna go and say it. Hello Dolly! did not deserve all of it’s awards. DEH did not deserve Best Orchestrations, which rightfully belonged the TGC. Speaking of TGC, that is a show that was truely robbed. Lucas Steele should’ve won best featured actor, not Gavin Creel. He literally danced, sung, acted and played advanced violin all at the same time. And the set of TGC was basically stairs and platforms, so it was more of a challenge. He deserved it an I will stand by that until I die.

- Mike Faist didn’t deserve the nomination. He was barely on stage and barely a character.

- Falsettos wasn’t robbed. Don’t even start me.

- I CANNOT HANDLE LAMS. OR JAMILTON. I JUST CANT.

- I you want to know why I can’t handle Hamilton ships (Lams and Jamilton in particular) than DM me and I’ll give you my 700 word essay because damn.

- I’m going to get attacked for this but here is a list of actors/actresses that are widely overrated in my opinion (I’m not saying that they’re bad because they are obviously amazing but I don’t really connect with them): Mike Faist, Phillipa Soo, Lin Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Daveed Diggs, Barret Wilbert Weed, Ben Frankhauser (i spelt his name wrong i am so sorry), Gavin Creel, Andrew Ranelles, Jonathan Groff, Laura Osnes (butchered her name too i think?), Willemijn Verkaik, Desi Oakley, Mariah Rose Faith.

- I don’t really like Mariah Rose Faith’s voice and while she is honestly amazing, I feel like she isn’t right for Regina George.

- One of the best shows to ever grace the Broadway stage is Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.

- I’ve read War and Peace over 4 times. I know the plotline. TGC covers it perfectly. The acting, the actual stage and how it is so interactive, Lucas Steele, the way that all the ensemble dances, sings and play and instrument, Lucas Steele, Lucas Steele playing the violin. Like damn. It is the true meaning of robbed.

- Lucas Steele deserves so much more recognition.

- I like Denee’s Natasha better than Pippa’s. They are both incredible singers who blow me away everything they open their mouths, but I feel like Denee really shows Natasha’s character. Pippa does the same with Eliza.

- Lucas Steele and Reeve Carney recognition month. Their falsettos can blow me into next Spring.

- The ‘and Peggy’ joke was never funny. Watch me offend the whole Hamilton fandom with that.

- Lams isn’t or wasn’t real. Sorry.

- Say what you goddamn want, but I will literally never like the Prom. I have been called homophobic for not liking it so many times and I really am not. I just don’t like the music, I’m not saying that I’m against the LGBT community,

- I have watched all of Glee (and a secret deleted bootleg of Darren Criss’s Hedwig run) and I don’t like Darren Criss. There. I said it.

- Here’s a list of underrated actors/actresses: Leslie Odom Jr, LUCAS STEELE, The entire Broadway cast of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Rachel Tucker, Jessie Mueller, Eva Nobelzada, REEVE CARNEY, Christy Altomare.

- I don’t like how LMM was actually in Hamilton or In The Heights. He can write songs, sure, but he’s not the best singer. I feel like Javi should’ve been on the cast recordings. Then I would be more inclined to listen to them.

- These are only the ones that I can think of without having to actually think (this sentence makes no sense) so I’m sorry if I offended you. Please remember that this is just my opinion.

[sparklyaxolotlstudent]

Miraculous Ladybug Trading Card Game!

Bootleg makers never cease to impress me.

Found these at the flea market, so of course I had to get a couple of them. All of them had these two illustrations and another one had Ladybug's face. They were 10 pesos each package (like 50 cents?)

One package had 8 cards and another had 9... The quality is not that bad, a little thinner than real trading cards, but they're not flimsy. ALL cards are "foil" (The second picture shows how they look) and they seem to be mostly stills from the series, with some edits(Ladybug with her hair loose, the card 98/110) or fan art (like one of the packages).

I have no idea how it is supposed to be played, like all bootleg TGC, their stats (in this case "Ability" and "Power") make no sense, but at least I can understand the Rock, Paper, Scissors symbols. Apparently, there are 110 cards, but I wouldn't bet on it, since.... Well, bootleg.

