#stagedooring part 1
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Notes on Hamilton International Tour (Manila, Nov 9, 2023 evening)
Act 1
- This Burr is more proud than jealous during his introductions
- Same Angelica!
- Angelica pushes Burr when he tries to flirt during Schuyler Sisters
- This Washington’s voice is so deep and powerful, even more so than the last one I watched. His voice type makes me think he could be Hades when Hadestown comes here
- The Hamilton seems to be heavily inspired by Lin’s vocal style, and it actually works out well!
- I love Eliza’s voice so much, she’s always so ethereal. How do I marry a voice
- The King’s songs for Act 1 have such an angry feel to them, and yes the “I’m so blue” gag will always be funny.
- I will always repeat this in every notes but the lighting is just so *chefs kiss*
- This Lafayette had so much fun doing Guns and Ships
Act 2
- The actor as Jefferson was so good! Loved the cockiness
- Philip was so adorable as always, his voice was perfect
- Jefferson’s energy at both Cabinet Battles was amazing
- Burr is changing tone, the tone slowly shifts to feeling betrayed
- Washington’s voice definitely dominates the same way Angelica does, They’re such beautiful voices.
- WCN aka King George makes fun of John Adams the whole song
- Jefferson sounded AGHAST at “that was my wife you decided to—- WHAT?!”
- There were gasps when Philip dies
- Its Quiet Uptown never fails to make me cry, especially when the “Forgiveness…can you imagine?” part comes in.
- Burr was HURT and angry at Y.O.S, like he’s just Pissed Off
- At the end of TWWWE, Burr sounded rather regretful of what he did.
Overall, was a great second trip to the Room Where It Happens, and super worth it. I was in the back most possible row, at the edge of the theatre but the view was still great, no obstructions save for not seeing much of one side of the set’s terrace.
Side note: I finally got to stagedoor and I met Rachelle Ann Go, as well as the other cast members!
#hamilton#hamilton tour#hamilton international tour#musicals#musical theatre#theatre#Broadway#Manila#alexander hamilton#aaron burr#thomas jefferson#james madison#john laurens#marquis de lafayette#hercules mulligan#elizabeth schuyler#eliza hamilton#angelica schuyler#peggy schuyler#maria lewis#james reynolds#king george iii#rachelle ann go
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why "the outsiders" is one of the best shows i've ever seen
i loved every second of this show, so here's all my favorite parts!!
ALSO Trevor Wayne (u/s Ponyboy) was on for my show, and it was his Broadway debut, so that mixed with this only being their fourth official show after debuting on Broadway this past Thursday (they've been in previews for a few weeks) made for SUCH a good show atmosphere, the vibes were immaculate, and Trevor was a phenomenal Ponyboy.
Also, I got to stagedoor, and the cast was SO incredibly kind!!! I love stagedoors when the cast is just made up of the nicest group of people ever
(i'd love to discuss specific things from the show, so if you're curious, send me an ask!!)
***spoilers for the broadway show if anyone cares***
Act 1
the COSTUMES OHHH MY GOD
and the set is so cool???
the fight choreo is something i could talk about forever and ever
in general, the music has a very folk/country vibe to it, which fits SO well since it takes place in oklahoma!!
"grease got a hold" was so fun, i loved the idea that you become an official greaser after getting through your first fight with the socs
the show in general is such a good balance of quotes directly from the book and original lines!
i love that they made Dally another big brother figure to Ponyboy, because it just adds so much to the tension between Darry and Ponyboy
additionally, making Dally the leader of the gang while Darry's trying to stay away from that world... such a good change
Johnny and Pony are the best friends ever omg
Ace my beloved 😭😭 i'm usually hesitant about new characters being added but i love her so much
i was afraid they'd make her like an Anybodys copy, but she was SUCH a good fit within the group, and her relationships and interactions with them all felt so natural
btw she and Steve are siblings that is my hc they're brother and sister your honor!!!
and Two-Bit!!! Beloved!!! Daryl Tofa you are THE Two-Bit ever!!!
Two-Bit and Ace are best friends btw
"Great Expectations" had the stage completely blacked out except for spotlights on each of the outsiders gang when i tell you i was emotional
MY THEORY IS CONFIRMED OF THE CURTIS PARENTS DYING WHILE GETTING STUFF FOR DARRY'S BIRTHDAY I'M HAPPY BUT IN PAIN
Having Johnny present for the scene when Darry slaps Ponyboy is such a smart decision, especially since he's the one who grabs Ponyboy and gets them out of the house
Johnny and Pony duet 😭😭 they're platonic soulmates fr
Having the silhouettes of Soda and Darry during Johnny and Pony's duet, and Darry just sitting so defeated on the floor hurt me ngl
There were effects when Ponyboy was being drowned where it was like we were underwater as well, and everyone else was just moving silently. SO well done
the scene where Johnny stabs Bob was insane- there were blackouts, and people were moving in slow motion, and it was so perfectly overwhelming
God, the entire ending sequence was incredibly with the set pieces!! and in general, the effects were so good
also Dally is such an overprotective brother to BOTH Johnny and Pony
Act 2
The harmonies in this show. This is such a strong ensemble cast, and they're so powerful during the group numbers
"Death's at my Door" made me fucking sob????? Johnny and Pony being each other's reason to live??? Them staying alive just to make sure the other is safe???
Have I mentioned how much I love that Dally sees Pony and Johnny as his little brothers?? Because I love it so so much
Darry and Dally's arguments, and Dally making good points on why he's close with Ponyboy hurt SO much because Darry's trying his best
Ohhhh Darry is speaking to my soul he really is the parentified older sibling ever
But also "Throwing in the Towel" being similar to "Death's at my Door", with Sodapop begging Darry not to give up, because he loves him, and recognizes what he does for them??? And Ponyboy joining in at the end from the church??
Dally immediately hugging Ponyboy and Johnny when they reunite at the church 😭
"Soda's Letter" made me cry violently but that's nothing new
"Hoods turned Heroes" was actually so cute, the greasers were so excited and proud of Pony and Johnny
but the tonal shift at the end when Dally carried Johnny in all bandaged up??
a little miffed we didn't see the Curtis brothers reuniting ngl, but that's the only thing i wish they added in
THE FUCKING RUMBLE WAS SO GOOD HOLY SHIT
Darry asking Ponyboy if he can fight for him 😭😭😭 he loves his brother so much
THE CHOREO AND THE RAIN ON STAGE OH MY GOD
And Ponyboy fights until Johnny comes on stage and stands in front of him, and everything just freezes 😭
I do love how all the greasers were present for JOhnny's death, because it just solidifies how they're a family
Joshua Boone as Dally destroyed me. He perfectly showed how Johnny was Dally's entire world
and GOD them changing Dally's death to suicide by straight up stepping onto the train tracks and getting hit by a train was...
Just how empty and lost Ponyboy was after everyone died, and how desperate Soda and Darry were to get him to at least eat something, they portrayed that grief and trauma so well
"Stay Gold" 😭😭😭😭😭
Literally could not stop sobbing during that song, everyone around me was crying
There was such a perfect balance between Pony's narration and the show itself, and there were moments where he broke the fourth wall, mainly by looking at Soda and Johnny during their letters, and it just made for such an emotional impact
Darry asking to read Pony's story 😭😭 showing his support, and Pony being absolutely shocked but so happy 😭😭
also when Darry and Pony tell each other they love each other 😭😭 sobbing violently i love familial reconciliation
I was just an emotional wreck the entire finale, it was so beautiful
and the implication that instead of writing an essay, Ponyboy wrote "The Outsiders" in-universe 😭😭
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OKAY SO I JUST FINISHED SECRET INVASION (I know I'm late to the party but it was airing while I was at Stagedoor and I have like no signal there and wifi is spotty at best) AND I AM 1. U N W E L L and 2. BREAKING OUT THE RED STRING REGARDING THIS GOING INTO THUNDERBOLTS SO STRAP IN
(spoilers below the break and also this is gonna be a long one)
So I know they've said the Thunderbolts movie is gonna have things to do with Vibranium, and I get that, but part of me thinks the Skrulls are gonna play a part in it.
Edit: HAD TO EDIT THIS POST BC I FULLY FORGOT ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF JOHN WALKER. LIKE. TRULY IMPRESSIVE HONESTLY.
Okay so I have a lot of thoughts so we're just gonna word vomit
HEAR ME OUT
This may be entire circumstantial evidence but looking at the lineup we have 3 people who fight with brute force in a hand to hand situation (Bucky, Alexei, Antonia kinda), 3 people who are shown to be amazing ranged weapon fighters (Bucky, Antonia, Yelena)
And also Ava bc I havent figured out how her specific power set factors into this theory but I think someone like her is just giid to have around for strategic/espionage/surveillance reasons.
We've seen in SI that Skrulls even without the Super Skrull machine have some sort of enhanced strength with Talos in like the first or second episode and then again during the Motorcade fight when he saves the President
(and we will GET to the president)
which for Super Soldiers might be an even match, like Steve and Bucky in CATWS
or at least they can take a lot more damage and heal a lot quicker than the others.
Ranged weapons, I mean there's a full on human/Skrull war going on now, you're probably gonna want at least some people who can stay out of direct fighting
or in the case of Bucky and Antonia, you can't have them taking damage all the time,
and then also having someone like Ava who can sneak around unseen and undetected is of course a good way to infiltrate Skrull bases undetected/figure out who all is a Skrull/again she's just generally a strategic advantage to any team she's a part of imo
The Vibranium could also still factor into it too
I mean Skrulls are an alien species and Vibranium is a metal from space like it isn't unheard of
Also I have a horrible thought that won't happen bc Chris and Scarlett are gone but Bucky and Yelena having to fight Skrulls that look like Steve or Nat respectively would make me U N W E L L
I don't think it would inhibit them tbh, I think it would go a lot more like the Mustang Vs. Envy fight at the end of FMAB where it's like "they're dead I know they're dead and the fact you're wearing their face isn't weakening me it's making me angrier"
Watch FMAB it's great
This is the scene though if you want what I'm talking about condensed, the specific spot it starts at is 4:18
Or Bucky fighting a Winter Soldier Skrull
The TRAUMA but also the CATHARSIS of Bucky LITERALLY fighting his demons
AND WINNING
Aaaaaaanayways
Looping back to the President I said we'd get to
Diet Trump over there is definitely not gonna be president by the time TB rolls around
like Fury said what he did with the Skrulls is definitely some one-term president bs.
By the time he's out of office there's gonna be such a spike in hate crimes(?) against Skrulls/general murder that no one in their right mind would back him for re election
(at least I think. I hope. I'm praying Marvel doesn't emulate real life in this respect)
So my thought is
I'm basing this solely on a rumor I heard months ago abt Ross's role Thunderbolts so big grain of salt here
that's how Ross becomes President
and , and he may run on a campaign stating he'll end the lunacy
and I don't doubt that he'd want to
but from what little I know about him he seem like an "ends justify the war crimes" type guy
so my thought is he's sending the Thunderbolts in to do something relating to Skrulls
The Super Skrull machine may be how we specifically get Red Hulk too
I know we established in She-Hulk that the Hulk blood can be injected and stuff
But my thought is maybe he recreates it or something
And when infused with Radiation instead of Gamma rays (I don't know science they might be too different idk) it gives us Red Hulk instead of the usual Hulks we get, or anything like Abomination
That one has less backing it I just think it's neat
But idk those are my theories pls tell me what y'all think I have so many thoughts
#secret invasion#the thunderbolts#mcu thunderbolts#skrulls#bucky barnes#yelena belova#antonia dreykov#ava starr#alexei shostakov#the white wolf#the winter soldier#ghost mcu#red guardian#taskmaster mcu#whatever they decide to call yelena idk#this was sent to my friend via snap in a stupor after i finished tge finale#Apologies if its incoherent#idk this was just me red stringing it out
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Jekyll & Hyde - SPB, 29.12.22 - Review
I finally got around to writing my reviews about J&H and Bal Vampirov. Since I saw different casts at different dates and I suppose this is gonna be a really long post I decided to split it into three parts and write a separate review for each show))
Theatre of Musical Comedy, Saint Petersburg, 29.12.2022г.
cast:
Jekyll/Hyde - Kirill Gordeev
Lucy Harris - Nataliya Dievskaya
Emma Carew - Elena Gazaeva
John Utterson - Konstantin Kitanin
Sir Danvers - Andrey Matveev
Lady Beaconsfield - Elena Zabrodina
Nellie - Maria Reshavskaya
Spider - Alexey Shtykov
Simon Stride - Vitaliy Golovkin
Review —
Starting with some random information. I have to mention I have bootlegs of the show in several cast compositions many times but, especially since the show closed now, I was glad I managed to see some of the last performances live. In fact, I only had a ticket for the 30th at first and thought I would only make it to the stagedoor on 29th but when around 3,5 hours before the show as by a wonder a ticket appeared, I, of course, decided to take it in a heartbeat. Since I was staying in an apartment not very far from the theatre I went there a little earlier and met outside with friends. After a while I then noticed that someone was greeting me and when I turned around I figured out it was Elena, who just came to the theatre to get ready for the show. I then rushed to greet her as well, she congratulated me on getting to Piter again (since ofc she knew about my ✨adventure✨ at the border control the other day😵💫) and I also managed to hand over the bouquet of flowers I bought for her. 🥰 Honestly, after this small, coincidental meet-up my mood already went up by 1000 but by then I did not even expect just how much better this evening was still going to become. We then went inside the theatre, met some more friends there and just walked around, taking pictures. I also got a programme of the show which I asked some of the actors to sign the next day.
