#theater and heartstopper!!!!

[curiouslyeasy]

DID YOU KNOW !!!

[pixiegeldof]

RACHEL ZEGLER & KIT CONNOR PHOTOGRAPHED BY EVELYN FREJA FOR TEEN VOGUE

[metalandmagi]

It kind of just occurred to me how much the queer community is winning this summer. We had Nimona. We had Barbie (ace Barbie, Allan, just queer vibes all around). We had Good Omens season 2. We had Heartstopper season 2. We're getting High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 4 and Red White and Royal Blue two days apart from each other. We even have The Witcher finally delivering with Jaskier (or at least it did in the first part, haven't watched part 2 yet).

I don't know where I was going with this. I'm just happy about it.

[nnicknnelsonn]

The New York Times Review:

The Broadway revival of “Romeo + Juliet” plays to the TikTok crowd. But maybe that’s a good thing.

Source: New York Times Oct 24, 2024 (X)

Mostly positive, which is impressive from the NYT! Hopefully offsets the negative reviews. (X)

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler and a viral pull-up

…Connor needs no help in keeping and maintaining the emotional temperature, easily enlarging the tenderness and obliviousness of his Nick on “Heartstopper” to fit the stage. When he looks into Juliet’s eyes, you see what he wants and how seriously he wants it; when he walks among his riotous peers, as they hump Teddy bears and sniff out insults, you see how little that means to him now.

Connor is also a very physical actor, or at any rate his recently beefed-up, often tank-topped body is given a workout. Instead of just climbing to Juliet’s balcony — represented by the design collective dots as a flowery bed that descends from the heavens — he does a leaping pull-up from the ground to get there, then lifts himself farther to achieve full face time. This is a lover with lats.

But a manly Romeo and a tiny Juliet — Connor is nearly a foot taller than Zegler — creates, or reinforces, a problem. It’s disturbing enough in the Shakespeare when Lady Capulet tells her 13-year-old daughter that “ladies of esteem” her age are “already made mothers.” With an actor who, despite his baby face, looks much older than his years (Connor is 20) and an actress who looks much younger than hers (Zegler is 23) you’re left in an indeterminate space between ancient and current levels of ick.

It’s wise, then, that despite the supercharged sexuality of the staging otherwise, Gold limits the pair’s lovemaking to gropes and kisses.

…Gold’s staging is perhaps the busiest and funniest I’ve seen, a lot of the humor coming from the dotty nurse, whom Shakespeare designed for that purpose. (She is played with Valley Girl snark by Tommy Dorfman, who also plays Tybalt.) And though there is, of course, violence, it is broadly mimed and deliberately mild. What the production emphasizes instead is unfairness, as teenagers tend to do as well, wanting limits to excuse their whining.

The play is thus less terrifying than teenifying — hence the plus sign instead of the “and” in the title. The lobby, lit like a junior high school prom, offers not just the expected merch and specialty mocktails but a table where ticket holders can learn about registering to vote. The choreography by Sonya Tayeh lands perfectly in the zone between professional movement and what a nerd might do in front of a mirror. Fangirling and fanboying are strongly encouraged. There is nothing unlikable about any of this.

It’s a little slick, though, at least for seen-that adults. The play’s twisty language, expressive of twisty thoughts, is largely untangled but, in the process, flattened. (Gold’s edit brings the running time, not counting intermission, to “the two hours’ traffic of the stage” Shakespeare mentions, but some of that traffic is stop-and-go.) I smiled a lot but never came close to crying.

Is that a reasonable response to aim for when staging the world’s most famous weepie? For me, seeing so many young people engaged, it is. Perhaps, as Shakespeare commands in the play’s closing speech, they will “Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.” And so what if the production achieves that goal by protecting them from too much unruly feeling, just as the Capulets aimed to protect Juliet? Probably, the Capulets were right.

[jae-is-confused]

The only thing on my mind is Kit Connor doing a pull up to kiss Rachel during Romeo + Juliet.

(Is this too niche?)

[sapphosclown]

let say that, in theory, i am crying a lynthia heartstopper au. who would we like to see as nick/charlie

[stuffimscaredtoshowpeopleiknow]

Teachers | Our Fabulous But Fleeting Time Together.

[sondheim-girly]

not letting myself continue watching heartstopper season 3 till I tape my audition and I paused it at the worst time so I fear I have really good motivation to get this over with

[kkamooo]

Why is my October 3rd so busy like I have no time to watch the show I’ve been looking forward to for like a year :(

[andrwgarfields]

someone edited charlie spring to lykke li’s song possibility and i feel like pulling my heart out

[the-herb-soup-chef]

y'ello!

I'll most likley just be posting random stuff about my favorite ships on here, that's how I roll. But I also like to talk about my favorite shpws/movies/books in general, even if it's not able shipping lollll. Tag along if you're also into

Good Omens

Star Trek (TOS/TNG, I need to watch more Star Trek)

The Owl House

She-Ra

Musicals in general (My favorites are Hamilton, Ride The Cyclone, and Newsies!)

Heartstopper

The Labyrinth

Coraline

Frozen (It's to heal my inner child okayyyyyy!)

Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss

See you around! Don't forget to drink some water today.

[pixiegeldof]

RACHEL ZEGLER & KIT CONNOR PHOTOGRAPHED BY EVELYN FREJA FOR TEEN VOGUE

[hylialeia]

saw you watched it so like was hazbin hotel any good actually?

if you liked beetlejuice on broadway and disney's tangled specifically you will probably have a really, really good time with it tbh! it's paced like the roadrunner on 8 shots of espresso and overuses every shade of red in existence including the shades only shrimp can see, but Keith David voices a furry. law of equivalent exchange, etc etc

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Y'know, there's this gripe I've had for years that really frustrates me, and it has to do with Love, Simon and people joking about it and calling it too-pg and designed-for-straight-people and all the like. (A similar thing has happened to Heartstopper, but that's another conversation.)

I saw Love, Simon in theaters when it came out my senior year in high school. I saw it three times, once with my friends/parents on opening night, once with my brother over spring break, and once with my grandparents.

On opening night, the air in the room was electric. It was palpable. Half the heads in there were dyed various colors. Queer kids were holding hands. We were all crying and laughing and cheering as a group. My friends grabbed my hands at the part where Simon was outed and didn't let go until his parents were saying that they accepted him. My friend came out to me as non-binary. Another person in our group admitted that she had feelings for girls. It was incredible. I left shaking. This was the first mainstream queer romance movie that had ever been produced by one of the main five studios, and I know that sounds like another "first queer character from Disney" bit but you have to understand that even in 2018 this was groundbreaking. Getting to have a sweet queer rom-com where the main character was told that he got "to breathe now" after coming out meant so much to me and my friends.

But also, from a designed-for-straight-people POV (which, to be frank, it was written by a bisexual author and directed by a gay man, this was not designed for straight audiences), why is it a bad thing that it appealed to the widest possible audience? That it could make my parents and grandparents see things in a new light? My stepdad wasn't at all interested in rom-coms but he saw it with me because it was something I cared about and he hugged me when we came out of the theater. My very Catholic grandparents watched it with me and though my grandpa said he still didn't quite understand the whole 'gay thing,' all he wanted was for me to be happy and to have a happy ending like Simon did. My Nana actually cried when Simon came out and squeeze my hand when his mother told him he could breathe.

And when Martin blackmailed Simon, my mom, badass ally that she is, literally hissed "Dropkick him. Dropkick him in the balls" leading to multiple queer kids in the audience to laugh or smile. Having my parents there- the only parents, by the way, out of my group of queer and questioning friends- made multiple people realize that supportive adults were out there. That parents like those in Love, Simon do exist in real life.

When people complain about Heartstopper not being realistic or Love, Simon being too cutesy, I remember seeing Love, Simon on opening night. I remember my friend coming out and my stepdad hugging me and my mom defending us through this character. I remember the cheers that went through the audience when Bram and Simon kissed and the chatter in the foyer after the movie was over and the way that this movie made me understand that happy endings do exist.

Queer kids need happy endings. Straight people need entry points to becoming allies. Both of these things can come together in beautiful ways. They can find out about more queer culture later, but for now, let them have this. Let them all have a glimpse at a better, happier world. Let them have queer joy.

[nnicknnelsonn]

Kit & Joe featured in Variety Magazine’s Young Hollywood Impact Report

Kit Connor and Joe Locke Source: Variety Magazine (X)

The British series “Heartstopper” became an instant success for Netflix, with the two actors playing the fan favorite main couple in the comic book adaptation. Season 3 debuts in October. In the meantime, Connor, 20, will star as Romeo on Broadway in “Romeo & Juliet” with Rachel Zegler. Other upcoming projects include A24’s “Warfare” and DreamWorks animation’s “The Wild Robot,” alongside Lupita Nyong���o. He eagerly awaits his return to theater, as he finds it “very creatively fulfilling,” noting “it’s one of the best things an actor can do to improve their craft.” Locke, 20, took to Broadway himself earlier this year as Tobias Ragg in the revival of “Sweeney Todd.” He notes that “live theater is acting in its purest form, there’s no camera, or doing 25 takes.” He also stars in the anticipated Disney+ series “Agatha All Along.”

[thegoldenretrieverandthegaynerd]

Joe Locke and Kit Connor are on Variety’s young hollywood impact list!

The British series “Heartstopper” became an instant success for Netflix, with the two actors playing the fan favorite main couple in the comic book adaptation. Season 3 debuts in October. In the meantime, Connor, 20, will star as Romeo on Broadway in “Romeo & Juliet” with Rachel Zegler. Other upcoming projects include A24’s “Warfare” and DreamWorks animation’s “The Wild Robot,” alongside Lupita Nyong’o. He eagerly awaits his return to theater, as he finds it “very creatively fulfilling,” noting “it’s one of the best things an actor can do to improve their craft.” Locke, 20, took to Broadway himself earlier this year as Tobias Ragg in the revival of “Sweeney Todd.” He notes that “live theater is acting in its purest form, there’s no camera, or doing 25 takes.” He also stars in the anticipated Disney+ series “Agatha All Along.”