I might get a couple more packages if I see them again

P.s. my favorite is the Alya/Marinette selfie and the "pound it" from Stormy Weather

[mamsellechosette24601]

Detailed description of Brazil's Great Comet of 1812

This is the stage with the denominations I gave to make it easier to follow

VERY LONG POST ahead, about “Natacha, Pierre, e o Grande Cometa de 1812”, the Brazilian version of Dave Malloy’s “Great Comet” which opened last Friday August 24th in São Paulo. In this post I will detail how this version differs from the Broadway one (keeping in mind that all I know from it comes from the YouTube bootleg), make some analyses and from time to time bring up War & Peace, because I can’t help myself. So of course, SPOILERS (for W&P, I won’t go beyond the part where tgc ends).

The Main Differences:

1- In this version, Pierre/Natasha was even more canon than in the book. I will explore the details in chronological order, but keep this in mind;

2- There were, of course, changes to the lyrics, driving it further away from the novel, and also making use of more explicit language;

3- Characters had more defining good/evil characteristics, so I think some of the subtlety was lost, but at the same time it helped to draw out more clearly some of the themes.

Because of my sitting position, I sometimes couldn’t see what was going on in the right, but had a privileged view of the actors walking around the tables to go up the central stage. 

Once you arrive, there’s folk Russian music playing, waiters are bringing people food, and for the countdown, you hear ras, ras dva, and finally ras dva tri.

 Act 1

Prologue

The Prologue is on YouTube, so I won’t go over it in detail, but a few observations: before the music begins, you see some soldiers fighting. The one in the center is Andrei, who seems to have been wounded – was that a reference to the novel, where Andrei is treating himself from the wound he received in Austerlitz? Also, Nikolai’s name (Natasha’s brother and Sonya’s fiancé) appears in the cast list, so I imagine one of the soldiers must have been him, as he doesn’t appear in any other moment.

When the chords started playing, I looked around and Pierre was standing right next to me. Status: choked by tears of joy.

During the stanza “And this is all in your program…” dancers come singing and playing instruments, walking around the tables, looking people in the eye to make sure they understand.

Pierre

Also on YouTube, so the only note I’ll make is: throughout the song, Helene is there laid back on the stairs next to Dolokhov, flirting openly with him and laughing at Pierre.

Moscow

The Akhrosimov residence is on the left stage, while the Bolkonskys live on the right.

The impression I got of Marya was that this version of her was nicer, less strict than Grace McLean’s. Yes, she worries a lot about the family’s name and cares for decency, but she’s not only old-school, she’s also out of fashion. During Prologue, the word they use for her is “careta”, which has this double meaning, and it shows. Her style is different from everyone else’s, brighter and floral, and during Moscow she shows off some dance moves and you just know that she’s doing it to embarrass Natasha and Sonya. She can be endearing and didn’t seem to hate Sonya that much.

Private and Intimate Life

So, turning entirely to the right stage now, we see Old Bolkonsky sitting on his chair and Mlle Bourienne dancing gaily to his right. He drools, and she cleans it from the floor. Instead of “a young suitor” or “some cheap French thing”, Old B. says he’ll look for a whore. He turns to the audience, asking if there are any whores there, and then turns to Mlle Bourienne. The whole show in general is quite explicit, which I will detail further.

Natasha and the Bolkonskys

Natasha arrives and the awkwardness of the moment is shown by Mary going down the stage and getting lost as she wanders through the right-side tables trying to reach the central stage. Once they meet, they say their famous greetings and Mary just looks back at Old Bolkonsky and shakes her head, like saying “err... this girl is CANCELLED”. They keep silent, just smiling a lot in the fakest way possible, and they walk a bit around the central stage, one getting in the way of the other, before Mary starts “AND FROM THE FIRST GLAAAANCE”. There’s no sitting at the table, as it wouldn’t work, once only the people on the right would be able to see it.

About Mary’s character: she’s self-assumedly plain, but her costume is quite glittery. The Mary we meet here is haughty, I sensed in her more pride than in the book or in Gelsey Bell’s version. The audience stands on Natasha’s side, and her quick escape from the house seems more rightful than childish.