The show - I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to even closely describe my amazement about this show in words but overall it really was a breathtaking and fantastic experience and (no shade to other productions, I love the musical in general) I am now even more convinced that the Russian production is my favourite out of them. The costumes are gorgeous, the whole cast and ensemble is great, the orchestra and the music itself are also amazing… I was already impressed when the show started with Kirill’s Doctor Jekyll from the off giving some kind of “introduction” to the show and sort of explaining how every person is split into good and bad etc. also I really loved the stage design and how the scenery on stage switched for almost every scene, starting with scenes in the madhouse and then switching to Sie Danvers’ home, the red rat, and Doctor Jekyll’s Study or Laboratory all the time. 'Lost in the darkness' and 'I need to know' right at the beginning were really great scenes and I also have to remark that 'facade' (and its 1000 reprises) and the ensemble dancing scenes in general were really impressing. At the end of act 1 Hyde was sort of lighting a flame on stage and even though I sat in the 7th row, I was able to feel the warmth on my face.. (I’ll just mention my absolute favourites now bc otherwise it’s gonna be too long) One of my favourites was definitely the engagement scene, which was absolutely adorable. Also the fact that Henry and Emma wore matching clothes almost made my heart melt.🥺 I also adored the 'his work and nothing more' part. 'Alive' and 'dangerous game' were some really hot scenes as well, as was confrontation. At 'a new life' and ‘once upon a dream' I had trouble holding back my tears. And, I know it’s a very unpopular opinion, but ‘in his eyes' will forever be among my most favourite scenes in the whole show. Especially in this composition because Elena and Nataliya just sounded really great together. The final also left me in tears. This time was by the way one of the shows where Emma also dies in the end :'( So overall, the whole show was amazing.
Cast - starting with Jekyll/Hyde of course. As you might know, my favourite J&H unfortunately hasn’t been playing since 2018, so I had no chance of seeing him. Nevertheless, I saw both Kirill and Roman now and they were both great, though very different (about Roman I’ll write in the other review). To sum up, Kirill was an exceptional J&H, he found the perfect balance between a very introverted doctor who is pretty much focused on his work only and evil, savage Mr Hyde. To me personally, his Henry even seemed less sociable and a bit more cold/withdrawn than some other portrayals I’ve seen. While for others it seems the extreme obsession with work only developes over the course of the show and they did care a lot more for Emma before all that, he really seems to have chosen his work as his top priority right from the start and she only comes second. Nevertheless, the chemistry between him and Elena (and Natasha as well) was really good and they seemed like a very sweet couple during their engagement. Moreover, I have noticed that you sometimes see Hydes who are acting more beast-like and wild while others, like Kirill’s, seem to focus more on the evil, maniac side of the character. Overall, I really enjoyed his portrayal though. Emma. My favourite. I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of Emma and always thought she’s a rather boring character - until I saw Elena’s portrayal of her. I could write hours about how much I love her Emma, but to sum up she was just amazing, both vocally and acting-wise. Her Emma was very tender, always loving, kind and supportive towards Jekyll, but at the same time she had this strong and independent side to her, which was visible especially in her interactions with stride at the beginning. She’s pretty much driven by her love for Henry, never leaving his side and always believing in him, even if nobody else does, even though it is noticeable that she has her doubts later on and that she really suffers from her fiancé’s constant absence and Lena just portrayed all of this perfectly. Nataliya as Lucy was also great. I really enjoyed watching her 'bring on the men' and the scenes in the red rat in the beginning but at the same time I suffered with her during 'a new life' and her death left me in tears as well. It’s just impossible to not feel touched by her story seeing how such a kind-hearted woman who never gives up believing in her dream and hoping for a new life, despite her position in society, has to go through so much suffering…
stage door - first of all, right after the show I got a chance to take a picture with Emma in costume and after that and after I went to get my jacket from the wardrobe, I went out to the stage door, met some more friends there and then we waited for the actors together. There were masses of people that day, so I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to take photos or ask for autographs. I almost didn’t notice when Elena came out because she was surrounded by such a huge crowd of people. Luckily, my friend told her that I’d like to see her and ask to sign something again and she came to us right away, took some pics with me and signed my photo album with the photos with her from another concert in September before she left. She’s the sweetest, honestly, I can’t even describe how much I love her <3 When the crowd started to disappear I also managed to take a picture with Kirill. We stayed for a little longer and suddenly noticed that someone had placed some huge plastic cherries next to Kirill in front of the stage door. They were gone again later, but up to this date, we haven’t figured out why they were standing there. I showed Elena the photo with the cherries later and asked whether she knows, since I suggested it might’ve been a present for Kirill, but she didn’t know anything about it either. We later figured out they were taken away from a café nearby and placed there. Why is still unknown. Anyways, that was my first Jekyll&Hyde💗 I’ll write the second review tomorrow! If you have questions/remarks whatsoever, feel free to ask, comment, text me etc)
Should I post some of the photos as well? :D
#jekyll and hyde#jekyll and Hyde musical#Джекилл и Хайд#Кирилл Гордеев#елена газаева#наталия диевская#kirill gordeev#Elena Gazaeva#Nataliya Dievskaya#review#musical#european musicals#russian musicals#rmt#European musical theatre
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autism be damned i have seen the lion musical again !!!!! : a lion king musical review
this was supposed to be the third silly review but in the end it's gonna be the first ^-^' anyway, this was the second time i went to the lion king (last time i went was on may 4th), this time i had restricted view front row tickets &&& u can read more about this under the cut !!!
jsyk these go everywhere and aren't just abt the show i do talk abt the sillies that happen before and after it :D warning this is like. very long. like insanely long. no part 2 we die like men
saw the show on : june 18th 2023, théâtre mogador
first things first that was my first time going alone in paris and all went well until i tried to find the theater and kept getting lost, i made it tho !! and in time!
the cast changed a little but i saw stanley kassa as simba again (understudy), simon gallant played ed this time (saw him as zazu last time and he was crazy proud of himself at stagedoor, as he should he was awesome), & a new nala actress (paola fareri), new timon (romain apelbaum), & other kid simba & nala
my seat was ! much closer to the stage than expected it felt like i was IN the stage, but it's still not bad at all even for a restricted view seat !!!
during the circle of life, this time, there were no technical difficulties with the elephant so i got to see it ! i thought it was going to hit me with its tusk lol, & i saw zazu run so i was so happy
cried again during the key change 💚
olivier (scar) does change his energy depending on which kid is on, it's pretty different from last time!
also it's VERY impressive seeing him act from so close
it wasn't until the lioness hunt that i realized that i just Could Not see the entire back of the stage and when actors were there i could just see the top of their head
anyway. the lioness hunt 💕💕 i just love the choreography
during i just can't wait to be king it felt like the lyrics changed? like they were singing the movie version? and i couldn't tell if it felt this way because they changed them since the 2007 french cast recording or because i just didn't remember properly
anyway i love zazu. zazu my beloved. i just love this bird.
hyenas time i love them theyre my favorite characters :DDD i actually picked this seat because it's on the side of the stage they go to during the other song >:]
first time seeing simon as ed and he's got a really cool energy !!! shenzi (mélina mariale) & banzai (abdel-rahym madi) killing it as always
actually got startled when mufasa (noah ndema) roared
(skipping they live in you bc i have nothing to say sorry!!)
BE PREPARED TIME. MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SONG. olivier is wonderful, the hyenas are wonderful, this is starting so so well.
and then. before the breakdown, the hyenas start walking around on set, as they do ! they go right in front of my spot, AS I PLANNED! AND I AM SPOTTED (lime green hair helps!)
im having a main character moment wth. banzai is like "i love your hair color! he needs the same" while grabbing the puppet's hair, and im just "AA THANK YOU???!!" and shenzi and ed gave me a high five im just. that was a "and everybody clapped" moment but i was having a blast okok thank u
BANZAI WAS LOOKING AT ME WHILE SINGING FROM THE BONE STAIRS THINGS I WAS SO HAPPY???
the stampede made me sad, but i wasn't exactly looking at it bc i was curious about what was happening in the wings
there was this small child in the crowd who was crying LOUDLY and everytime everyone else would go"awwww :("
rafiki mourns is still one of the songs i find most beautiful, i especially love when the lionesses cry bc i think the tear effect is so cool
end of act 1 (sorry timon, sorry pumba. u guys are awesome too) !!
i could see more actors & dancers up close it was so cool i love looking at the costumes & makeup
kept making eye contact with the hyenas it was a little awkward ESPECIALLY when they werent the character u were supposed to focus on
second time seeing ntsepa as rafiki and she's still awesome. i love her sm :(((
THE LION HEAD IN HE LIVES IN YOU REPRISE. THATS IT THATS WHAT I HAVE TO SAY.
son oncle oscar? is still my fav thing idk if i put this in the right order but its whatevs
the same little kid yelled "SCAR!" during simba confronts scar
curtain call / finale moment !!! pumba (cyril romoli) was smiling at me but i didnt notice until the end (< - too busy looking at the hyenas)
this guy's about to go stage door alone (he's very faceblind and he's me!)
i dash i fly out the theater . im gonna see simon, mélina, and abdel. i repeat endlessly. and i'll try to see stanley and olivier again
this time there were more people than last time, but it was also night last time and now its sunday
i got to see mélina !! she was so so sweet and signed my notebook, i was too scared to ask for a pic
all goes well, UNTIL i start feeling rain on my arm and next thing u know it starts pouring
30 minutes in olivier breitman comes out of stage door holding the smallest carboard box over his head, he hides under the franprix with us and he signs my notebook too before running to another spot (he was so sweet i love him sm)
the rain stops after an hour, only dancers came out and . i suspect it was abdel but i cant besure bc this one girl told me he left when the rain started -, and i go back near the actual door
ten minutes pass still no one, but i still want to see simon or stanley; two dancers come out and are like "hey you can go inside if you want to hide from the rain"... WHAT. anyway i go inside stage door
i heard the girl who was waiting with complain that i got in, i dont know if i should move or not so i decide to stay near the door
stayed there for maybe 15 minutes and then this guy came to close the gate that led to the theater and i was like. yeah okay these guys are not coming out or already left
AND THEN I HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER HOUR FOR MY TRAIN TO START. anyway i got home at 10 thank u
THE END !!!!!!! im so sosrry i am Very talkative
#i think this might be 70% me loving the hyenas & their actors oops#sorry not sorry theyre awesome <3#this is like 1000 words long what how#musicalposting#the lion king#long post#just to be sure
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David Tennant tonight at the stagedoor after another excellent performance of Don Juan in Soho. They updated the play to include the election result and recent Trump disasters. The crowd loved it. More photos soon.
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“I’m So Proud Of You”
SiX is opening back up. Jenna remembers the time she first met Jane, and the girls go and see the show.
Based off of a prompt!
Jane just had the phone call of her life. As “Mom 1” of the household and Aragon as “Mom 2” of the household, they typically dealt with the press.
“So,” Jane looked at her fellow queens that she had called into the living room for a family meeting. “They’re thinking about bringing SiX back to Broadway.”
“Wait, seriously?” Anne perked up. The others followed with similar responses.
“Yes,” Aragon laughed. “They said that they’re willing to bring all of us back, which is great. They told us that if any of us didn’t want to do it again, they would call up the alternates from before and see if they want to step into the role. Would any of you not want to-”
“We’re all in,” The writer spoke for the group. “All we need is SiX.”
“So we should call them back and tell them we’re in?”
“Absolutely.”
“Can I make one request?” Anna asked loudly. “They have to offer the alternate roles back to the original alts. Even if they don’t take the offer, it’s there for them.”
“That’s a wonderful idea.” Jane nodded her head in agreement.
“I’ll call them up later today and let them know.”
A few hours later, Jane and Catherine had called, and it was official. They were going back to Broadway. Of course, they weren’t supposed to tell anyone until it was officially announced to the public, but Jane couldn’t resist telling her friend.
“Jane?” Jenna picked up the phone. “Are you alright?”
“Can you come open the door?” The blonde laughed.
“Are you seriously outside the diner right now?”
“Maybe? Can you just come open the door for me please?” A few seconds later, the two were face to face.
“Missed me that much that you had to come back?” The baker smirked at her friend. “Couldn’t stay away even after your weekly Saturday visit?”
“Oh shut it,” Jane laughed good heartedly. “Are the girls around? I actually have something to tell you.”
“They’re at home with Jim. Why? Should I call them over?”
“Actually, I wanted to tell just you something, but you can’t tell anyone. There’s good and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”
“The bad news.” Jane bit back a laugh. “Oh get on with it, will you?”
“I don’t think I can watch the girls as often as I have been anymore.”
“Oh?” Jenna’s eyebrow shot up. “Is it because-”
“It’s not anything the girls did. They treat their Aunt Janey just fine.”
“They really love calling you Aunt Janey. You know that right?”
“I do, and I love that they call me Aunt Janey. Makes my heart melt. They’re the sweetest.”
“So then, why can’t you watch them as much anymore?”
“Well, that’s my good news. They’re bringing SiX back to Broadway!” The blonde, as dorky as she was, made small jazz hands.
“You’re kidding!” Jenna shouted. “Oh my god! That’s awesome! When?” She hugged the queen tightly.
“Well, we have to all talk about it with the people in charge, but hopefully soon!”
“I guess that’s a damn good reason for you not being able to watch the girls as much anymore. Oh, they’re going to be so excited for you!”
“As much as I am excited to get back on the stage, I do hope the girls don’t think I’m abandoning them or something,” Jane expressed her concern.
“They won’t. They’ll think it’s so cool that their Aunt Janey and their girls are on Broadway,” Jenna tried to assure the third queen. “Now, how about some pie to celebrate?”
“If they expect us to fit back into our costumes from all those years ago, I’m screwed.”
“You’re literally the same size that you were before. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’ve gone up a size.”
“Oh, like one size is going to be the death of you.”
“Your pies are going to be the death of me girl,” Jane laughed.
“Oh, you sound like Jim and Becky now.” The baker went into the kitchen and returned a few seconds later with two large slices of Jane’s favorite.
A few hours later, the two friends had chatted about everything under the sun and circled back to the topic of SiX.
“You know, when I saw SiX with Jim, I felt a little silly to stagedoor as a grown woman, but I did, and I met you guys.”
“Did you?” Jane looked at her with curiosity.
“I did. You were so kind.”
“Hi love. Thank you for coming to the show!” Jane approached the couple.
“Thank you for putting it on! You guys were great,” a slightly younger Jenna complimented.
“Oh thank you. That’s so sweet.”
“Your song really got to me,” Jenna confessed bashfully.
“Yeah it did,” Jim laughed softly.
“Oh?” the third queen questioned.
“Yeah. It uh, meant a lot to me. Thank you.”
“Of course hun. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Jane smiled softly at the woman. “Do you want a picture?”
“Oh yeah.” The baker was a bit embarrassed she forgot to ask for one. “If you wouldn’t mind?”
“Of course not!” The two posed for a picture. “If you want to-”
“Miss Seymour, please keep moving down the line,” the security guard sighed before muttering, “This woman really has to make a connection with every single person.”
