thesongofpurplesummer

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Davey: hey no no no Race we’re not upset that you’re gay. You being gay is totally fine.

Jack: You being gay with spot conlon on the other hand? Not allowed.

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You can only reblog this today.

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In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.

P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3

EDIT: Well this got a lot of attention! I got a few users asking to print or repost my art and I am unimaginably grateful to everyone's interest, especially since it's a really simple drawing I made on a whim haha! Anyone who is looking to print these out to hang or hand out or repost on another platform is free to do so, although I ask you to credit me and let people know it's from my Tumblr profile! If anyone wishes to do anything else with my art or post and wants to clarify what I consent to then they can message me privately and I'll explain! <333 all my love to my queer siblings

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Mamma Mia! Revival on Broadway with Lea Salonga as Donna, Eva Noblezada as Sophie, Reeve Carney as Sky, Lin Manuel Miranda as one of the dads, who else?

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17 years ago today.. the biggest rockstar move in history.

The look of satisfaction says everything

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Sometimes...characters being in a romantic relationship is worse.

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I was having a good day

In the end of finale (Tulsa ‘67), Johnny stands on the roof of a car to represent his spirit moving on, directly after, Ace then climbs onto the same spot briefly before jumping off. This could imply that she is next to die. In this essay, I will—

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this is like my 2016 and 2025 self’s super bowl

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this photo gives me life everytime

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This is so niche I love it

The Newsies' Favorite New Inventions of 1899

(part 1)

Jack Kelly - Western Films

A frame from Kidnapping by Indians, 1899.

The very first Western film, Kidnapping by Indians, was released in 1899. It was a silent film that, while filmed in the UK, was inspired by the stories of the American west. The actual film included English intertitles and seems to have been lost to time, but an aborted two minute scene survives which can be watched here and in color here.

Four years later, the American silent film The Great Train Robbery would be released.

Jack Kelly would have been delighted and awed by the "moving pictures," and he'd be even more excited to see cowboys and gunfights right there on the silver screen.

David Jacobs - The Maple Leaf Rag

The Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin (right), published 1899.

While ragtime music had developed as early as the 1820s, no printed or written ragtime music survives from before the American Civil War. The musical style reached the dawn of its heyday in the 1890s and in 1899 Scott Joplin, an African American composer from Texas, published the Maple Leaf Rag. This song heavily influenced subsequent ragtime compositions and would become the most famous of all ragtime songs, earning Joplin the title "King of Ragtime."

David Jacobs, often headcanoned as having at least a little experience playing piano, would have loved the fast, syncopated rhythm of ragtime music.

Racetrack Higgins - Motorcycle Races

A team of motorcycle racers on a tandem motorcycle, woodcut from 1899.

It's difficult to pinpoint the very first motorcycle race, however at least one of the first in the United States was held in 1899 at Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, NY. The main event of this race was the 25-mile tandem motorcycle race and the winning motorcycle set an average speed record of 37.5 miles per hour.

Seeing as Manhattan Beach is located so conveniently close to Sheepshead Bay, it wouldn't be at all surprising if Racetrack Higgins decided to make the trip to bet on a brand new type of race.

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Rip Ilse Neumann from Spring Awakening, you would’ve loved Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain

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i wonder what jack’s dad did to be put in the state penitentiary. like did he murder someone ?? did he commit arson ??? was he stealing ???? was he stealing for him and jack ??? was he just an accomplice ??? was he framed ??? i need to know. this is crucial information.

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Spot Conlon and the rest of Brooklyn all being girls actually means so much to me and not in a "See women can be strong too!!!" kinda way because like. It just makes so much sense???

Like, okay so if you stop thinking about it as "the strongest and most fearsome group of newsies is also all girls" and instead think of it as "the group of newsies that are all girls is also the strongest and most fearsome" it all starts clicking into place.

Because if you were Spot Conlon, if you had a group of young girls who all live and work on the streets to take care of, of course you would want to have this big, intimidating reputation of being the best fighter and strongest leader. If every other borough, most of which are made up of dozens of teenage boys, believes you can and will soak them for so much a stepping foot in Brooklyn, they won't dare think about so much as touching one of your girls.

Of course you would make sure all of your girls know how to beat an opponent much bigger and stronger than them. If someone does mess with them, they have to be able to fight back. Not just to protect themselves, but to make sure that whichever idiot thought it was a good idea to mess with Brooklyn never dares try it again. They have to be able to win that fight and all future fights.

Of course you would be super territorial and make sure you don't give a single inch of leniency towards the other boroughs. You can't show any kind of vulnerability, no matter how capable you are. Being "just as strong" as the other boroughs isn't enough because they will never see you as an equal. So you choose to be seen as a threat.

Brooklyn has to be strong. They have to be scary. They're not any more violent or mean than the other boroughs, but they need the others to think they are because the alternative is being seen as an easy target. That can't happen.

I also feel like Brooklyn wouldn't have this reputation unless they were forced to. Like, if it were up to them they would be kind and welcoming and friendly. But whenever they gave an inch the other neighborhoods took a mile. Whenever they showed even an ounce of kindness there was always someone who took that as a sign of weakness.

It's not fun being isolated. It's not fun being feared. But it keeps them safe and that's the most important thing. I think Brooklyn only has a reputation of being strong fighters because they keep being forced to fight.

