The Gilded Age's Broadway Divas MASTERPOST

Welcome to my passion project. It has come to my attention that some viewers of HBO's The Gilded Age are unfamiliar with the extensive theatre credits, alcoates, and vocal talents many of the actors possess. As the resident Broadway Diva expert, it is my responsibility to fix that.

Pictured: 20 Tony Awards and 52 nominations. Audra McDonald...well, she kind of inflates the numbers a little. Edit: Justice for Tony winner Debra Monk. She's main cast.

Introducing my new series of blog posts where I will be highlighting two theatre veterans per day in the lead-up to our much-anticipated season two finale episode.

This series will heavily focus on a select few musical performances that are widely available for viewing, in addition to a brief career rundown. I will be limiting myself to no more than five videos per Diva, otherwise we'd be here for a lifetime. These performances will include popular songs and hidden gems alike, all curated to specifically show off the actress's considerable range in the theatre, especially juxtaposed against their roles in the show.

With respect to Michael Cerveris, Nathan Lane, and the other theatre gentlemen, I will be focusing this series on the women because I am a lesbian and this show is about the women, dammit. But fear not, they will most certainly be making appearances throughout because everyone has worked with everyone on stage.

The Divas:

Christine Baranski (Agnes van Rhijn) Donna Murphy (Caroline "Lina" Astor) Kelli O'Hara (Aurora Fane) Katie Finneran (Anne Morris) Debra Monk (Armstrong) Celia Keenan-Bolger (Mrs. Bruce) Laura Benanti (Susan Blane) Linda Emond (Clara Barton) Amber Gray (Bea) Denee Benton (Peggy Scott) Audra McDonald (Dorothy Scott) Jeanne Tripplehorn (Sylvia Chamberlain) Bonus: Duets, Trios, and Other Crossovers

(Almost) Every Costume Per Episode + Mrs. Sylvia Chamberlain's black dress with blue embellishments in 1x01

love & adore the way the lace on Mrs Chamberlain’s dress more subtly and quietly mirrors the bolder and gaudier peacock-father design of Bertha’s outfit

it’s become very common for women online to express their identities through an artfully curated list of the things they consume, or aspire to consume — and because young women are conditioned to believe that their identities are defined almost entirely by their neuroses, these roundups of cultural trends and authors du jour often implicitly serve to chicly signal one’s mental illnesses to the public. one girl on your tiktok feed might be a self-described joan didion/eve babitz/marlboro reds/straight-cut levis/fleabag girl (this means she has depression). another will call herself a babydoll dress/sylvia plath/red scare/miu miu/lana del rey girl (eating disorder), or a green juice/claw clip/emma chamberlain/yoga mat/podcast girl (different eating disorder). the aesthetics of consumption have, in turn, become a conduit to make the self more easily consumable: your existence as a Type of Girl has almost nothing to do with whether you actually read joan didion or wear miu miu, and everything to do with whether you want to be seen as the type of person who would. and i understand the appeal. at first, relying on complex female characters (or the real women that we adopt as de-facto fiction) to blueprint my neuroses was liberating; eventually, though, it began to feel like a trap. if i can compare myself to just the right amount of things — place myself at the nexus of enough edgy, vaguely feminist media properties — will that eventually start to feel like actualization? i wonder what romantic love would feel like if i’d never seen a romantic comedy, if i’d been allowed to figure it out before a commodified version was fed to me. i wonder what my own illness would feel like. now, as i put on mascara before crying so i’ll look the right kind of sad when i see myself in the mirror, i think about how nothing feels real at all if it doesn’t look like the movies. […] we consume so much, now, that perhaps we don’t know what it means to exist as something unsellable. i had to give up journalling because i couldn’t stop writing for the people who would read it after i was dead.