“I’m so sorry for taking up your time. Have a good night!” Jenna smiled at the queen before walking away from the stage door.
“Wait! But-” But the baker was already walking down the street hand-in-hand with her husband, the busy streets of New York too loud for her to hear the queen’s pleas to stay.
“I’m sure I have it here somewhere.” Jenna’s tongue stuck out as she scrolled through the seemingly endless collection of pictures she had on her phone. “Aha! Here it is!” She showed the third queen the picture that they took together all those years ago.
“Oh my,” Jane brought a hand to her mouth. “I remember that. I remember you! I wanted to talk to you more, but the guard was always so mad at me for spending more time with the fans because he wanted to go home.”
“Oh, it was not a problem really. I was just happy to have met you. I still can’t believe I didn’t recognize you at the cafe.”
“I don't know how I didn’t recognize you!”
“Jane, you met so many people! And, if I’m being honest, it looked like it was kind of a tough night for you.”
“Yeah.” Jane looked down at her hands. “Sometimes it was tough to get through my song, but uh,” she laughed a little. “Haus of Holbein always brought me right back to the chaos.”
“So, are you excited to be back on the stage?”
“Well, I’m not going to lie to you, I’m a little nervous!”
“Why’s that hun?”
“Well, the show’s pretty much a seventy-five minute cardio workout. I’m not exactly in the best shape anymore, and even then, I dealt with a few injuries. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to handle it again.”
“I’m sure it’ll be just fine, and if it’s tough, were the choreographers easy to work with?”
“Actually, yeah.”
“Then I’m sure if something’s tough for you, they’ll change it?”
“Hopefully. You know, the joke in the show where Anne screams that I can’t dance?”
“Tell me that’s not-”
“Jenna! You’ve seen me dance with the girls! I’m not a good dancer! It took me so much longer than any of the other queens to learn the moves.”
The baker snorted. “Yeah, I have, but it’s better than my dancing!”
“You want the part?”
“Uh, no! There’s no way in hell I can sing like you.”
“Yeah right. I’ve heard you sing before. You’ve got a voice.”
“Definitely not as good as yours though.” Jane didn’t even try to cover up the fact that she rolled her eyes at the baker’s argument.
“You’re impossible.”
“Since this clearly isn’t going to go anywhere, when you guys open, you think you could get me tickets to the opening?”
“I mean, I can try! I’m sure I can convince the other girls to beg the company managers to give us a ticket for you.”
“Listen, I’m going to be straight with you: If the girls don’t come to see their Aunt Janey and girls’ opening night, they aren’t going to be happy.”
“Aren’t they a little young to be seeing it? I mean, you’ve seen the show. It’s kind of,” Jane put a finger to her chin as she searched for the right word. “Sexual? Wouldn’t it be weird for them to see Aunt Janey literally groping herself at the beginning of the show?”
“I mean, if you’re really uncomfortable with them coming, they don’t have to of course. I also don’t have to if you don’t want me to be there. I just thought you would want the support?” Jenna was a bit embarrassed. She didn’t often outright ask for things because of risk of being shot down. Jane was clearly trying to let her down easy.
“No, no, no!” Jane rushed out, frantically shaking her hands, almost knocking over the glass of water she had in front of her. “I would love to have you there! I just don’t want it to be weird for the girls! And if they can’t come to the actual show, or if Jim doesn’t want them going to see the show, they are more than welcome to come hang out before and after the show! I just didn’t want to ask you to bring the girls because I know our show isn’t exactly... PG at some points.”
“Lu might understand some of it, but a lot of the jokes would go right over Livvy’s head. If it makes you uncomfortable though, I can just have them watched by a neighbor or something?”
“If you’re comfortable with bringing them, I may be able to pull some strings for you guys.”
The night that SiX opened back up was quite eventful, and having the Pomatter-Hunterson clan there only made the day even more special for the six queens on stage. Once everything was over, the performers were overjoyed to stagedoor once again. The first people in line were Jim, Jenna, and the girls.
“My girls!” Olivia shouted with pride. “Aunt Janey! Aunt Janey!”
“Hi honey.” Jane picked up the smaller girl and put her on her hip. Should she have done that after an exhausting night? Probably not, but she couldn’t resist her adorable niece.
“You were so amazing up there tonight!”
“Thank you sweet one.”
“Hi Aunt Janey,” Lulu said shyly. “You were like, really cool up there.”
“Why are you all shy? It’s just Aunt Janey!” Jenna pushed her daughter towards her aunt.
“Mama!” Lulu scoffed, although not annoyed. “It’s just... I don’t know! She’s like, famous again. It’s weird.”
“It’s just me kiddo. I’m still plain Aunt Janey.”
“You’re not-” the baker went to argue but was interrupted by the green queen.
“Well well well, look what the cat dragged in!” Anne walked over suavely before tripping over her own two feet.
“Annie!” Olivia squealed, immediately reaching over to the second queen. “You did so good up there!”
“Thank you Livvy! Do you wanna do stagedoor with me? If Mama’s okay with it?” Anne glanced at the baker who gave a slight nod. “Does that sound like fun?” Olivia grinned and shook her head enthusiastically. The two made their way down the line.
“Do you want to do that with me Lu?” Lulu shook her head no.
“It’s your day Aunt Janey. I’ll be okay just hanging out.”
“That’s just fine love. Now give me a hug.” The young girl tightly embraced the blonde.
“This is going to sound silly, but I’m so proud of you,” Lulu whispered.
“That means so much more to me than you will ever know sweet one.” She pressed a kiss to her eldest niece’s hairline before leaning up and hugging her mother.
“You did a great job tonight Jane.”
“And you did a great job raising those sweet girls of yours.”
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Foreboding (Targets: Part 2)
A/N: Hello, hello! Welcome to the shitshow, aka my blog. This is part two of a potential 4/5 part series that I am co-writing with the lovely @sweetestrequiems. Click here for Part 1. Each chapter is focused on a different queen or issue related to the queens. This specific chapter is Catherine Parr centric, but the other queens are all very present.
Please note the following ships are canon in this fic’s universe: Parrlyn, Aramour
{Trigger warnings: anxiety, mention of blood, slight violence}
I should also note some passages are written in German and Spanish and should be google searched to better comprehend the story.
Taglist: @sweetestrequiems, @theatergirl06, @silverpetals97, @six-fragile-dreams, @patdfobmcr-yt, @frogs-in-clogs, @mindless-pidgeon
Other than that..... enjoy! Below the cut.
It would not stop.
The constant feeling like something would go wrong.
Katherine Howard could not tell if it was the anxiety, or if it was something else. She physically felt okay, and everything seemed fine, but for the life of her, the girl could not put her finger on that bad feeling. Being so lost in her thoughts, Howard was found, brows furrowed, staring down at her food, rather than eating it. Of course, this raised concerns with her cousin, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour. Boleyn’s face began to reflect the concern when she raised an eyebrow. Seymour had more of a sad-looking face, but nonetheless, the worry was quite present.
“Katherine?”
“Hey, Kitty… you okay?”
The two voices snapped Howard out of her trance. She looked up, shaking her head seconds after her attention went to the two women. “Yeah, yeah! Just had something come across my mind is all. I’m fine, really. Guess I’m just getting the typical pre-show jitters everyone gets,” which wasn’t a lie, either. But, Katherine did feel a pang of guilt in having to be dishonest with Jane and Anne. Howard was one of the Queens who always got some pre-show anxiety, alongside Catherine of Aragon– (much to everyone’s surprise)– and Boleyn. It wasn’t a rare occasion, though, considering they had just about an hour before they had to head to the theatre. It wouldn’t seem like much now, but this feeling Katherine Howard was having was not a good one.
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During the matinee, Katherine could not shake off that constant thought.
But she was not alone. The feeling had begun to haunt her cousin Anne.
Anne Boleyn’s eyes began to glance around the audience, knowing that Katherine was in the middle of delivering the roast of the century to Jane, Catherine Parr, and Anna of Cleves. A certain man had caught her eye up in the upper level; the second row in the left Circle Slip of the Arts Theatre, to be more precise. Something about that blond hair. And cold, blue eyes. Something about the way he was leaning on the railing while he sat began to bother Anne. Her attention snapped right back to the show when she heard Katherine say, “I can’t even begin to think of how I could compete with you all. Oh wait, like this!” to signal the start of All You Wanna Do. But even with her focus on the show, Boleyn’s glances kept going back up to that strange man.
“I think we can all agree I’m the ten amongst these threes!”
What about him bothered Anne Boleyn so much? She did not know.
Was it his face? No, he seemed to be fairly attractive. Was it the way he stared at all of them? Possibly, since he seemed to be rather uncomfortable when Aragon brought up Leviticus and Mary in No Way. He also looked disgusted during Boleyn’s spotlight in Don’t Lose Ur Head. He looked very, very abhorred with Haus of Holbein and Anna of Cleves. But his eyes when Katherine Howard was singing screamed danger, and Anne could see it. Her frequent glancing that first day saw him tense up upon a few lines:
“Tall, large, Henry the Eighth.
Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Globally revered, although you wouldn’t know it from the look of that beard.”
And the end of All You Wanna Do, as far as Anne could tell from where she was on the stage, had him gripping the railing tightly. Was anger the reason he furrowed his eyebrows, or something else? The distance was not helping her much. Overall, she was picking up a few assumptions just from the one matinee show. This guy was either a historian that pretty much agreed with Henry VIII’s horrible decisions in life, or someone the Queens knew personally. What Anne decided to think though, was the former. Maybe this guy was just a historian and unimpressed with the show, right?
That first show could have not ended sooner. But as the lights on the stage went somewhat dim to allow the six ladies to exit, Anne Boleyn paused and allowed the others to go in front of her. She kept her gaze on that very man, and watched him stand up, turn around, and head on out of the seating area. The fact that she was the last one to leave concerned Cleves a bit. Right before she could even reach the dressing room, the queen in red put a hand on the green queen’s shoulder. “Moment mal, Anne. Was stört dich? Du hast anscheinend nicht dein gewohntes Lächeln am Ende der Show gehabt,” the German gently gave the shoulder a squeeze. Boleyn found herself sighing. “What’s going on? You normally smile and you were barely holding one up today by the end of the show,” Cleves made herself translate what she had previously said.
“I don’t know, honestly. I guess I thought I saw someone that Maggie knew in the audience. It was weird. I’m normally not out of it either. Anyways, if Aragon took the couch, she’s going to regret it. It’s my nap time,” the cheeky grin came back to the ruby lips. A nod from Cleves, and the two were well on their way to the dressing room. Was Aragon on the couch? Absolutely. And Anne 100% kicked her off of it just so she could lay down and sleep after she changed back into her comfortable clothes. No space buns, no makeup– just a giant hoodie and some sweatpants.
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The other dressing room was a little more lively for a good while.
Katherine Howard was up on her feet, bouncing around with energy. Catherine Parr had decided to join her this afternoon. What were the two doing while Jane Seymour took the time to answer some tweets and messages? Dancing. The two ladies were dancing, which was almost the catalyst for Jane setting her phone down and joining them. In fact, she just wanted in on the fun. The three danced around for maybe half an hour, before a yawning Katherine Howard took to the couch to take a nap herself. Parr and Seymour stayed awake, with Parr looking for her notebook and Seymour going back to the tweets and messages.
“Cathy, look at this,” tapping her counterpart on the shoulder, the blonde woman moved her phone to be between them both. “It’s us with our kids!” If there was one thing Jane Seymour loved about the fans they had, it was all of the fanart of them with their kids. A smile was brought to Catherine Parr’s face as she looked up to meet Jane’s eyes. “If there’s one thing I have always appreciated, it’s that they know we aren’t the only Tudors that kicked some serious ass.” The laugh both of them shared was quiet, as to not wake Katherine up from her post-show nap.
The calligraphy pen twirled around Parr’s fingers for a solid minute or so before she finally began to write. Each queen had their thing to do post-matinee if it was a two-show day.
Catherine Parr wrote notes about her performances.
Jane Seymour responded to fans. And to as many of them as possible, too!
Both of the Beheaded Cousins slept their time away.
Anna of Cleves did various things, such as meditate and listen to music.
Catherine of Aragon normally left the dressing room to find a quiet spot in the theatre’s backstage to pray.
This normal routine was going to be shaken up a little too much. So much that Boleyn and Howard were too tense to take their usual between show naps.
––––––––––
The same seat every damn time.
Who the hell was this guy?
And why was he now looking so bitter towards Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard?
Three weeks since the mystery man had first caught Boleyn’s eyes in the middle of a performance. But now it was a pattern. Two night shows and a matinee, and always on the exact same nights. Exact same seat, exact same everything. This was starting to piss Boleyn off, and scare Howard. He looked at them with more than just malicious intent in his eyes, to the point that Katherine sometimes blanked on her lines. It was to the point when Anne was singing, she’d put more emphasis on “Hold up, let me tell you how it went down.” just to spite him. This historian guy, or whoever he truly was, did not settle well with the cousins.
But on the night of a Sunday performance, the Queens all got a rude awakening they were not ready for. And the two to be given the first wave were none other than the Beheaded Cousins themselves:
Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard.
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This tension was so chilling that it even caused Anne to fumble a few of her lines. Even the infamous “Yeah, I read.” was not the usual confident, snarky remark it usually was. Having made eye contact with the mystery man while trying to deliver the line was definitely part of it, and for a moment there was a stiff awkwardness in the air. They’d recover quickly, of course, but the general consensus between the group was that something was wrong, and it didn’t take a genius to figure it out.
The man quickly left, before the end of bows, and somehow located an usher and told him he was an old friend of the girls’. The girls weren’t too akin to refusing to meet people, so immediately after stagedooring and meeting fans, they all headed backstage to meet whoever had requested a personal meet and greet. Kit’s the first through the door and she stops dead in her tracks. Those eyes. They were the same bright blue eyes that she saw in her dreams at night, the same eyes she stared into right before… well…
She swallows, backing up a little. Anne comes crashing through the door, chaos embodied, and happily dances around for a moment before noticing the anxiety seething from Howard’s small frame. “What’s wrong, love?” Kit simply points to the man, and Anne’s heart drops to her stomach as well. She too, can’t look away from those crystal eyes. The blond hair. The everything.