No One Else

Also on YouTube, so everyone can go there and see how beautiful it is, with the blue lighting and Andrei coming to dance with Natasha and lift her up in the air to fly away. An important detail about the translation: instead of “The Mooooooonnn….”, right in the beginning, Natasha sings “The Bluuuueeeee…”. The Moon is still very much present during this song, but this change connects with the deep significance blue lighting has in the play in general, and even more in this version specifically. On Broadway, blue lighting appears during No One Else and by the end of Dust and Ashes. For me it always seemed an indicator of purity, honesty, real love, as it was put in contrast with the dominating red and yellow lights, the two-faced and ill-meaning aristocratic society. Now this view was enhanced, for when Natasha acknowledges the colour, it becomes something else: the sky. Those who have read War & Peace or at least watched BBC’s 2016 miniseries, will remember the deep connection there’s between Andrei and the “lofty, infinite heavens”. Throughout the novel, the sky is a symbol of God, joy, eternal love that knows no bounds, love for the world, for our fellow men, for those who have done us wrong. Natasha lives this sky, lives the blue. She’s already found what Pierre is looking for, and from now on we will watch as she loses touch with it and attempts to regain it.

The Opera

Sonya began singing and detailing everything and I didn’t even remember that it wasn’t in the original language. It was so good. Now, a few book characters appear in the cast list, such as Vera, Berg, Julie, Boris, Anna Mikhailovna, Anna Pavlovna, Prince Vasili, Denisov… I think they were all just named extras in The Opera. No references to them at any other moment.

After Helene talks to Marya and the girls, Marya turns to them and says Helene is a snake, followed by hissing sounds. Beautiful. I think Helene was also wearing a snake-shaped necklace but I’m not 100% sure.

The ballet and the actual opera were everything you could expect.

Something that happens in the translation all throughout the play is that most of the time in Portuguese, you can’t say as much as in English with the same amount of syllables. An example is “tickle”, which in Portuguese is “fazer cócegas”. I’m mentioning it because I was very curious about this translation, and so “I’d tickle you all if I could” became “I’d like to dance with you all”, because a literal translation would never work. For me, it became less dream-like, and so that’s an example of how translation can get in the way.

Anatole’s entrance was not as remarkable, as in the stage there is no door, and so he just walked up the stairs, but he walked up-stage just as he should (no contact with the audience, however). Instead of “good-looking”, Helene calls him “gostoso”, which is a more explicit form of “hot”.

Natasha and Anatole

This one, even the interactions, were very similar to Broadway. But the impression this Anatole gives is quite different from Lucas’. Watching the Broadway version, I can never get very angry at Anatole, simply because Lucas Steele is too charismatic and has this “good guy” aura around him. I would call him ignorant, cocky, selfish, but not evil. One can even believe he’s in love with Natasha (in a shallow way). Now, someone would have to really distort everything to defend Brazil’s Anatole. It’s impossible not to realize that he’s only seeing Natasha as an object, he’s very vulgar in his gestures, and yet you can also understand why she is being fooled, what she sees in him is not what he’s showing the audience. Of course, I can’t speak of it universally, but I watched the play with some family members who didn’t know anything about the story, and they all felt pity for Natasha, none of them accused her of being “dumb”. Maybe it was to their own credit, maybe to the actors’. I personally liked this version of Anatole a lot, as it better suited my Pierre/Natasha/Andrei sensibilities, and was in a way still able to redeem Natasha’s actions – the trap throughout the play was just too well set.

Natasha didn’t sing the part that isn’t in the album (“nothing, it was nothing…”), which made me a bit sad.

The Duel

Let’s talk a bit about Pierre. Most of the time he’s sitting down in the middle circle, he has a drowsy, drunk look, as if almost falling asleep. In “Pierre” and “The Duel”, people don’t call him “old-man”, but refer to him rather as “imbecile” and “buffoon”. It makes him all the more pathetic in the club, dancing and drinking, pretending he belongs in the group, when deep down he very well knows everyone there is just laughing at him. And because at first glance he does look blind to the insults, people just find him more and more pathetic. In a way, this version of Pierre reminded me of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, but I will talk more about this in “Pierre and Anatole”. Also: “Oh, dear Andrei’s betrothed?” was ON POINT.