rayne fisher-quann, standing on the shoulders of complex female characters

Katharine considered herself the King’s wife until the end. The law in England forbade married women to write their last wills, but Katharine dictated a document similar to a testament in which she made several bequests and settled her debts. It is clear that Katharine still owned valuable possessions such as gold and silver jewellery and luxurious gowns she wanted to be made into vestments for a convent of Observant Friars, where she desired to be buried. The bequests in Katharine’s last will reveal an intricate network of women who remained loyal to the former Queen, although it is clear that not all of these ladies served Katharine until her death. Katharine’s first bequest was to her favourite maid of honour, Elizabeth Darrell, who received £20 “for her marriage”. Elizabeth was a daughter of Sir Edward Darrell of Littlecote who served as Katharine of Aragon’s vice-chamberlain between 1517 and 1530. He died in March 1530, leaving his daughter under Katharine of Aragon’s protection. Elizabeth was one of the eight ladies in Katharine’s household who refused to swear an oath to Katharine as Princess Dowager of Wales, arguing that she swore an oath to Katharine as Queen and swearing other oaths would be equal to perjury. After Katharine’s death, Elizabeth became the mistress of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the famous Tudor poet, and found a new employer in the person of Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter. Other women mentioned in Katharine of Aragon’s testament were Blanche Twyford, who received £10, Margery Otwell and Dorothy Whiller, who received £10 each, Mary de la Sa, wife of Katharine’s Spanish physician, who received £40, and Isabel Vergas, Katharine’s Spanish lady-in-waiting, who received £20. There were also “little maidens”, “Mistress Isabel, daughter of Mistress Margery” and a laundress. Little is known about these women except for their names. Some, like Isabel Vergas, who was recorded in the royal household as Katharine’s chamberer in 1511, must have been long-term servants, and trusted ones at that. Elizabeth Darrell, Margery Otwell, Blanche Twyford and Dorothy Whiller were among the eight ladies who refused to swear the new oath in 1533; they clearly remained staunchly supportive of Katharine, and it is highly likely that they served her in 1536. Katharine begged the King to safeguard the marriage portions for her unmarried maids, “they being but three”, and Henry clearly felt responsible for these women. In November 1539, Blanche Twyford was rewarded with £66 “for her long and painful service done unto the Princess Dowager”; whether other ladies were rewarded in the same manner remains unclear.

Sylvia Barbara Soberton, Great Ladies: The Forgotten Witnesses to the Lives of Tudor Queens

Art in The Good Fight and (The Good Wife) - Part 1

as promised, i am resharing some of my art threads from twitter over here. to recap, as a history major and art nerd, i have always loved looking at the art shown in the sets of period drama, but it was really striking to me how obviously intentional it was being used to assist in telling story in The Gilded Age (plus Impressionist lover Mrs Sylvia Chamberlain was just begging for it).

while part of it is about identifying the art because i do love an easter egg, the other part i find really interesting is thinking about how art reflects character and story. so, i started thinking more about art in The Good Fight/The Good Wife, and i started a twitter thread and it became a season long thing this year for the final season.

this post is part 1 of 2 about the art in The Good Fight/The Good Wife, and in particular, Diane Lockhart's impeccable art taste. so, without further ado...

this is my hands down fav, which is in Diane's Boseman/Reddick office in TGF, Girl with Peony by Andy 'Zig' Leipzig 🔥

i adore the surrealism and guess what i found? sunflowers of course 🌻🌀🌻 this is Andy 'Zig' Leipzig's Have a Heart, 2014.

in Diane's old apartment in TGW era, the engraving on the right is by Jean-Pierre Louis Laurent Houël, Vase cineraire et figures antiques (1782, Gennadius Library).

the left looks like Bougainvillea, Parivolia, Italy by Isabelle De Borchgrave (watercolour).

this is not Diane's, this is Sweeney's, but i have never been able to find this still life from TGW 419, which is a shame because it is GORGEOUS.

in the McHart apartment post TGF s2, there's an engraving by French artist Jean Louis Prévost, Flowers & Fruit.

behind Kurt and more clearly here is a French Watercolour Landscape (distributed by Soicher Marin gallery).

there are also a few pieces in the bathroom, including some botanical prints visible only in the mirror. and this one above the fireplace, A Rainy Day, by an unknown American Continental School artist (20C, oil on canvas).

i'll be back next week on Thursday (aka missing TGF more than usual hours) for the rest of my thread, which focused on the art in s6 and was possibly more intentional than the rest of The Good Universe put together.

babe, wake up—a new aurora/lina fic just dropped! 💫

for all you gilded age women likers and sapphic aurora fane truthers alike, this is a 20k one-shot (a 1950’s carol au at that, written by the loveliest @turtle-down) that was so kindly gifted to me last night. give it a read and give the author some love! this fic has it all—sapphic yearning, a lesbian-coded lina astor and sylvia chamberlain as a very charming confidante. highly recommend!

People on Pinterest keep saving my Joshua Chamberlain quotes to boards titled "feelings" "pretty words" "quotes to live by" etc

and i don't have a problem with that but there's also people who save them to boards called "Sylvia Plath" "Kafka sayings" and such, as if Joshua's name isn't directlycstated RIGHT UNDER the quote 💀

I’ve Got You ~Plutonic!Godmother!Sylvia Chamberlain xFem Goddaughter!Reader

Summary— Sylvia is Reader’s Godmother who practically raised Reader. Some days the pressure of the high society of New York gets to Sylvia. On those days, Reader is there for Sylvia, guiding her arm by arm to make it through the day.