Anne can barely talk above a whisper could even tell it was him would make the situation less real. Maybe it wasn’t, maybe he was just another person. One can hope, but no luck there, Anne. She can feel Kit shaking, and reaches to take her hand, letting out a shaky breath and considering shouting for Parr.
The others trickle in quickly after, the ‘mystery man’ still just staring at the two cousins with ferocious intensity. The last to enter, though, is Jane Seymour. The metaphorical mother of the group, the caretaker, any other synonym you can think of. Jane is never one to cast judgement. She walks in, and despite the obvious tension, says a polite hello to the man. He simply nods in response.
Parr joins Anne at the hip, whispering to her. “Is he what’s got you all rattled, love?” Anne lets out a small nod. “It’s him.”
That statement reaches Jane’s ears and immediately her demeanor changes. She stands up a little straighter, setting her microphone down on the dressing room’s main table, and just looks at him. She moves a little closer, pushing the other girls behind her, and she can only say one thing.
“...Henry?”
He steps forward, and while the other girls move back, Jane stays planted to her spot. He smiles, trying to turn on the charm, reaching for her hands. “The one I truly lov—” He’s cut off by a slap. Yes, Jane Seymour just slapped a man. He brings a hand up to his red cheek, eye showing that it indeed, hurt. Cleves stifles a laugh.
“Don’t ever associate that word with me. You don’t know what love is.” A few tears well up in the blonde’s eyes, but refuses to let them fall. Not for him. “Love isn’t keeping your wife from holding her newborn child!” Her voice breaks slightly, but she takes a deep breath, centering herself.
“You all look so different.” The scruffy voice chimes, and immediately Kit visibly tenses up. She, unlike Jane, is unable to hold the tears in. Though they flow silently, they flow heavily. “There’s no need to cry, Katherine… or should I say ‘Kitty’, now?”
“Don’t speak to her. You do not have permission to do that.” Jane moves to block his view, but he simply repositions himself. Anne elects to go in for a dig. The devilish smirk returns, though small, and she gives Kit’s hand a squeeze before moving a tiny step forward.
“You know, mate, if you’re still having trouble… you know, with your little friend, we can get you a prescription for Viagra. Or Cialis, plenty of options.” She emphasizes ‘little’ by using her thumb and pointer finger to indicate his size. It makes Kit smile a little. The silence in the air was broken by a stifled laughter. That had to be the funniest thing Cleves ever heard Boleyn say outside of the wit written in the script. Aragon gave her a nudge, but even she agreed with the sentiment.
The blond man, finally revealed as the reincarnated Henry VIII, just narrowed his eyes. “How funny, laughter coming from someone who couldn’t perform.” Anne’s smirk went away, as she looked back towards Cleves with a hurt expression. Cleves’ grin was gone, with gritted teeth behind a closed mouth replacing it. Aragon let out a sigh. “That’s low for the man who so easily says he believes–”
“Catalina, don’t even get me started on you either.”
Not a single comment from Catherine Parr. She just stood there, feeling herself drift between a rational mind and pure impulse. Did this guy just come back to insult them, and get a second wind to take Katherine? Oh no, that was not happening. She saw it all, too. Jane’s reddening face from holding back the tears, Cleves’ rather tame anger, Aragon’s scowl… Kit’s pale face from the fear, and Anne being powerless. Jane Seymour honestly, had lost her mind way before Catherine Parr did in this scenario, but… there was always going to be a breaking point for the quiet one.
“So you and your whore cousin think you can just slander my name like that? I’d have you both back at the scaffold in front of the Tower if I had–”
“Scaffolds don’t exist anymore, you twat,” Boleyn hissed under her breath.
“Enough, Henry.”
This was where Parr had enough. The other Queens gave a glance at their surviving counterpart, who wasn’t even looking up at him. She was staring at the floor, but for now. “Cathy, you should probably not… y’know, say anything,” Boleyn barely managed to get that sentence out, considering the crushing feeling she had inside of her chest. All that got as a response was a laugh.
“The survivor, Catherine Parr. Tell me then, my love, are you just as stubborn as you were back then?” He got every other one to crack, but little did he know that he would be the one about to shatter like glass. “Because you should’ve been the one to meet an untimely fate like your counterparts here. Of course, new body means a second chance at being able to–”
Henry stops when he sees Parr’s shoulders shake a little. She’s… laughing?
That’s why she was looking down. When she did look up, one saw her smile shining on like a light. Safe to say, Catherine Parr was about to tear someone apart. “You’ve still got quite a loud mouth for an old man. Tell me, did you ever finally learn to take care of yourself, you bobolyne? Thinking you have any right to talk to the mother of not only your damned son, but also the woman who was loyal to you for twenty four years?! And even better, the one you so graciously called your sister after your marriage? You’ve got to be kidding me right now.”
Jane felt a little insulted that she had to take a jab at Edward, but had the feeling it was necessary considering the situation. Hopefully Parr would apologize for it later on.
“Okay, okay… fair. Not bad, Parr. But why do those two get to wear shiny chokers while the rest of you have crowns? Does it further emphasize my point that Anne Boleyn’s just a hell of a tempting woman and that Katherine Howard–”
The smile from Parr’s face faded. The anger was present and everyone was mortified to see someone so quiet speaking up like she was. With vitriol in her voice, Catherine Parr officially lost her temper.
“You KNOW exactly what the fuck happened, Henry.”
Aragon felt herself go to cover Katherine’s ears as her goddaughter began to lose her composure. “You KNOW why they have to wear those. You know damn well the crimes you fucking committed against them both, especially Katherine! She was a child, Henry! A fucking child who got manipulated and used! I want to hear nothing from your mouth, you snoutband! You have nothing to defend yourself with!”
Wiping a tear or two away, Jane Seymour began to lean into Anna of Cleves for some form of comfort. Even the German was surprised to be hearing the resentment coming out of such a powerful and rather cool-tempered woman. Just as Henry went to open his mouth, he stopped.
“Oh no, no sir! You have no right to talk here! Anne Boleyn lost her head over what, your delusions that she was out and about with men when you were just going around like you weren’t married? And because of that, she has to struggle to change her name? Are you actually insane or some shit?” The northern accent Parr had was thick. She was angry, and her voice said it for her if her facial expression did not. “Jane Seymour never got to hold Edward because you took him straight away for his christening. And she had to sit there, alone, in bed! Suffering through illness until she died without saying goodbye to her baby boy!”
Boleyn goes pale. Where did this anger even come from? She had no idea, but Parr was scaring her.
“My damn godmother was near a saint with all of the bullshit she had to put up with! Twenty four fucking years, and it wasn’t Anne who ruined the marriage. It was YOU. Aragon did some insanely remarkable things despite how you treated her! And Cleves! You just decide to take Cleves and humiliate her because she wasn’t beautiful enough for you? You’re an absolute wandought, Henry! You brought a Spanish lady and a German lady out of their comfort zones all because you didn’t know how to use your damn brain!”
At this point, Aragon had managed to sneak off into the dressing room, with Cleves now being the one to hold Howard. Boleyn was now hugging Seymour, actually terrified of not just Henry, but Parr.
Henry began to go pale. He was not going to recover from this.
“Who am I missing… let’s see, Katherine Howard? No, I got her. Anne Boleyn? Also got her. Jane Seymour? Check. Anna of Cleves? Check. Catherine of Aragon? Oh, yeah, her too. Would you look at that… I’m the only one left. Surprise surprise, the fucking survivor surviving again and this time, she gets to give it to you the exact way she wants to.”
“Cathy–”
“Shut up you lot. My turn to finally talk.”
A flinch from the group. Aragon had to take glances in and out of the dressing room.
“Oh wow, Catherine Parr. The survivor. The one who draws lines in arbitrary places, blah blah! She had two other husbands, what good could have she done being a Tudor queen? I DIDN’T TAKE ANY OF YOUR BULLSHIT IS WHAT I DID. Those books that everyone rumoured a woman was writing? Surprise, you tallowcatch! It was me! I’m the famed author of Tudor history. And I published under my own name once your pitiful body finally died. That can’t be that bad, Cathy. What a sad excuse for a sob story, right?”
Katherine Howard began to tremble more than she already was in Anna of Cleves’ arms. Catherine Parr made herself stand face to face with Henry.
“Ah, right, because she survived she deserves the backing vocals. WELL GUESS WHAT, HENRY? I’M HERE TO STAY. I HAD TO GIVE UP MY LIFE, MY LOVE, AND WHATEVER ELSE I WAS DOING TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR SORRY ASS. You might have forced these women into submission but no, I am not going to submit to some sad old man. You took away their rights, you took away their children… and poor Katherine…” A laugh. “You took poor Katherine’s childhood. You turned her into a disgraced whore. She is not and will never be one. She is a victim of your bullshit.”
“Catherine, my love–”
“No excuses now, Henry. I’m through. Your love ran cold years ago. And call me love one more damn time. See what happens.”
“My love–”
The weight of the sleeves helped Parr send her fist flying into his face. He stumbled back, feeling a warm sensation drip from his nose. Blood. He… was bleeding? “You actually got the nerve to punch an English King? You’re a mad woman, Parr. I’ll have you thrown on that scaffold just how–” A second punch, and this time, there was an audible crack of sorts.
“You wear a crown, but you’re no king. You’re a disgrace to human life, Henry. And this is for all of the women you hurt, manipulated, abused… and killed,” a lunge forward. The third strike was to his jaw, and the fourth was a solid kick to the chest with her heel being the first thing to make impact. Henry, having been taken by surprise from every hit, stumbled right back into a pair of men. Shaking her fist off, some of the blood ended up getting on the floor, and part of it remained on her hands.
“I’ll be back, Catherine! Mark my damn words! Let go of me, you imbeciles!”
“Like hell you’ll be back!”
And just as she took a step forward, Aragon went to hold on to one of her arms. “Someone help me hold her back!” Aragon needed the help. Parr was under such a fit of rage she was dragging her godmother across the hallway. Seymour had to let go of Boleyn to try and hold on to Parr’s other arm. She slowed down, but still had enough adrenaline surging through her to keep going. Cleves just gave Howard a gentle kiss on the cheek before running over to help the other two ladies. No arms? No problem. She just held on to one of Parr’s legs.
Boleyn pulled her cousin into a tight hug, feeling a shaky exhale leave her body. “Kitty? Kitty, are you okay?” Just a nod. Howard was terrified to open her mouth after seeing the ungodly wrath unfold before her eyes. “I-Is… she mad at us, Annie?” Quiet and almost inaudible. The poor girl was terrified to even talk out of fear that Parr was not just angry at Henry, but at them too.
“Catherine Parr, what in God’s name has gotten into you?” Aragon furrows her eyebrows. “This is not you. What is going on? Talk to me, please.”
Anne reaches to take Kit’s hand. “She’s… upset. Not at us, I promise.” Anne had to admit, all of the ferocity coming from Parr scared her a little bit. The yelling reminded her a little of when Henry first stormed in and accused her. Of course, she would set it aside, but it was scary in the moment. She looks in Kit’s eyes, which are now full of tears, sighing and pulling her into another tight hug and rubbing her back. “It’s okay, babes… He’s gonna go away and we will be okay, I promise. The girls aren’t gonna let him get to us.” Kit just buries her face into Anne’s shoulder and lets out the remainder of what she wouldn’t let out in front of Henry. Thank goodness the men had taken him into another room until the police arrived.
Anne pulls out of the hug for a moment and then walks Kit outside. “You look absolutely knackered, love… maybe we should head home as soon as all of this is over. Do you wanna change into something else? C’mon.” They both decide to change, but do so in the staff bathroom rather than in the dressing room. On the off chance Henry was able to see into the dressing room, they didn’t want him to see anything. Anne also thought a door with a lock was the safest.
Once they finish hanging up their costumes, the two settle into the couch, and just hold each other. Anne hums a little of La Vie en Rose, and quickly, Kit falls asleep. Anne doesn’t mind. They were all done with the day, it had already put them through the ringer.
There’s an apparent veil of exhaustion amongst all of the women, except Parr.
Sure, Henry had been apprehended at this point and he was stuck with his hands cuffed behind his back, but that didn’t stop him from being inches away from Parr’s face with a very devious smile. “I’ll be back, Catherine. And you six will have to deal with me all over again. Especially Kat–”
“Like hell you are!”
Catherine Parr broke her left arm free from Catherine of Aragon’s grip, and her right arm from Jane Seymour’s. The right hand took a vice-like grip on his shirt collar before her left fist came swinging at full power, and thensome since the weight of the costume added force. That impact had a very, very nasty sound to it. Even Cleves flinched at it, soon seeing the blond man fall straight to the floor with a bloody face. “Get anywhere near us and I will have you laying your head on a prison bench just how you made poor Katherine and Anne lay down as you murdered them!”
The officers picked up the unconscious Henry, and kindly thanked Jane, Anna, and Aragon for their cooperation. Parr however, got a warning, but that was about it.
Giving it a moment, knowing they would be out of earshot at this point, Parr releases a rather annoyed grumble. “He’ll fucking pay for his crimes against all of you. I swear on my life he will rot in a prison cell for what he did. If he thinks he can just show up out of nowhere and come back here to take us for fools, he’s wrong,” she almost hissed at the end. The thickness of her accent was making Aragon concerned, since to see someone as rational as her goddaughter be in such a state was a rare experience. Cleves and Seymour both looked up with mortified faces. Ever seen revenge personified as human? No? Now you have.
And her name was Catherine Parr.
“What in heaven was that?” Maggie asks, getting up and peeking out into the hallway. A small laugh. The thud was actually loud enough to wake the cousins, and they both get up, confused a little, and sleepily walk to join her at the door frame. Anne rubs her eyes and yawns, looking at Henry, now being pulled up by two police men.
She glances to Parr, and then to Henry, and upon sight of Parr’s hands, she lets out a small, startled gasp. His blood was actually on her knuckles. Probably mixed with her own, if her knuckles had bust. Kit has a similar reaction, coupled with hiding behind Anne at the sight of the wicked man. “Cathy… let me help you get cleaned up. Mags, can you grab the first aid kit out of my backpack?”
“Let’s just go home, first.” Parr says, a little cold, while watching an officer take Henry away. She wanted to watch up until he was inside of the car, so she could ensure he was going away for good. The other officer asks her a few questions about the situation, and she tells him everything that happened, down to the fact that they would be filing a restraining order, and that Henry was not allowed to see their show again.