So, more examples of how this production was more explicit. Anatole says “I’ll possess her”, instead of “I’ll make love to her”. For contemporary audiences, the second one is an euphemism for the same action, but in the 19th century it’d be understood as “courting”. There’s an ambiguity in English which is lost in the Portuguese translation, and in this case it further condemns Anatole. The same happens in “Pierre”, for “he’s charming, he has no sex”, would have meant that Pierre had no gender, but in Portuguese they translated it clearly to mean that he no longer practices the action of having sex. I’m detailing this because I find translation fascinating and all in all, I think all these little changes helped set up Natasha and Pierre as a more obvious pairing than they originally are (genderless old-man vs sad buffoon... I mean, there is a different feel to it, isn’t there?).

A bit now about Helene. She wore tights, black boots, a bathing suit and an army’s jacket for all the “party” scenes. She was literally all out there. And while this contributes to making her more “slutty”, her reactions during the actual duel were quite redeeming. Before realizing that he had not been shot, Pierre crumbles into a semi-fetal-position, and so, adding to a very long cry when Dolokhov shoots, Helene also rushes to Pierre to make sure he’s okay. So yes, Helene is full of malice and loves tricking people so she can have things her own way, but she doesn’t want anyone to die. Not for her. When Anatole says that she “brings out the beast in men” and she replies with “what can I say, it’s a gift”, she seemed tired, to me. Like she has to keep this evil reputation and has maintained it for so long that at this point doesn’t even know how to act any other way, but is still capable of some regret. I don’t know, I like to think this about her.

When the duel is over, one of the extras gets out of the stage helping Dolokhov. They came right past me and couldn’t move through, it was too narrow for two guys at once, so the one carrying Dolokhov told me “excuse me, he’s badly wounded”. I moved out the chair, they passed, Dolokhov in pain, and this one interaction that I got made me extremely happy.

Talking to Pierre, Anatole says “be glad, YOU live to love one more time”. I’m telling you this show has a Pierretasha agenda.

Dust and Ashes

The beginning of the song was very good, more than ever I felt Pierre’s tiredness of living in ridicule, but I didn’t think the ending was as impactful as in English. My favorite line, “did I squander my divinity, was happiness within me this whole time?” didn’t make it into it, they translated to something I can’t quite remember. Now, Pierre sang “They say we are asleep until we LOVE”. Yes, this happened so it could fit into the syllables, but I really like this shift from romantic love to a more general love, maybe the same pure love I talked about in “No One Else”. And of course, by the end of the song, lights shifted to blue.

Sunday morning

I don’t have much to say, except that the three remained in the left stage, with Sonya holding two mirrors and Natasha a candle. We don’t see them going to church, it’s just mentioned.

Charming

There was no change of clothes nor Helene giving Natasha her necklace, but Helene’s actress gave a complete show. She was there using the entirety of the of the central stage, lights turned green and were flickering by the end, it was hypnotical and the song people applauded the most. There was this very funny moment when Helene starts raising her skirt and Natasha is blushing and thinking “wait, is she really doing it”, and then just rushes to her and puts her skirt down, embarrassed and smiling. 

The Ball

During the ball, Natasha wore a white and red gown, which matched perfectly with Anatole’s suit. You just really want Natasha to escape from Anatole’s clutches (I’m not going solely by my biased views. That’s the impression my aunt who had no idea of the story got. She really hated Anatole and really shipped Pierretasha). Throughout the song, Natasha is saying that she must leave him and other similar things. Then, in the end, after they kiss, Natasha says something in the lines of “I don’t leave him”, and so when they rush to leave the stage there’s this feeling I didn’t get before that maybe something more would happen between them. We know it isn’t the case, but for someone who was seeing it for the first time, it could have been ambiguous. The play had certainly been so far explicit enough for it to be a possibility.