Mommy… Master List

Requests & Prompt-List

Warnings: little angst, fluff, implied depression, implied anxiety, implied depressive history, implied anxiety history, implied abandonment, comforting, physical comfort, happy ending, etc.

Enjoy (;

Sometimes it was just too much for her. High society New York was ruthless. They ostracized her. Sylvia was usually good at putting on a brave face and putting her first foot forward. She was usually good at brushing off the looks and snide comments. She had gotten used to the prejudice, the traditional views.

But sometimes it just became too much. Sometimes she let those pesky thoughts get the best of her. Some days, Sylvia stayed inside her home, locked away from the world. She would stay in bed until the late afternoon, rising only to eat a little, before retreating back to bed. She’d have those comments in her head on loop, haunting her. Her past never seemed to relent it seemed. And that was hard to reconcile on some days.

Those were the days that concerned you. Whenever you could sense that she was about to break, you were quick to be by the woman’s side. She was your Godmother after all. And as your family had never really been one to raise you, Sylvia had. She hadn’t needed to. She simply had. You’d happily take care of the woman on those difficult days, considering all she’d done for you.

On those days, the days where Sylvia fought every single fiber of life, you were right by her side. You would convince her to get up, get dressed, and get some breakfast. You’d try to make her laugh throughout your morning meal as much as you could. You could see her thoughts spiraling across the table. Her eyes were blank, dull from all the overwhelmingness going on behind them.

And then you would suggest an activity outside of her house walls. If she was up for it, you would accompany Sylvia to something such as an art exhibit or to a park. Fresh air always helped. You’d make sure to steer clear of any known social gatherings, not wanting her to have to deal with the cliquey society of New York’s finest, not on days like this.

If she wouldn’t hear it, you’d at least insist that you two tour her own personal art exhibit at the minimum, to at least get her moving around. You’d spend hours silent on those types of days, but you were used to it. You’d talk to her, talk about her art, talk about your life, talk about her, talk about anything and everything to keep her distracted and safe with your arm linked into hers.

Slowly but surely, you’d start to coax the woman back to her vivid disposition. By the end of the day, you’d insist they go out to dinner, and by then, Sylvia would usually agree. (On some really bad days, you’d take her straight to bed, it just all being too much and unrelenting. And you made sure to let her know that that was okay too, that you would never fault her for wanting to start fresh the next day). If she’d let you wine and dine her, you could usually crack a couple of small smiles from her.

By the end of your shared night, you’d take the woman home, tucking her in and saying good night.

“Thank you, sweetheart. I am ever so lucky to have your company, that you tolerate me…” Sylvia would whisper, tucking a stray strand of hair behind your ear.

You’d blush.

“Anytime. And nonsense, I don’t tolerate you— I love you.” You’d whisper back.

This would make Sylvia blush.