––––––––––
The six women had gone home after waiting… maybe an extra ten minutes after Parr finished talking to the police officer. The car was dead silent on the ride back to the house, too.
“I’m actually mad about the fact that he’s actually attractive now,” Boleyn rolls her eyes as she walks in after Seymour. “I’m kidding, obvs. But how is he alive? We’ve been free for… who knows how long now and he comes back? What did he want, anyways?” Seymour turned to face Boleyn, giving the brunette a gentle pat on the head. “It sounded like revenge, but I think Cathy has the actual answer to that. We can talk to her when she’s a lot calmer, though… she’s very…”
“Upset, angry… name it, I am probably feeling it.”
“We all are, love…” Anne goes to her, gently taking her hands, looking at them carefully. One’s very busted up, and the blood has now dried and solidified. “Let me clean you up, c’mon.” She motions to the kitchen, and the two head in there, Parr sitting on the counter while Anne gets the first aid kit out. “I’m not ashamed of what I did today.” Parr stares at the floor, expecting some sort of lecture or argument to happen, but it doesn’t.
“You protected me. That’s all I could ever want.” Anne kisses her quickly on the cheek before pouring some hydrogen peroxide on a gauze cloth. Before she starts to press it to Cathy’s knuckles, she looks the girl straight in the eyes. “Don’t be mad for how much this is going to hurt, please.”
While those two work on that, the other girls drop their bags next to the door and slump into the chairs around the kitchen table, an apparent awkwardness in the air. Jane is the first to speak, and it’s absolutely filled with regret and apology. “Ladies, I am so sorry I lost my cool today. I shouldn’t have gotten so ‘up in arms.’ He just… I never…” She’s tearing up a little, and Kit offers a hand for her to squeeze as she tries to work through her words. She takes a deep breath, brushing some of her blonde hair out of her face.
“I never got to tell him all of that. All of the resentment.”
Cathy grumbles from the counter, agreeing with her statement. “He sure got a taste of all of my resentment.” Her cheeks were reddening, and Anne doesn’t know what else to do past wrapping the girl’s knuckles, so she lays a kiss on them, hoping that will calm her down. “Shhh… no need to get worked up over that toff, not again.” Her hand goes to hold Parr’s face. “Let’s be happy, okay?”
“Jane, we all had every right to react the way we did. Even Cathy had a right to bash his ugly face in.” Kit nods reassuringly, and the other queens mumble words of agreement, Anne and Parr silently making their way over to the table. Something about Parr’s energy was off, but the queens wouldn’t question it for the time being. They were all rattled, it didn’t take much to see it.
“I just feel that as the mother of the group, I reacted rather rashly. I think–” She has to hold back some tears. “I think I should’ve composed myself.” This ends with the ladies all essentially tackling Jane with a group hug, even Parr, though not really seeming to want to participate. It was getting late, anyways, and it was almost time for her to begin her nightly writing. It would help.
Anne clears her throat. “I think you did perfectly, Jane. He’s an absolute tosser for thinking he could face all six of us at once.” Kit laughs in agreement, and the two head upstairs. Parr quickly dismisses herself, Aragon trailing quickly behind after giving Jane a tight hug.
Cleves takes Jane’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “Gute Nacht, Jane. Versuche nicht zu viel darüber nachzudenken.” Jane sighs. “Still don’t speak German, love.”
“Try not to think too much about it.”
“Catherine,” Aragon knocks on the open door, furrowing her eyebrows. “Mija, what got into you today? That isn’t you. Where… where did you even go?” A sharp look from the sixth wife to the first, before it softened up. It eventually became more of a look of shame as Parr’s eyes went to the bandaged hand. She really did do a number on herself, but that blond haired Tudor nightmare deserved it. She wasn’t wrong, was she? Or, had her morality become such an ambiguous grey area that maybe it was wrong for her to have sucker punched the man who beheaded Katherine Howard so unfairly.
The shameful eyes look up, seeing Aragon’s concern despite the slight scowl. “I’m sorry, Lina. I… no se. Yo lo vi y... Me congelé. Es como si todo el sentido racional dejara mi cuerpo y me quedara con impulso. Lo juro, no... siempre así. Tu lo sabes! Aunque asusté a todos, no?” The hurt in her voice was evident. Parr knew she became the morally ambiguous of the group, which was normally not the good thing. Aragon’s expression lightened up just a little as she approached her goddaughter, and pulled her into a side hug. “Sucede, amor. Pero no te enfades tanto con alguien tan horrible. Seguimos amándote, y siempre nos preocuparemos por ti. Ninguna de nosotras te tiene miedo, y eso te lo prometo.”
Those last words gave Catherine Parr just a little bit of hope. Catherine of Aragon gave one last hug to the woman before heading on out the door, but not without “Don’t stay up late.” being the last thing she said to the sixth wife.
Kit and Anne stand in the hallway, chatting before going to their rooms, which were across from each other. ��Lock your window, Annie, please.” It’s evident that Kit is still very worried about Henry figuring out where they live or figuring out how to get in. Anne nods, despite the fact that they lived on the second floor.. “Of course.” The girls hug and in a matter of seconds, they are both behind their respective closed doors.
Kit leans against the door for a moment after closing it, but not locking it, and a few silent tears fall before she starts to change into her pajamas. “You’re okay. You’re safe.” She mumbles to herself, turning on her string lights and turning off the main light of the room. She debates what kind of music to listen to, mulling over it for a few minutes before turning on some classical. It was different, but it would work.
Anne, on the other hand, immediately goes to lock her window and pull the shades closed, which was slightly saddening because she did enjoy looking at the night sky before she fell asleep. She sits on the edge of her bed for a moment, deep in thought about Cathy. She had to admit, the girl she saw today was one she had never seen before, and one she was pretty afraid of seeing again. That fire, while endearing… shook Anne a little. She has to force herself to shake off the thought that anger immediately translates to a person being anything remotely similar to Henry.
“Right, then… bed it is.” Anne shuts off her lights and lays down, picturing that starry sky in her own mind. It would do.
Jane settles in with the current book she was reading, a copy of Pride and Prejudice. A story of true love, one could say, and the text was actually helping to calm the blonde down about the events of the day. Aragon peeks in for a moment, and Jane gives her a soft smile, an unspoken agreement that they would be okay.
Though it seemed as if everyone was settling down, Catherine Parr had a storm bigger than a hurricane brewing inside.
––––––––––
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
Catherine Parr let that be the only sound to fill the silence. Normally, it would be music or something, but not tonight.
The calligraphy pen in her hands danced around her fingers, barely having touched the pages of the open notebook. Her vision was still blurred, much to her own surprise. Wrath was a powerful thing, and to have something take over the body for an amount of time would lead to consequences later in the night. In her case, it was a very horrid case of insomnia. While she dealt with insomnia most nights, she had the slightest feeling this was not the typical time to go to bed at 2 in the morning case. The pen began to slow down in her hand, and she held it still for the first time that whole night.
“It’s not the first time you write about how you feel, Cathy. It’s fine. It’s perfectly fine.”
It was not fine.
No matter how many times she told herself it would be fine, she could never believe it. Catherine Parr saw her hand shake, just the slightest, every time she wrote. Every memory from the last few hours was hazy, but simultaneously at the forefront of her mind. The usually clean lines of her penmanship were just the bit off from the feelings. Word after word, the anger began to flow onto the pages like water flowing down a river’s stream. So shaky, and so violent were the movements of Parr’s wrist. In comparison to the surprisingly smooth transition from thought to thought, her actions made her look a little crazed. One could even say she looked oddly desperate to finish writing.
Almost as if she was running out of time.
She was a writer in her past life. An author, really. The woman wrote books, psalms, meditations… name it, she probably has a manuscript of it somewhere. But this? This was not her. This frantic drive to write and write until the pages could take no more and the ink began to go through them was not Catherine Parr. In a way, it was almost symbolic. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
There it was again. The ticking of the clock.
Time was no longer a relevant thing for Parr. She just let the time go on.
Last she could remember, it was midnight. But nay, the clock spoke otherwise. A glance at it revealed it to be four in the morning. Her hand and wrist were cramped up, and the tears that she felt falling were drying on her face. The pages had become full of nonsensical phrases, mostly a result of the anger still in her system. But that anger began to fade from anger into a depression.
Why couldn’t she be stronger?
Why didn’t she do enough at the moment?
The pain finally struck her heart. Silence began to be her worst enemy, and something she thought she’d never do is what she did. Parr slams her hands on the desk, crying out, almost as if it were a scream or cry for help. The scream was enough to wake up Catherine of Aragon in an instant. A second and third one woke Jane Seymour and Anna of Cleves up. The fourth one got to Anne Boleyn. In a worried hurry, Aragon got out of bed and ran down the stairs to get to the door before almost ramming it down with her own body.
“Cathy? Mija, what’s the–… Cathy?”
What she saw was a torn woman in front of her. Her bandaged hand had a little blood seeping through the ends. Some of the curls were sticking to her face, and her eyes were all puffy and red. Aragon gently pulled Parr up and into a tight embrace. “Escúchame. Todo está bien, Cathy. Estamos en la casa.” Normally, Aragon had a commanding nature that gave off the feeling of someone being safeguarded behind a wall, but this was one of those moments she was willing to let her wall down. Parr’s grip tightened, with the tears coming back and rushing in like an ocean’s grey waves.
Catherine learned just a smidge of Spanish for her godmother. Enough to get by with a conversation or two, but she was not fluent in any way. “Duele, Lina,” a sniffle. “Todo esto duele y no hice lo suficiente para ayudar.” And there was something about her goddaughter using Spanish in such a defeated manner that made Aragon crack a little on the inside. Her own eyes were welling up with tears as she looked to the door.
Seymour, Cleves, and Boleyn.
All three of them with wide eyes and fairly concerned expressions. But it was Anne who saw the tears forming in Aragon’s eyes and threatening to spill. The two lock eyes and it takes everything in Anne to not crack too. She gives Aragon a look that says, ‘Let me try.’ Lina nods and gives Cathy’s hand a small squeeze, and Anne goes and kneels on the floor in front of her.
The other three stand in the hallway, knowing it was probably best to give the two a moment. “Did that not wake Kitty?” Cleves pauses, and then points in the general direction of Howard’s room, loud classical music streaming through her closed door.
Anne takes Parr’s hands. “Cathy, please talk to me… please, love.” It takes Parr a moment to look into Boleyn’s eyes, which are also filled with tears at this point. “It kills me to see you hurting.” A hand goes to wipe some tears from Parr’s cheeks. It lingers there, cupping her cheek, Anne’s thumb reflexively going back and forth to wipe more tears as they fall.
“It kills me to see you hurting.” Her statement is coupled with a small voice crack, and not one that you would usually find endearing. This was out of pure sadness and anger. She sighs. “I should’ve done more.” She looks at the floor, past Boleyn, though her head is now resting on the girl’s hand.
“He’s the one that deserves to be on a scaffold!” She starts to sob again, leaning forward, and Anne catches her, in a sense. Shaking with anger, she lets it out, nearly soaking Anne’s shirt in a matter of seconds. “He deserves to die! Why is he here?” Her breathing becomes slightly erratic, heaving breaths joining in with shallow sobs.
The three in the hallway silently elect to let the two work through it. It really seemed as if Anne was the only one who was going to be able to get her to calm down, even if only a fraction. Aragon lingers for a moment, and then decides finally to go back to her room, leaving the door open in case anyone needed anything. Jane does the same, but reads for a few minutes before going back to sleep.
Anne isn’t sure what to do, so she stands both of them up, having to support Parr a little, and just holds her, swaying back and forth slowly. “Shh… babe… he doesn’t deserve your tears…” Anne, you preach this, yet you’re a mess too. Albeit, a mess because Cathy is crying, but a mess nonetheless. “He… he’s getting his karma. He has to watch us thrive. And he can’t do a damned thing to us. We’re untouchable.” She was also telling herself this.
Parr nods quietly, latching on to Anne even more, as if letting her go would mean she’d disappear into thin air. Though she hadn’t actually said it, she knew she loved Anne. More than anything, and if punching Henry in the face was what she had to do to protect her, she’d do it every day for the rest of her life.
“Can I sleep in your room tonight?” She speaks softly, voice scratchy as a result of the outburst. It was nearing five o’clock at this point, but it didn’t matter. With no hesitation, Anne replies with a simple “Of course,” pulling away slightly to look Parr in the eyes. Those tired, red eyes, still wet with tears formed over a man who didn’t matter one bit. Not in this moment, he didn’t.
The two make their way to Boleyn’s room, a twin bed being the only place for them, but it would be plenty of space. Anne lays down first, patting the small space next to her for Parr to join. It’s almost as if they’re out as soon as they cover up.
Kit sleeps through all of this. Perhaps it’s the music blaring from her speakers, or the exhaustion from the events of the day, but it’s the first night the girl doesn’t wake up screaming. The other queens are really surprised to see her downstairs in the morning, looking well rested and pouring herself a cup of tea, seemingly fine. “G’morning.” She yawns, and the others just kind of look at each other as if reality has shifted. “Where are Cathy and Annie?”
“In bed, still.”
“Ja.”
“I should check on them.” Kit says, setting her tea down. Cleves joins her, cringing a little when Kit knocks awfully loudly on the door and pushes it open. “Halt die Klappe, Kit…” Kit turns and looks at her, a puzzled look on her face. Cleves rolls her eyes jokingly, and then whispers again. “You’re too loud.”
The sight upon opening the door is a combination of comedic and sweet. Parr is absolutely sprawled out on top of Anne, snoring loudly and taking up most of the bed. One of her hands is on Anne’s cheek, as if she had fallen asleep holding the girl’s face. Anne is awake, quietly scrolling through TikTok with headphones in. She looks at the two in the doorframe and smiles, looking down at Parr. ‘We’re okay.’ She mouths, and Jane and Aragon peek in, a small laugh coming from the Spanish queen. It warmed her heart to see the two all bundled up and Parr seemingly at peace, even if only for a moment.
Parr makes a small noise and shifts, essentially pulling Anne closer and wrapping a leg around her. The ladies all smile, electing to leave the two alone. It was evident that everything would be okay, at least for now. Anne kisses Cathy on the forehead, letting out a happy sigh. Parr subconsciously replies with a small snore, and the two stay there, safe in each other's arms, for most of the day.