 Act 2

Letters

           This one was very nice. Pierre was in the central upper stage, Natasha in the left, and Mary in the right. There were extras around them holding paper and a plume, writing the letters as the characters dictated. Pierre says he’s found the number of Beelzebub (which is me second favourite name for Satan after Mephistopheles) and actually says “six-hundred and sixty-six”, which brought some peace to my soul. When the Golden Trio sings together (Natasha, Pierre and Mary are a golden trio, hear me out), they’re not meeting round the circle and looking at each other in the eye, something I always loved about the Broadway version, but each in their own corner, the holophotes shining bright upon them. In a way, it intensified how lonely they were at that moment, while also hinting that they would come to cross paths in their parallel journeys.

While the Golden Trio is singing, Anatole and Dolokhov climb up the stage, and you see Dolokhov composing the loooooove letter. The letter then makes its way to Natasha, going through the hands of the people sitting nearer the upper part of the stages, and only gets to her when it’s time for her to reply. So, during the entire “Natalie, Natalie” thing, Anatole is in the central stage making sexual gestures. You really don’t want Natasha to fall for it. And then she does. Nothing new under the sun. Natasha and Anatole didn’t share the stage, Anatole remained in the central and Natasha in the left, glancing at each other voluptuously across the room. This happened a lot in the play in general, there’s much less people crossing one another when they are not next to each other physically.

Natasha and Sonya

Not much to say, it was heart-breaking and similar to Broadway.

Sonya Alone

It was beautifully sung and there was a sad purple lighting, but I think this song suffered a bit from translation. Instead of “I’ll stand in the dark for you”, Sonya would say “I’ll guide you through the darkness”, which for me is something less Sonya-like. I don’t think she believes she’s capable of guiding anyone, she herself is afraid of the dark, but even so she’ll stay there for her cousin, and for me that’s what makes the song so powerful.

Preparations

           The translation was surprisingly good, like in The Opera, it took me a while to remember it wasn’t in English. Dolokhov’s actor did an incredible job overall, and this song had one of the funniest scenes: instead of Natasha appearing to Anatole in a ghostly light and almost making it seem like he might care for her, Anatole sings that part to Dolokhov as if he were Natasha. He hugs him from behind and points out his “traits” suggestively (quel pied, quel regard!) while Dolokhov is just like “hey man, no homo now, I’m mad at you”. It was a great scene.

Balaga

           I must say that “Balaga” was the most well translated song, because just like in the original, I couldn’t understand a word of what was being said.

The Abduction

“Adeus meus bons ciganos, a festa agora é outra; adeus Matryosha, deixa eu te beijar; lembra de mim, Steshka, adeus, adeus, adeus; au revoir, meus bons ciganoooos, agora adeus, adeus, adeus”. I might have been the only one singing along to Anatole’s goodbye, but it was lovely. Then, everyone started dancing and they were so energetic and there was this violent orgy and one of the dancers was dressed up as a bear… yeah, we got some chaos. But I was sad that it wasn’t The Chaos we get on Broadway, once the other main characters didn’t join up. Marya was there, dancing by herself and having the time of her life around the left-side tables, while Helene, Anatole and Dolokhov were in the central stage doing what they are best at. Unfortunately though, at no moment did Helene come down to meet up with Marya, something I was actually hoping would happen. Now, I imagine there was someone dancing in the right-side as well, but I couldn’t see who they were. By the show’s logic, it’d have been Mary. If anyone knows, please share this info, I appreciate it, thanks a lot.

In My House

“Não entra no meu LAAARR, VermEeee”. “Verme” means worm. Another word they used at some point referring to Anatole was “crápula”, and I’ll adopt it from now on.

           Anatole runs from the left stage, where he had been face to face with Marya, and goes to the central one, where he’s still able to see Natasha, grab her hands and try to pull her, but a servant stops him. Anatole escapes leaving Natasha with the fur-cloak (which was actually just a mantle, because “casaco de pele” is too long).

           This song was not as scary as when Grace McLean sings it, but still amazing, and Natasha’s acting was heart-breaking, all of her a wounded bird.

A Call to Pierre

           Pierre’s “Whaaaaaaat” was very funny, he had been asleep when the servant called him and was probably facing now a hangover, so it sounded a lot more like someone who had been awoken in the middle of their sleep cycle and is still trying to decide whether they care enough about what is going on in real life, rather than sheer surprise. But then he goes to Marya and by then is fully energized and ready for the job.