“I love you too” She’d murmur before falling into slumber.

~~~

Sylvia Chamberlain Masterlist ~Coming Soon (;

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Gilded Age (TV 2022) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Caroline "Lina" Schermerhorn Astor/Sylvia Chamberlain Characters: Caroline "Lina" Schermerhorn Astor, Sylvia Chamberlain Additional Tags: Reunion Sex, Past Relationship(s), Nudity, Light Bondage, Insecurity, Older Characters Series: Part 16 of The Gilded Age of Broadway Divas Summary:

Nearly forty years after breaking Lina Astor's heart, Sylvia sets out to right the wrong of yesteryear. Garbed in nothing but a thin nightdress and a string of pearls, she waits for Lina on a chaise lounge like a virgin sacrifice. But she has never been good a playing the blushing maiden.

-----

Just me writing and posting a 10k Lina Astor/Sylvia Chamberlain smut story in a twenty-four hour period because I miss Sylvia that much. You know, casual everyday occurrences.

It's also come to my attention that with four episodes out, I've written three stories totaling about 28.5k words. Which either means I have problems or that I'm behind because it should be four stories. (I was joking but now I'm actually a little annoyed at myself so I think that answers the question nicely: problems.)

Anyway, up next: Bertha/Aurora/Susan threesome because if we're going to commit to having Aurora fuck every eligible woman over forty I'm this show, we might as well double down on how unhinged we get.

it’s become very common for women online to express their identities through an artfully curated list of the things they consume, or aspire to consume — and because young women are conditioned to believe that their identities are defined almost entirely by their neuroses, these roundups of cultural trends and authors du jour often implicitly serve to chicly signal one’s mental illnesses to the public. one girl on your tiktok feed might be a self-described joan didion/eve babitz/marlboro reds/straight-cut levis/fleabag girl (this means she has depression). another will call herself a babydoll dress/sylvia plath/red scare/miu miu/lana del rey girl (eating disorder), or a green juice/claw clip/emma chamberlain/yoga mat/podcast girl (different eating disorder). the aesthetics of consumption have, in turn, become a conduit to make the self more easily consumable: your existence as a Type of Girl has almost nothing to do with whether you actually read joan didion or wear miu miu, and everything to do with whether you want to be seen as the type of person who would.

Uncomfortable but good read: Article: https://internetprincess.substack.com/p/standing-on-the-shoulders-of-complex

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know - Malcolm Gladwell

EPUB & PDF Ebook Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know | EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD

by Malcolm Gladwell.

Download Link : DOWNLOAD Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

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Ebook PDF Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know | EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD Hello Book lovers, If you want to download free Ebook, you are in the right place to download Ebook. Ebook Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD in English is available for free here, Click on the download LINK below to download Ebook Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know 2020 PDF Download in English by Malcolm Gladwell (Author).

 Description Book: 

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers?and why they often go wrong.?A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press?How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn?t true??Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland?throwing our understanding of these and other stories

Part 2&3 of ‘I’ve connected the two dots’ the Gilded Age edition

I don’t like the intro. Way too much is happening out there for my taste.

Butlers are the only sane people in this show.

One of these days ladies will gang up on Marian. She is walking on thin ice.

The tea party was pure comedy. Nobody is subtle and Agnes is one step from murder.

Marian: I wish I understood what brings you to New York. Me: Girl, are you blind?

I love the ‘we like riling Agnes up’ club.

Listen I have nothing against Marian but please spice her up a bit. I have like no interest in her as separate character apart from potential love triangle. So far she looks to be a Mary Sue dressed in historical clothes. Honestly, Julian, you can do better.

On the other hand, I’m really intrigued by Peggy. Her past is a total mystery. Frankly speaking I know nothing about America of that period so I cannot tie whatever happened to her to any real life events that would explain why she needs a lawyer. That is why my totally wild and uneducated guess is that she married someone in Pennsylvania against her father’s will and now she’s like ‘oh shit that was a mistake but I won’t admit it to him’. Yep that’s a cliché and dumb theory. I know.

Mrs. Chamberlain is another intriguing character. She is married or she was married. Oh I have a theory! She is a widow who married a very rich but old man who died soon and after his death she got herself a toy boy or whatever they called it in 19th century. That does sound scandalous enough to make Anges’ blood boil, doesn’t it?

I have a question about the dress worn by Carrie Astor in the last scene: what the heck? Did she lose a bet and has to wear this atrocity for a week?

I kind of respect Mrs. Astor. Is she a snob? Yeah. Is she a clever snob though? Hell yeah.

Raise your hand if you don’t trust Tom Raikes. *raises hand*

I mean… yeah I get it sex before marriage is a taboo so if you want to get some, you need to put a ring on it and blah blah blah but dude seems to be too hasty with proposal even for a horny teenager, let alone grownup gentleman.

Agnes is right about him, isn’t she? I bet he is an opportunist indeed. However, what can a middle class lawyer get from this marriage? Money? Nah, Marian is penniless and he knows it. Social status? Eh it isn’t of much use for him.