A couple hours seem to pass and it’s about… noon, when Parr starts stirring. Anne notices this, and begins to smile. At least she was waking up. However, things were not going to go to plan, because in comparison to Anne, Catherine was a whole lot taller, and took up just a bit more space. Thinking for a moment she was still in her room, Parr went to try and roll to the other side of the bed, but immediately woke up at not having anything underneath her. A loud enough thudding noise got everyone’s attention.
The other four queens almost immediately ran to the doorframe, and Anne was sitting up.
In typical Boleyn fashion, she was laughing.
Parr on the other hand, was not very happy. “Ow…” Looking up, she just sees the green queen essentially laying back down because of the laughter, and a glance to the doorway reveals four others holding back laughter. “Oh haha, funny that Cathy Parr fell off a bed now is it?”
Through the laughter, Boleyn responds.
“It’s marvelous, love!”
#tw: blood#tw: violence#six#six musical#catherine parr#catherine of aragon#catalina de aragon#anna of cleves#anne boleyn#katherine howard#kitty howard#The Beheaded Cousins Write#sixfic#six fanfiction#parrlyn#aramour
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I've been wondering this since the whole tiktok thing this morning. I'm not trying to offend here- I'm genuinely curious. Why is Charlie interacting with those fans a bad thing? How is it different from any other artist talking with people who have viewed/read their work? Idk if that convo was real, but I don’t think Charlie would ask a fan what smut was and then, once he found out, continue to talk about it (not that we know whether that happened, because we do not). (1/4)
But, Isn't it normal for somebody to reach out with people who've enjoyed their work, to connect with them about it? Is it only because they were minors? I’ve also seen something about how Charlie supposedly “confirmed” lalex but from what I’ve seen he said “lalex is a yes” which could also just mean that he’d be cool with it if it /was/ confirmed, not that he was confirming it himself. But regardless, Charlie had some involvement in the creation of the character of Luke. (2/4)
It was written for him to portray how he saw fit, and the creators of the show liked his interpretation enough to cast him. So, if Charlie wants to make Lalex an aspect of his character (obviously past Lalex, because Alex is involved with Willie now, and Luke with Julie) why is that so bad? (3/4)
If he takes that into account when he’s acting, that’s his choice as an actor, you know? If I’m incorrect about any of this please let me know. I’m just trying to understand why this is all such a big issue. Thank you so much for explaining this because I honestly just want to understand !! :) (4/4)
Okay, first of all, thank you so much for formulating your thoughts like this and sharing, because it’s totally a discussion that needs to be had!! You definitely make great points. An actor’s portrayal is up the the actor --- so if Charlie and Owen want to play their characters as exes, that’s up to them, and totally cool. People can also ships whatever fictional couples they want, and rock it --- that’s the beauty of fandom!
Part of the fun of fandom also comes with interacting with the cast and crew. I get that, believe me. But all actors need to set boundaries with their fans; fans cannot be friends, and it’s important to remember that.
To put it in context... okay, I come from a lot of Broadway fandoms, and Broadway fans are very familiar with interacting with actors. On Broadway, there’s something called a stage door --- after shows, fans can line up, and the actors will come out to sign autographs, take pictures, and chat with fans for a few minutes. Hugs are given out, gifts are exchanged... it’s an amazing, interactive experience for the fans, and hopefully fun for the actors too.
But some actors don’t like to stage door. Some actors aren’t comfortable giving out hugs to strangers, or receiving gifts from people they don’t know. Sometimes, actors just have really rough days, and don’t feel like stagedooring. These are their boundaries. Most of the time, Broadway fans are really good at respecting them.
But you don’t give fanfiction to the actors at stage door. You don’t ask them inappropriate questions about ships and headcanons. You definitely don’t ask them about their relationships with their fellow actors. Interactions between fans and actors should be kept mutually respectful, always always always; they can be friendly, it’s fine to chat with them, but there are some things you just don’t do. It can make the actors uncomfortable, and puts everyone in an awkward situation. Also, it’s cringe. Super cringe.
The issue with Charlie in these groupchats isn’t that he’s saying he’s cool with Lalex to fans, and definitely not whether he ships it himself; it’s that they’re asking him about it, and putting him in a situation where he’s obligated to talk about it. It’s that minors are asking him about smut, and automatically putting him in a situation where he could be called predatory. It’s that he’s put himself in this situation anyways, by being in these group chats and engaging with them in the first place.
Fans are not friends. Actors have a responsibility in how they engage with fandom and interact with their fanbases. It’s not just “don’t be creepy”, it’s “don’t act like you’re a normal person” --- because to fans, you’re not. You’re a public figure, and that power dynamic will never be equal.
And it puts Charlie in a dangerous situation that could potentially damage his career and public image. All it takes is one groupchat with one minor, where someone brings up smut fanfic, and suddenly people are like “who’s this 22-year old actor talking about smut with 16 year old girls??” A Very Bad Look, and dangerous for his career as a whole.
That’s why this is a big deal. The fans need to learn to respect boundaries, and Charlie needs to learn to set them. If he wants a successful career as an actor, he needs to. For fans’ safety, and his own.
#i hope i helped explain it?? and why this situation is a big deal??#its not about lalex and i'm totally neutral on the lalex question myself#like!! shipping is part of fandom and that's what makes it fun!!#interacting with actors is part of fandom too#but you can't treat actors like they're just regular friends you can talk about fandom stuff with because they're NOT#and there's an expectation for actors to understand and uphold this#i'm v sympathetic to charlie in this situation but also#my guy's gotta set boundaries for himself#Anonymous
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Listen to NY Gritty Podcast episode called- "The Great Dark Way" (Part 1) where the cast members of Jagged Little Pill (Derek Klena, Deanne Stewart and including producer Eva Price and stagedoor manager Ernie Frost Paylor ) spoke about the hard times during the pandemic. It is now available everywhere on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Sticher and Amazon!
#derek klena#broadway#deanne stewart#eva price#ernie frost paylor#jagged little pill#jagged little pill cast#appearance: nygritty podcast#appearances#social media#podcast
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IT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT: LUCY & THE BOMPS!
by Earl Wilson, August 19, 1950
Lucille Ball wanted to keep Desi home and off the road so she petitioned for him to play her husband on radio’s “My Favorite Husband”. The network balked and Richard Denning got the role instead. When it came time to transfer the show to television, Lucy made the same demand. Now a radio star in her own right, she was able to convince the network - nervous about America believing an ‘All-American girl’ like Lucy would be married to a Latin bandleader - to give them a chance to prove it! The Arnazs’ built a comedy and musical act and took it on the road. When the show got to the Roxy in New York City, syndicated columnist Earl Wilson tagged along and wrote the following feature, which appeared on August 19, 1950. Coincidentally, the Roxy was also the theatre where Desi Arnaz was performing when he wed Lucille Ball in 1940.
[NOTE: Although the text of Wilson’s article is repeated below verbatim, the photos and footnotes were added for editorial consideration.]
Lucille Ball has been one of our most appreciated movie actresses for quite a while, but it was seeing her do a bump on the stage that made me really come to realize how talented she is.
It was after she’d done her clever act with husband Desi Arnaz at the Roxy that I talked to the flamin’ redhead about it.
“Wasn't that a bump?” I asked her, as we got into a cab and pulled away from the stagedoor. I wanted to be sure, because some snooty actresses wouldn’t want it thought that they ever did a bump.“That was a married woman’s refined version of a bump.”
Lucille was sitting back in the cab, exhausted from several shows that day, and clamoring to be taken somewhere to see a show. She said she had been entertaining all day and now she wanted to be entertained for a change.
“Did you say refined?” Desi looked across the cab at her. I was between them. “Any harder you do it and you will knock my hot off,” he said in his charming accent. (1)
At Desi’s urging, she told me a story showing that doing the bump is for her not new. It seems that once she made a picture for Eric Palmer called Dance, Girl, Dance. (2)
“He was telling me, ‘Those bomps. Don’t do those bomps bad or the sansors will keep the picture.’
“So I was doing a very tame dance, not bumping at all. I had on a 27-pound dress, silver lame, with bugle beads, and it rolled from side to side when I shook.
“Durin’ a scene, Palmer jumped up and said, ‘Oh, oh, that was a bomp. I told you no bomps.’
“I went up to him and I said, ‘Mr. Palmer, that was not a bomp. THIS is a bomp.’ “And I bumped and I wrapped those 27 pounds of beads right around his neck!”
It’s a pleasure to talk to two such honest, earthy people after listening to some others who are always posing. A lot of people are astonished that they are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary because, as Desi points out, “Everyone said it wouldn’t last a month.” “And WE didn’t think it would last a week,” Lucille said. (3)
Being romantically inclined, I asked for the details which most everybody must have forgotten by now but the participants themselves.
“Where did you get married?” I asked Desi.
“The Byram River Beagle Club, at Greenwich, Conn.,” Lucille said. (4)
“Thank you, I can never say that,” said her Cuban husband.
“Yes, you can. Try it,” Lucille said.
“The By-ram River Bee-gul Club,” Desi said dutifully and slowly.
“Faster!” commanded Lucille. (5)
“The Byver Regal Civer Club,” responded Desi.
“Oh, my,” said Lucille, “We were married by Judge John J. O’Brien. He’s the one who married Tommy Manville so many times.” (6)
Although Desi missed a show at the Roxy, where he was then appearing, to get married, he remembers, just as vividly, how on his wedding night he woke up the bride about 5 A.M. and demanded that she get him a glass of water. The funny thing is that she did.
“About 9 o’clock she woke me up,” Desi recalls, “and she said ‘Listen, you—, the next time you want a glass of water you get it yourself!’” (7)
Desi explains that he’s never made such a request since.
Desi and Lucille have formed their own company which they call Desilu Productions, this being a combination, of course of their two first names. “First time I ever got top billing,” Desi says.
They plan to do concerts, radio, television and movies together. Lucille comes from Butte, Mont., and, as everybody knows, has red hair. (8)
Lucille made up a description of herself around which a movie will be made. The title which describes her so accurately is "Blazing Beulah From Butte," and we figure it ought to get the money. (9)
Never underestimate that Desi.
When they were getting married it appeared that she might not be able to because of a commitment to Harold Lloyd.
Desi called Lloyd from New York and defiantly announced to him that Lucille couldn’t be available that week, as he was marrying her. “Y-yes, D-desi, c-can she be back next k-weeek?” stammered Lloyd, who never does. (10)
Desi is pretty masterful; when he speaks, to Lucille he is her master’s voice.
FOOTNOTES
(1) The ‘bomps’ discussed are undoubtedly from the “Cuban Pete / Sally Sweet” number, where Lucy gyrates her hips while singing “Chick-Chicky-Boom Chick-Chicky-Boom.” The routine was repeated (with ‘bomps’ included) on “I Love Lucy” in “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3) in October 1951.
(2) The article consistently mis-spells Erich Pommer as ‘Eric Palmer.’ Pommer was the producer of Lucille Ball’s 1940 film Dance, Girl, Dance at RKO.
(3) Lucy and Desi’s marriage lasted twenty years, from 1940 to 1960, although Lucille divorced Desi in the mid-1940s, Lucy never signed the paperwork. After their second divorce was final, Lucy revealed that Desi was unfaithful and a drinker, and that they were no longer compatible. Lucy charged “mental cruelty” and told the court of Desi’s temper tantrums. Some years later, she described the reason for the split as “the same old booze and broads.” Both Ball and Arnaz remarried, although they stayed friends and later admitted that they had always loved one another.
(4) Lucy and Desi married in Connecticut due to its shorter waiting period on licenses and blood tests. The Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich was originally a Hunt and Kennel Club that became a speakeasy during Prohibition and after that a supper club. It was a favorite hangout of baseball great Babe Ruth. A single-family home now stands on the property. In April 1952, “I Love Lucy” aired an episode called “The Marriage License” (ILL S1;E26) that was largely set in Greenwich and mentioned The Byram River Beagle Club, although no scenes were set there because Lucy purposely left Ricky’s wallet at home and they ran out of gas!
(5) In “The Marriage License” Ricky also had trouble pronouncing the name. On “I Love Lucy” making fun of Ricky’s English was a usual source of comedy - mostly by Lucy - just as it appears to be here - in 1950.
(6) Thomas Franklyn Manville, Jr., known as Tommy Manville (1894-1967), was a Manhattan socialite and heir to the Johns-Manville asbestos fortune. He was a celebrity in the mid-20th Century due to both his inherited wealth and his record-breaking 13 marriages to 11 women, which won him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. At the time of this interview, however, Manville was only on his 6th wife! The termination of his marriages usually resulted in gossip, widespread publicity, and huge cash settlements. At the time of his death it was estimated that Manville spent more than $1.25 million on divorce settlements.
(7) This exchange (with slight variation) was later worked into “I Love Lucy”!
(8) At the start of her career - and apparently well into 1950 - Lucille Ball purported to have been born in Butte, Montana, despite her actual birthplace being Jamestown, in upstate New York. Ball (who then went by the name Diane Belmont) thought it sounded more interesting and exotic.
(9) Despite the alliterative title, "Blazing Beulah from Butte” was never made, perhaps because shortly afterwards Ball admitted her true birthplace. “Blazing Beulah from Jamestown” doesn’t have quite the same ring. It’s also likely that this was a clever bon mot on Desi’s part to create a more colorful interview.
(10) Comic actor and director Harold Lloyd had put Lucille under contract for his film A Girl, A Guy, and A Gob, to be filmed in 1940. There was some speculation that marrying Arnaz would interfere with the shooting schedule.
TRIVIA
While Lucy and Desi were at the Roxy, the theatre was also showing Night and the City, which had premiered there on June 5, 1950. At this time it was common for a larger entertainment venues like the Roxy to present both a stage show and a first run film. Night and the City starred Richard Widmark, who Lucy and Desi later convinced to guest-star on “I Love Lucy” in “The Tour” (ILL S4;E30) in May 1955.
In “Return Home From Europe” (ILL S5;E26), Ricky gets a long-distance telephone call from the manager of the Roxy, Mr. Rothafel, offering him a job, if he can get back to New York immediately. In reality, Rothafel was the name of the founder of the Roxy, Mr. Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel. Rothafel died in early 1936, however, so this was probably Desi’s way of honoring him.