           The “Natasha, and ANATOOOOLE KURAAAAGIINN” part was more sung than said with anger and disgust.

           Instead of “so I’m not the only man chained to a bad woman”, Pierre said “so I’m not the only one suffering in the hands of the Kuragin”, which I thought was a nice change. Pierre loves his Natasha and it’s counter-nature for him to vilify her.

Find Anatole

           When Pierre meets Anatole and Helene, he calls them “bad blood”. As you can see from the changes I’ve mentioned so far, the Kuragins were really set up as a team of vulgar evil incest-ish siblings.

Pierre and Anatole

           During the discussion, Pierre and Anatole stand on opposite sides of the main circle, just like in the duel. Pierre chocked Anatole Darth-Vader-style, and also holds an imaginary object to “smash his head like this”.

           So, in “The Duel” I mentioned that Pierre reminded me of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. In a nutshell, The Idiot is someone so good and pure that society can’t help but see him as pathetic and stupid. Before, Pierre was a bad kind of idiot, fooling around with people who despised him, but now he’s a good kind of idiot. When Pierre takes back his words and asks Anatole for forgiveness, the latter feels completely superior, like he’s just made a complete fool of Pierre, but the more arrogance he shows, the lower he gets. Anatole, in his small-mindedness, is incapable of perceiving the magnanimity of Pierre’s actions, and more than ever I felt how out-of-place Pierre was in this society. People will always see him as a buffoon, but at least now he can recognize in himself that it isn’t the case.

“Para PETERSBUUURGO” was great. Anatole’s actor in general did a wonderful job, he could hold very high notes and sometimes really sounded like Lucas musically.

Natasha didn’t appear taking poison, we only hear about it later through Sonya.

Natasha Very Ill

           Natasha, indeed, was very ill.

Pierre and Andrei

           This was a very emotional song. Maybe it was just me, but you could really see how heartbroken and shattered to pieces Andrei was. We don’t see him taking his father’s chair; instead, when he tells Pierre goodbye, in the upper part of the main circle, Natasha is there in the lower one, glancing at him. Their eyes meet. I died.

Pierre and Natasha

           Amazing, brilliant. My heart stopped during Pierre’s speech, it was so special to hear it word by word, in the language I had read the book. They’re standing next to each other and Pierre actually kneels down. He kisses Natasha’s hands, and she softly touches his face. Natasha cries “tears of gratitude, tears of tenderness, tears of LOVE” (romantically, or the “infinite heavens” type of love?). When Natasha leaves the room smiling, Pierre tries to get up, but stumbles and almost falls. He takes a long while trying to put on his cloak, but no one in the audience laughed. We just had silly smiles on our faces. It was magical to be so close to Natasha and Pierre that you could actually see their tears. I feel like my crops have been forever blessed.

The Great Comet of 1812

           Oh wow. So, the lightning. The lights don’t go fully out, as on Broadway. Instead, there’s this opaque white light and the comet is reflecting on the light-bulbs of the central “chandelier-complex”, turning everything silver. The sky Pierre describes, is not only starry, but the moon is also there, Natasha’s symbol, shining alongside the comet. And then guess what. The lights turned blue and Natasha was there across the main circle. Pierre and her look at each other and at the “chandeliers”, which are now lighting up yellow, bursting with new life… only, instead of “into a new life”, guess again what was it that Pierre said? “I. Woke. Up”. That was the final line. Pierre woke up to the sky, the sky Natasha used to live so vividly, and is now regaining the capacity to do so. Andrei’s sky, which he now couldn’t be further away from. This show really broke me.

 During the applauses, they all sing goodbye my gipsy lovers. I was singing along with them, even though I had no voice left from emotion. I looked around to see the faces and I don’t think anyone had cried, I hadn’t either, but people’s eyes were shining and we all smiled. 

10/10, because I will never give anything tgc-related a grade lower than that.

PS: sorry about grammar mistakes, I know my prepositions are a bit messed up.