Unless she isn’t penniless after all. Remember they were talking about shares in railroad companies or something like that which he claims are worthless? What if they are actually worth a freaking fortune?!

Will it have something to do with the station George Russell is about to build? Maybe. IDK. It sounds reasonable now but we’ll see.

I still want to giggle every time George Russell is mentioned.

That freaking maid… She is too clever to seduce George just for the sake of seducing him.

Is she planning to become his mistress? Bitch please. Bertha will twist her neck.

Is she planning to blackmail him? Bitch please. George will twist her neck.

Someone wake Larry up.

Dude, remember that blond neighbour you were flirting with? Yeah it’s time to act. Now!

Give Gladys a sock and set her free.

I seriously try to look at it from 19th century perspective but boy oh boy.

Option #1: Oscar van Rhijn. Is he the worst thing that can happen to a young lady? *remembers what was said about late Mr. van Rhijn* Probably not.

Option #2: whatever her mother planned for her. That one sounds like Gladys is about to be shipped to England and search for a husband with a title. It worked for Cora from DA but a long time ago I’ve read about those American heiress who ended up totally miserable as a result of it so that sounds scary…

Option #3: the boy she mentioned. Archie? I cannot remember the name. Anyway, as Agnes van Rhijn said: ‘sounds dull enough to be respectable.’

I feel for John Adams who lies there imagining quiet life with Oscar and their three corgis while Oscar goes on and on about money and how wonderful Gladys is.

Marian gets on my nerves. Seriously, I get it: she’s strong, fearless, modern woman and all that stuff. But it’s 19th century higher society for Pete’s sake and Marian acts like a time traveler from 21st century. She seems to have no control over her mouth and just says the first thing that comes to her head. In the company of the family it might be sassy and endearing but with strangers she sounds really dumb.

Like how many times can she ask why they don’t include Mrs. Russell? Does she expect that if she asks it a hundred times, they’ll get tired and give up? I really struggle to understand this character.

On paper her lines are clever, in action though… She ain’t one and only dowager countess of Grantham. Sorry not sorry. She’s just too young and her position in society isn’t high enough for her to speak her mind so freely in public.

Ada still creeps me out at times but I felt really sorry for her.

However, it’s one more proof that Agnes sees right though people.

Peggy doesn’t deserve this shit. Period.

I should have seen it coming, right? Yet I didn’t. I was so happy for her and ugh. I hope when she becomes a famous novelist, she’ll write in one of her books something like ‘Dear assholes from The Christian Advocate, screw you!’

‘Do you think we should kneel?’ line aged well.

I naturally disliked Patrick and Anne Morris. They deserved punishment for their actions but daaaamn not like that. I didn’t expect this show to go so far.

How many brain cells does Anne have? Zero?

Somehow Aurora Fane pisses me off even more than Anne.

The boy toy theory… yep I was an idiot.

Katherine of Aragon & Margaret Plantagenet

They had known each other since Katherine first came to England. Margaret’s late husband, Richard Pole, had been Prince Arthur’s Lord Chamberlain, and she had accompanied him to Wales during the brief five-month marriage of Katherine and her first husband. Royal by birth, Margaret Pole was one of the most important ladies of high rank in the kingdom and one of the last Plantagenets at the Tudor court.

There a bond seems to have been forged between the two women, despite the fact that Katherine spoke little English and was 12 years younger than Margaret. The Spanish princess soon learned that her father had demanded the execution of Margaret’s brother before she arrived in England, and she was horrified. Feelings of guilt over the Earl of Warwick’s unjust execution pushed Katherine to seek Margaret’s friendship. Many years later, Margaret’s son, Reginald Pole, recorded that Katherine was “very much bound to recompense and requite us [the Pole family] for the detriment we had received on her account (although she was not in the least to blame for it), and to show us every kindness, having found by experience that in all her sorrows and afflictions, from no family of the realm had she ever received greater consolation than from ours, although for her sake we had received so many injuries”

Arthur’s premature death at Ludlow parted them, but they continued to correspond until Henry VIII’s accession rescued Katherine from penurious widowhood and made her the queen consort she had always expected to be. Margaret had also known financial distress during this period (her husband died in 1504), but her loyalty and friendship were not forgotten. She came to court with her eldest son to attend Katherine’s coronation and was soon appointed one of the queen’s chief attendants. In 1512, possibly at his wife’s behest, Henry VIII granted Margaret’s petition for restoration of the earldom of Salisbury and she became a countess in her own right.

Katherine chose Margaret to be the governess of her daughter, Princess Mary. Margaret had formed a close bond with Katherine and treated her daughter with the same warmth. Katherine would gladly have seen a marriage between her daughter and her friend’s son Reginald. The Pole family fortunes crashed after Anne Boleyn became the second wife of Henry VIII. Not surprisingly, Margaret had sided with Katherine and Mary during the divorce struggle. Lady Salisbury was known for her devout Roman Catholic beliefs. When Princess Mary was declared a bastard in 1533, Margaret refused to give Mary's gold plate and jewels back to Henry VIII. When Mary's household was broken up at the end of the year, the sixty-year-old Margaret Pole asked to serve Mary at her own cost, but was not permitted. Five years after the death of Katherine of Aragon, Lady Salisbury was executed on the scaffold. Her death is one of the most tragic events in Henry VIII's reign.

Sources:

Linda Porter, Mary Tudor:The First Queen Sylvia Barbara Soberton, Great Ladies: The Forgotten Witnesses to the Lives of Tudor Queens