Earl Wilson was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “The Fox Hunt” (ILL S5;E16). While trying to wangle an invitation to Sir Clive’s country manor, Lucy makes up a story about the Mertzes meeting an Earl in the hotel lobby. When Sir Clive rattles off the names of some Earls to jog her memory, she fibs that he was just promoted from Assistant Earl, the Earl of Wilson, who canceled because he’s got the gout! Lucy’s imaginary Earl is actually a reference to Earl Wilson (1907-87), a journalist and television panelist of the time. His nationally syndicated column frequently mentioned Lucy and Desi.
In 1974, Lucy strikes a pose for Wilson during her promotional tour for Mame.
#Earl Wilson#Lucille Ball#Lucy#Desi Arnaz#Desilu#Roxy#Byram River Beagle Club#1950#I Love Lucy#Mame#Night and the City#Tommy Manville#A Girl A Guy and a Gob#RIchard Widmark#Dance Girl Dance#Erich Pommer#Vivian Vance
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HELLO I AM BACK FROM THE LIGHTNING THIEF AND IT WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE
Everyone! Was! Awesome! I am still starstruck from stagedooring and getting everyone but Chris’s signature! I wasn’t sure what to think about Izzy and T. Shyvonne but they were absolutely incredible no joke, I think I might like them more than Jorrel and Sarah actually
(this was the 8 PM show on 7/18/19 btw)
Act 1
During the trip to the Met Percy was like pulling on Grover’s sleeve and wandering off to look at statues and stuff, Kristin’s and James’s characters were acting like a couple, every time Mr. Brunner said “Kronos” Mrs. Dodds echoed “KRONOSSSS” in an ominous voice and the lights went all green
When Smelly Gabe came in Percy started spraying a can of air freshener all over the place until Sally pushed his arm down
Chris clearly said “you’re a furry!!” none of that “you’re all furry” shit, I was literally close enough to the stage that I could clearly see their faces even with my shitty eyesight so I know what I’m talking about (also the entire theater fucking died of laughter) no but i kinda headcanon grover as a furry now lmao
When Percy was claimed he said “...is that a fork?” and then when he learned it was a sign of Poseidon there was a few moments of silence then he went “sweeeeeeet!!”
When Percy got his sword he waved it around and made “floom” noises until Annabeth said “it’s not a lightsaber”
Oh and I think I know how he got the pen to turn into a sword during the fight with Mrs. Dodds, it looked like he pulled it out of Mr. Brunner’s wheelchair
They brough Another Terrible Day up a step or two for Izzy, it still sounded amazing though, I actually liked him better than Jorrel, his growly voice was less strained
During the part where Silena Beauregard said “sunflowers, everywhere” she did circles around her crotch
After Katie talked about saving trees, Mr. D grabbed a pencil and thrust it into an automatic sharpener, she looked horrified as Mr. D chased her offstage with it, at the end she was marching around with a sign that said “save the trees!”
Percy, after Annabeth calls him sexist: No, I love girls!!! *incredulous/weird pause* I mean, I think girls are really...nice?
Also Percy, to Annabeth: You’re my dream girl!!!!!!! *awkward pause* I mean you’re the girl from my dream!
Grover and Percy were sitting by the side while everyone danced at the beginning of Campfire Song, Grover was joining in from where he was sitting on the ground, but Percy just hunched in on himself other than the times he leaned over to whisper something to Grover
Grover was super super enthusiastic about Percy finally joining in to sing, and someone went “aww” loudly in the audience when Percy started singing about his mom
When Katie was talking about how “planting and planting’s a pain” Grover was looking like “can’t relate”, then when he sang “those who love nature are often beguiled” he looked straight at Katie
When Silena sang about “she’s there in her nightie!” Luke literally fell over laughing
When Grover went “my turn my turn! It’s my turn!” and everyone was like “ugh” at him, Annabeth eventually threw her hands in the air and went “alright your turn!”
After Put You In Your Place—
Percy: was this your plan all along?
Annabeth: you mean the plan to distract Clarisse so we could get the flag unnoticed?
Percy: I could’ve died!
Annabeth: the plan would’ve worked anyway
Mr. D kept going on and on about turning Percy into a dolphin when Chiron was talking about what to do about the prophecy, like—
Chiron: We only have one option
Mr. D: *cough* dolphin
Chiron, giving Mr. D a look: one reasonable option
When Chiron said to go “talk to the mummy in the attic”, Percy said “by mummy you mean like the old person way of saying mom, right?”
Percy and Grover are really huggy it’s actually super cute, but also when they hugged during Their Sign (first time I watched it these little kids up front went “awww” during it), after Percy pulled away he looked down at Grover’s goat legs and Grover just kinda shrugged sheepishly (ha)
During Killer Quest Grover ran in for his verse with like a million camping bags slung all over himself, and he just handed this tiny backpack to Percy
When Annabeth was singing her verse in Killer Quest Percy and Grover were whispering on the side, their expressions were like “is she really coming?” (Percy) / “yeah duh” (Grover), Grover looked really excited when Annabeth officially said she was joining in
When Chiron’s horse side appeared he swung his butt all over the place to show off his tail, everyone cracked up laughing
Luke, after Percy was claimed: Come on, Mr. D wants to kill you—I mean talk to you—
During Put You In Your Place Clarisse punched Grover in the mouth and stomach, he stumbled away in pain, after Annabeth drew her game plan into the ground with her spear and told him “satyrs are creatures of Pan, you know what to do?” he whimpered “yeah, hide in a tree!” and ran away
Oh and speaking of, when Annabeth told Luke “Hermes kids are fast” Luke said “actually that’s a stereotype”, Annabeth gave him a look and said “Luke” and he said “okay, okay, foot brigade, got it!”
After Put You In Your Place, Luke bowed down to Percy before he left and said “all hail Percy Jackson, supreme lord of the bathroom!” (we all love book references), then Annabeth was like “how did you do that?”, Percy struck a pose and said “the toilet water just, spoke to me”
Mr. D said Zeus’s lightning bolt was “pure Celestial Bronze, not some piece of tin for a traveling musical!”
When Grover pulled Percy behind him to show him around camp, the last thing he mentioned was “the cafetorium!!” in that tone so I’m 99% sure it was a BMC reference
T. Shyvonne Stewart was awesome holy shit, her Put You In Your Place was fucking incredible I loved it and her high notes were powerful
When Clarisse said “don’t get eaten by monsters!” Chiron quickly put his hand over her mouth and Clarisse glared at him as he said “have a great quest!”
Act 2
When Percy said “so you hate me because of our parents?” to Annabeth after she told him about Medusa’s backstory he sounded really heartbroken
Percy: of course i know how to hold a sword! *swings it around, slices self on shoulder* ow
When Percy said “that seems kinda...nuts”, Annabeth looked away and covered her eyes with her hands in supposed irritation at the bad pun but she was smiling
When Hades told Percy to hand over the bolt, Percy said “There’s no way in hell—wait”
Before My Grand Plan when Percy talked about how many schools he’d been kicked out of to try and relate to Annabeth, she said “yeah, but boys always get a second chance” and OOF i felt that
At the end of DOA Charon’s backup dancers were fighting Percy, Grover, and Annabeth, and when Charon was calling out each of their weaknesses, the dancer would wrestle the demigod to the ground
Oh and right before that she had everyone onstage on their knees in front of her, she directed their movements based on her dance moves
When Poseidon talked to Sally he deepened his voice and shot her fingerguns, “hey”, he stepped closer and closer to where Sally was half-hugging Percy until they were staring into each other’s eyes, finally Percy ran forward and threw his hands in the air and said “okay! That was the weirdest family reunion ever!”, when Poseidon left he pumped a fist at his “smoothness” and strutted offstage, Percy was like “so that’s my dad!” in this totally done voice, Sally stared off after Poseidon and said in this lovestruck voice, “that’s your dad”, Percy looked disgusted
The layering in Bring On the Monsters is even cooler in real life just gonna say
When the bus exploded the driver said “that wasn’t even my worst experience on a Greyhound” right before a confetti cannon exploded, I missed a tiny bit of Lost! because I was trying to catch some confetti (it didn’t quite reach me rip, but the guy right beside me and the girl right in front of me got some)
During Lost! when Annabeth said “I hope so!” it was super super excitedly, like she was literally thrilled to be being chased by monsters
After Luke monologued about how he was going to get back at the gods, he told Annabeth, “I know you’ll do the wise thing”, a pause when Grover from up above put his head down on the railing in despair while Percy watched in shock, then Annabeth finally said “Yeah” and took out her knife, Percy and Grover both looked up, delighted
In the lobby of DOA records this really peppy music was playing—idk whether they added it after January (when I saw it the first time) or if i’m just forgetful—then when they got in the elevator there were these vertical lines of lights that lit up so the light was falling downward, slowly the music got drowned out in favor of growls and scary sound effects while the light changed to red
The tractor in Drive was literally a piece of the set on wheels (kinda like this scaffolding thing?) being pulled around by a piece of rope tied to the wheelchair, the motorcycle was a stage light with handlebars with a piece of pillar for the seat, Grover sat on the ground to indicate the sidecar and Ares threw his hand on Grover’s chest so he didn’t fly forward when they “hit a bump”
The kids on their way to the Vatican were literally hand puppets, I choked when I saw them, and DJ Cerberus was just a person with this three-headed dog hat with red eyes it was fucking hilarious
Hades was talking about his brother like “he doesn’t care about his family” then he got choked up and said “or his brother...it gets lonely down here you know! but does he ever visit!?” and then later “everyone always thinks i’m the villain! is it because of the decor?” and he gestures around
I wasn’t sure what to think of Izzy Figueroa before seeing him but he was fucking incredible!! like during Tree on the Hill he literally made me tear up and I never cry at music, god that was so powerful, I wish we’d had a chance to applaud him but they went straight into the next scene
During the fight with Medusa at the end Grover swung Percy on his shoulders toward Medusa where Percy slices her head off, Annabeth picked it up and muttered “ew ew ew” and shoved it in a closet
When Percy sent the head to Mt. Olympus, Annabeth told him in horror “the gods will think we’re impertinent!”, Percy gave her a deadpan look and said “we are impertinent”, he did it again at the end when Annabeth said the same thing after Percy said he was going home for the school year since he didn’t want the gods to just solve all his problems
At the end Sally sent Percy a letter with a picture of “her new statue, Bean Dip” (Percy’d given her Medusa’s head)
#lt musical#pjo musical#tlt musical#the lightning thief musical#the lightning thief: the percy jackson musical#percy jackson musical#chris mccarrell#izzy figueroa#kristin stokes#t. shyvonne stewart#james hayden rodriguez#jalynn steele#ryan knowles#june speaks#june experiences the magic of theater#i am so sad that it’s closing after this#at least i got almost the entire cast’s signatures#pjo#sorry that the second act is less detailed i wrote the first act’s notes during intermission but i only got to the 2nd act when we got home#which was like an hour or two later considering first the stagedooring then the drive home
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HPCC SF Recap part 1
Ok, so to start off I’m studying technical theater. I got super cheap tickets for this show through an acquaintance back in December because they thought I’d like the technical elements right after the show opened in San Francisco and not only was I blown away by that but also fell in love with the story. So, I dragged two friends to watch it with me again recently and this recap will probably be more heavy on technical elements than some other stuff but I’d like to write down everything I saw! Because it was awesome! I’m also making a bunch of guesses on tech aspects throughout this, so if there’s a confirmed way of doing it and I got it wrong, please let me know! Two final notes: I sat in mezz, and am terrible at memory, so I’m leaving loads out. Anyways:
Act 1:
- I love the sound design making it seem like the train is going around you at top of show. I also love the lighting at top of show with it coming from the clock (?) and liberal use of haze, because haze and light streaming through something is top notch stuff.
- Albus @ the train station with the rest of his family looks honestly terrified at the people staring at them. Like he’s just gonna hop in one of his trunks and hide.
- Speaking of which, cool costume change in the transition between muggle and magical world. I don’t know much about costumes, but it’s a ripcord thingy that they use? The timing is great
- Where’s Hugo Granger-Weasley? smh (this is a joke I know it’s expensive to cast another kid for that)
- I see u @ the actor grabbing the smoke thingy that shoots smoke out of Scorpius’s ears off of his costume and sticking it in your pocket during the shift between train and Hogwarts
- Jon Steiger’s Scorpius is pretty funny. He’s very excitable.
- Albus is screaming bloody murder at his broom the entire time.
- The finger flame is really well hidden when Albus does the fire thing to his permission form? Is there even one?
- Lily Jr. was almost sorted into Hufflepuff and she looked terrified
- Ok, finger flames in the wand dance are clear. Still very cool though.
- Harry’s desk cleaning up is so cool! I noticed a wire hanging off the bottom but that could’ve been something else completely or me hallucinating.
- I noticed, when Lily Jr walked into Albus’s room asking for her potion book, Albus looked at her in the exasperated way older siblings are towards their younger siblings. Not mad, but just like “wow, again?” Then, when Harry walked in, Albus jumped off his bed and got visibly annoyed.
- This show’s LD is so cool. I wonder where the followspots are located? One seems to be in the normal position but I noticed two specials following actors throughout the show that appeared to be coming from SL and SR.
- In general, throughout the entire show, the use of “lumos!” and instantly a spot arises at where the actor is pointing looks so AWESOME!
- I remember seeing something where one of the ASMs for the show was talking about how stressful one of the scenes was to do, and I’m guessing they were referring to the one with the witches and wizards all doing various tricks right before Scorpius and Albus visit Amos?
- When the walls close in on Scorpius and Albus they’re tripping over each other trying to avoid being hit.
- I have to give props to the actors of the Golden Trio for their acting of Albus, Scorpius, and Delphi. I completely forgot that they were different actors and they were hilarious. Especially John Skelley as Scorpius, he was identical to Jon Steiger’s Scorpius.
Act 2:
- After Harry’s nightmare, when Albus is screaming for his dad on SL and Ginny walks in for the switcharoo, I just thought the cloak swishing between the two actors looked very nice although it seemed to come late because I still saw Benjamin Papac lunging off stage when lights were up on Ginny.
- Speaking of which, the amount of times that Scorpius and Albus are sprinting as fast as they can offstage makes me wonder how complex their costume changes are that they’re running like death is right behind them.