I have no idea if this is even remotely comprehensible but do you see my vision? I just. The idea of Brooklyn being the strongest borough out of necessity instead of desire. Spot Conlon being a girl has so many implications about this character's backstory and motivations that we've never had before and it's so much more than just "Hey did you guys know women can be competent leaders too? I know, WILD"

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Next To Normal

Not sure if this is common knowledge, but I was listening to “Superboy and the Invisible Girl” and was wondering why it’s not mainly a piano song, as piano is Natalie’s thing. But it’s not Natalie’s song. It starts with guitar and then goes into guitar and drums because she is singing about Gabriel. But when Natalie sings “Take a look at the invisible girl-“ she is not singing about Gabe, she is singing about herself, which is why piano, and only piano, is playing. Then when Natalie goes back into the chorus, where she sings about Gabe, the score goes back to guitar and drums.

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Thank you 🙏

......everyone say thank you ariana

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Rocky Horror Picture Show Newsies AU

Hi, I realized today that all the characters from newsies have to be in a production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and literally came out of retirement to write this down. Here’s the deal.

This is a college production with a shadow cast: shows are the last two weekends before Christmas break. Jack and Katharine are seniors and have been involved since they were freshmen. This time, they are reprising their roles as Brad and Janet, but their friend Medda, who always played Frank-N-Furter, just graduated and won’t be in the production this year.

Sarah is Magenta. Her brother David is only a sophomore and a rocky horror virgin (and the other kind too; in fact, he has never been kissed.) He decided it would be fun to try out for the criminologist, but he got cast as Frank instead, much to everyone’s surprise. He was horrified at first and thought about refusing the role, but ended up getting really into it. In his platform heels, he is about 7 feet tall and he looks amazing in lipstick and rubber gloves!

Racetrack plays Columbia and Spot plays Eddie. (Race is a trans guy and Spot is a cis girl; it is deliberately gender-bent casting.) Morris Delancey plays Riff Raff. He and Sarah really don’t like each other, which gives all their scenes together a special frisson. He doesn’t know any of his lines (true, he doesn’t have to say them, he just mouths them along with the actors on screen, but still!) and keeps messing up his cues, which offends Sarah’s sensibilities. His brother Oscar thinks the whole thing is stupid, but has been putting in lots of hours helping Morris practice.

You might think Crutchie would be stuck being the Crim because of the wheelchair, but no! He is Rocky. He performs totally naked except for a little gold loincloth. Elmer, who is in charge of props, helped Crutchie paint his crutches gold using paint they thought was water soluble. Turns out it is permanent, oops. Finch is the one who ended up being the Crim, which really suits his personality. He was set on the idea of having a fake mustache, even though the Crim doesn’t even have a mustache in the film. Elmer was like, sure, whatever, go nuts.

Buttons is doing costumes. He loaned Spot a leather jacket with shoulder pads from his personal wardrobe, which he will definitely never see again after the show wraps.

Darcy is the director; she is a theater major and is way too serious about everything. The cast tends to just ignore her, like Charlie Brown directing the pageant in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Seitz does tech for the show. Specs is that guy who says he has stage fight, but he sits in the front row at every rehearsal and performance and yells at all the callbacks, even the really weird ones that refer to things that none of them have ever heard of. (I might do a part two of this post which is all of Specs’ favorite callbacks, which of course is really just my favorite callbacks.)

Albert sells little prop bags of playing cards and party hats and toast at the door. They are also the one who asks attendees if they have seen Ricky Horror before. If anyone says no, Albert marks that person’s forehead with a red v of lipstick and later, they pull all the virgins up on stage during the preshow for public embarrassment. They are way too into this task. The preshow consists of Romeo and Jojo in wigs and teddies and fishnets, dancing to the original Eartha Kitt “Santa Baby,” mugging and shaking their hips and pushing each other violently off of Santa’s lap. Bill Hearst plays Santa.

Jack and Katherine have been dating for years, by the way, but Katherine has a crush on Darcy and maybe also on Oscar Delancey. Jack is ostensibly straight, but he and Crutchie made out once on the roof of the Life Sciences building after pulling an all-nighter. And Jack really, really likes David. Really likes him. Yeah.

Tommy Boy and Hannah and Henry and Mush and anyone elseI forgot are all Transylvanians. Practically the whole cast were already friends with each other except for David, like I said, and Spot, who showed up to the auditions out of nowhere and has an amazing alto and scares the shit out of everyone. She is the star forward on their school’s winning soccer team. Spot didn’t tell her teammates she was doing the show. She keeps missing practice to go to rehearsal or missing rehearsal to go to practice. Race, who always thought he was 100% gay, is fascinated by her.

Weisel is the head of the campus Buildings and Grounds department. He keeps accidentally-on-purpose forgetting to unlock the classroom where they rehearse. And Joe Pulitzer is the assistant dean who tells them they are not allowed to throw toast or other food at the screen in the auditorium because it could attract vermin.

What will happen when he tries to shut down the show? What will happen when the girls from the soccer team follow Spot to the dress rehearsal? What will happen when David is struck by debilitating stage fright, right before the curtain goes up on opening night? Who will make out at the off-campus cast party????