- The trees moving into the Forbidden forest: are they on tracks or do actors move them? I’m just curious for this one.
- Oh yeah, Delphi gently handed the durmstrang robes to Albus and, for lack of a better term, YEETED them to Scorpius.
- Finger flame #3 spotted when Albus breaks his arm, those things appear out of thin air and it looks very neat.
- Props to the quick change that happens there, too. Albus goes from a full school uniform to PJs and to SL from SR in, what, 1 minute? 45 seconds?
- The moving staircases are very simplistic but very cool.
-Myrtle is so funny! I heard the actress at the stagedoor saying she’s able to do a lot of crazy stuff with the other actors but occasionally gets notes like “stop sniffing your cast mates”. It’s awesome, though!
-”Swimming”/flying. Scorpius has to be someone else with a blonde wig on, right? There’s no way he can get that harness off and get into the lake that fast. I appreciate the fist bump between Albus and Scorpius after they used the charm on Cedric, as well.
-The lake!! Water on stage!! Such a cool addition to the show and it must suck to be performing completely wet but again! So cool!
-The dementor that flies over the audience: there’s no way that’s a flying actor, right? I was looking to see where the fly system might be but there’s just no way. Is it a drone or something? The two that go near Scorpius and later three that take Snape, Hermione, and Ron have to be actors but the one the flies over the audience is so woah, like out of nowhere.
That’s what I remember from Part 1. It was quite a few days ago so there’s less than I was thinking as I walked out of the theater but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw this out there.
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Why I Think Supergirl's Ratings Are So Bad Now
Disclaimer: I was totally fine ending the discussion by sharing the number and saying I know why the ratings are so bad now but I won’t say why. But then I saw this comment to my ask:
“madeunmexico said: I want to know! Cause whether we agree or not on whether the numbers matter; none of us know why the numbers are so bad but we all have our reasons why we stopped watching. Anyway, I like to see what you think anon”
So if anyone doesn’t like what I have to say, blame madeunmexico. I kid, mexico. Well, mostly.
Let me preface this by saying there are basically two factions of audiences in any genre show: the “nerds” and the mainstream audience. We’ve talked extensively here why the mainstream audience has had enough and I largely agree with the points made: no one wants a show about the snowflake queen, wants to see Kara miserable without love, wants to see Supergirl sidelined on her own show, etc.
But why would this alienate the “nerds”? The people who are fans of the canon, comic book fans, etc.? Because there is nothing about this show that is even remotely authentic Supergirl anymore, or even authentic superhero show. Think about how many versions of Superman/Supergirl there have been now, each of them interpreted very differently, but still, always at the root of the show is that it’s a show about a superhero undoing the bad things the supervillain did each week, promoting truth, justice, American way, blah blah blah. Every iteration has been this way: the George Reeve show, Lois and Clark, the 90s animated shows, Smallville, even the Christopher Reeve movies. Those were all enjoyable to watch and pretty successful because they more or less followed that formula with their own twist (Smallville=prequel, Lois and Clark=romantic dramedy, animated show=classic comic book canon). There is obviously room for more than one interpretation and the fact that all of these were successful shows proves more than one variation can be done and the audiences will care, case in point, Lois and Clark was one of the worst-reviewed shows when it premiered but it ran a full 5-6 seasons if I remember correctly. I for one really enjoyed it, cheesy as it was, and Teri Hatcher was much more fun to watch as Lois than Rhea.
So why isn’t Supergirl working? Or rather, why have the last few seasons not been working? Because all this iteration seems to care about it this ridiculous “woke” phenomenon AT THE COST OF WRITING A GREAT SHOW WITH GREAT CHARACTERS AND STORIES THAT PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH. I could just submit this paragraph and say nothing else. I’ll say what I’ve said all along before: season 1 was the most authentically done season of Supergirl. Period. Whether you liked it or not, it was the closest to the super shows of the past: each week a villain to defeat, maybe grey villains and season-long arcs (Alura and Non, Maxwell Lord), and that’s it. They stuck to the formula and it worked. That’s what the nerds want to see. Whereas with the lousy change of leadership once the show moved to the CW, all the writers seemed to care was how woke this show is. I really think people are sick of it, both the nerds and the mainstream audience too.
I’ve watched most all the other superhero shows I’ve mentioned here (too young for the George Reeve show). And I’ve mentioned time and time again that none of them ever addressed politics like Supergirl does, with no subtlety or clever writing but more like a battering ram that just exhausts and bores people eventually. I’m not the only one who thinks this way either. Most people who watch these shows watch for ESCAPISM. They’re sick and tired of the endless politics and horrors of real life (especially in the US), for just an hour or two, they want to forget all of that. They want to see the good guys beat the bad guys, find friends, find love, HAVE FUN. You see any of that on Supergirl now? No, you don’t. Only second to all the comments I’ve seen about how they’re sick of the politics constantly being shoved down everyone’s throats is the constant comments to bring back Mon El. FFS, there’s video of melwood being asked about this at Melissa’s Beautiful stagedoor appearance! But no, this show is more interested in DIVERSITY! THIS CAUSE! THAT CAUSE! FAUX FEMINISM AKA MAKING ALL THE MEN LOOK WEAK AND PATHETIC! Who cares about Kara or the fact she’s Supergirl if they can get on their soapboxes and be the obnoxious social justice warriors who have to go on and on and suck all the fun and joy from life every single second, right? That’s a large part of why no one wants to watch anymore. And I say this as someone who talks about politics and SJW stuff on my social media. But I don’t want to watch it on tv being hammered with it on a show I watch for escapism. I need a break too, damn it, and it looks like I’m not the only one who does.
SG writers need to realize the show they’re making and who their audience is. They need to realize this show is not The Colbert Show or The Daily Show or CNN or even Family Guy or American Dad. The latter two can get away with it because they’re written brilliantly and irreverently and very funny (whether you agree with Seth MacFarlane’s politics or not). Why do you think The Flash is the highest-rated show in the Arrowverse? Because they follow that authentic superhero formula I mentioned and never once have tried to be hip or woke or SJW. The show will expound on family or friendship or sacrifice but it never attempts to get on a soapbox as far as I’ve seen. Hell, even Arrow and Legends haven’t as far as I know and they’re now getting better ratings than SG. Not going to lie, I wish the show had remained on CBS with the original writers. I still think that season is the best, I don’t care how much anyone else dislikes it. It was canon-ish Supergirl, not this mess they’re churning out now.
I will leave you with this: recently, both a new tv show and a movie that just came out have flopped very badly because of the exact reasons I’ve said why SG is failing now. One is the new comedy Sunnyside on NBC, guess what it’s about: a political-ish show about immigration. Huge flop. The other is an action movie that came out just now and I won’t say more about it so I don’t spoil it but apparently they did some radical feminist slant to it and really pissed off the audiences of the classic movies. BOMB and guess what got the blame for it. This woke phenomenon. It’s given rise to a phrase now - “woke means broke." Everything is political. Everything has to have an underlying message. Everyone is walking on eggshells to try to avoid pissing off someone because outrage culture is everywhere. And for the ones of us who just want to watch a show or movie and have a good time or a harmless diversion, too damn bad.
*drops mic* I’m out. Post all your outrage below and don’t be shy! ;)
***
I’m posting it, but not commenting right now - becasue I have too much work to do and my brain is dead, but will later.
Anyway, @madeunmexico that’s for you.
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None of this is important but this post just annoyed me so I bring some reality to it: (the post is below my points)
1. Abby still refuses to listen to White Christmas even though it has very little resemblance to the Klaine version.
2. Claiming that Darren should have “fought for a different song” is once again Abby’s need to make everything into confirmation bias- and anger- rather than learning from the situation. The rationale and logical conclusion is that Darren wasn’t bothered by the song- he either didn’t associate it with Klaine or he isn’t in love with Chris. But Abby never learns from her erroneous conclusions so she turns it into something.
3. Both Flowers and Leka excuse Abby’s frequent attendance at Darren’s events while bitching about the “NYC fans” who stalk him. I cackled at Flowers claim that nobody should see him more than 3 times in American Bulffalo...could it be that Abby bought tickets to 3 shows? Why is 3 the magic number that is ok, but 4 is too much? LOLOLOLOL.
4. The audacity of Flowers feeling bad for Darren because of the NYC stalkers when there is nobody stalking him online more than the cc leaders.
Anonymous asked: Do you think D will join LM at her Xmas shows next week? I am torn as to whether I would like him to be there or not. I love them performing together, and if he is part of the show, I totally look forward to seeing those videos. In the flipside, it puts him in the path of the NY stalkers, who will hunt him down to get their 1,537,490th picture. I am sure they are already making plans to follow him around in Feb when he starts rehearsals for AB. (once again the cc fnadom is creating problems that don’t exist yet. If Darren and Mia aren’t doing enough to bitch about they have to fabricate things.)
ajw720 answered: If his schedule permits, he may be there. I hope not only because i won’t watch, still haven’t listed to WC and not planning on doing it it for a live version. And yes, I am sure they are already making plans to stalk him all over the city. But honestly i would rather NYC than LA. No bar and hopefully less of the wifey. Please may she not follow him to NYC for the entire run.
flowersintheattic254 D seems more his authentic self in nyc (really? how often do we see him the city just being Darren? Most of the social media we get in NYC is stagedoor so he’s still working) and I like his interactions with LM and having heard the song it’s different to the klaine one so although I understand @ajw720 feelings about it (although what? You have to add a second clause if youare using “although”. As much as she bitches about Nonnie’s English skills I’m suprised she left us hanging)
I’m sure M will want her selfie with LF and SR so I can’t see her not being there and it’s not like she cares enough about the bar to stay behind in LA.
On the stalkers I feel sorry for him. If you need to see anyone more than 3x in a play you need to check yourself. (LOLOLOLOL)
leka-1998 The return of the grueling work schedule. No, thank you.(Huh?)
D deserves to enjoy this without having to deal with the same people who feel entitled all the time. Sure, there will always be some who are able to do much more than others, but toning it down is allowed. ( I can’t)
ajw720 To clarify, i have no doubt she will see AB, though her presence is required and frankly is embarrassing to D, i meant she does not take up a 4 month residency in NYC.
On WC, I don’t care if it is a different version, i am against it in principle and still think it was a slap in the face to K/laine fans. That is not going to change and it is better if i ignore its existence as it makes me very cranky and one of the few things that makes me get a little annoyed with D. There were a ton of songs to pick from, he should have fought for something different. (if you are angry about something that your celeb crush isn’t mad about, it’s time to really question yourself).
I am tired and cranky and in a terrible mood. (Abby’s cranky, must be a day that ended in “y”)
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I Saw Moulin Rouge On Broadway (PT 1) — Here's My Story!
okay so i saw moulin rouge on broadway and it was SO FREAKING AMAZING!
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there's so much to say about it and it's impossible to include it all in one post, so i decided to break it up into "parts." here's a rundown of the "parts":
• part 1 (this part) — a breakdown of my experience while seeing moulin rouge and meeting the actors/actresses after the show!
• part 2 — my favorite moments of the show!
• part 3 — my complete review of the show!
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SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO... HERE IS PART ONE OF THE "I SAW MOULIN ROUGE ON BROADWAY" SERIES!
my parents and i were in nyc from monday, august 5th, 2019 to friday, august 9th, 2019. i asked my mom in march to get moulin rouge tickets once they went on sale because i knew the good seats would sell out pretty fast.
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on monday i got to be a part of the studio audience for stephen colbert's late night talk show, on tuesday my parents and i saw ain't too proud, and on wednesday we saw the cher show.
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finally it was thursday aka moulin rouge day! before the show, my parents and i sat in bryant park. then, we got schmackary's cookies and we headed to the theatre.
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once we got in the theatre, i went to the bathroom, my mom bought some merchandise, and my dad found our seats.
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for those of you who haven't been in the al hirschfeld theatre, it's a strange stage setting. there's the big main stage, but there's a runway that connects to a small strip of stage in front of the main stage. i sat in the second row behind the small strip of stage.
without giving a lot of the surprises away, the best thing i can say is that the show starts before the show even starts. i don't want to spoil it for anyone who is planning on seeing the show, so we're just going to leave it at that.
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nearing showtime, i was casually talking to my mom and i looked up at the stage to see what was going on. and right there on the small strip of stage, about two feet away from me, was the one and only AARON TVEIT!
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i freaked out and squealed. my mom, who only knows aaron as tripp vanderbilt from gossip girl, also freaked out and i'm pretty sure that's the moment when she figured out why i love him so much.
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anyways, the show was well... SPECTACULAR! ;) i never knew i wanted to hear aaron tveit and karen olivo singing trashy pop songs for 2 and a half hours until they had sung trashy pop songs for 2 and a half hours.
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after the show, i rushed out to the stagedoor (obvi!). i got to meet a lot of the ensemble members, including robyn hurder (nini) who was an incredible dancer, and morgan marcell and max clayton who i've seen in bandstand. i also got to meet ricky rojas who played the sexy argentinian tango dancer who falls in love with nini (robyn).
aaron and karen didn't come out which is understandable because they had another show to perform in that night. they were probably squeezing in showers, naps, therapy, and eating in the short amount of time they had before call for the evening performance.
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since aaron didn't come out and i wasn't sure if my parents would let me stagedoor after the evening performance, i took a picture of the pillar with him on it in front of the theatre.
so then, my family and i went to the empire hotel for dinner because i was also on the gossip girl trip lol. the empire hotel is the hotel chuck bass owns on the show. it's also the hotel where serena vanderwoodsen (blake lively) and tripp vanderbilt (aaron tveit) met and where they made out in an elevator. WE LOVE ICONIC MOMENTS IN TV SHOWS!
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after we had dinner, my mom went back to the hotel. i asked my dad if we could go back to stagedoor the evening performance of moulin rouge because i had a feeling aaron was going to come out. my dad said yes, and we started to walk aimlessly around nyc because it was 2 hours until the show ended.
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after walking around nyc, we went to the stagedoor about 30 minutes before the show was over. the stagedoor guard opened the door to go inside, and they were right at the end of roxanne so i got to hear aaron's high belt again (bless!).
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finally, the show let out and it was time to focus on the stagedoor opening and seeing who comes out.
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about 10 minutes later, the stagedoor opened and out came AARON TVEIT! everyone cheered for him and he started to make his way down the line.
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he took his time with signing autographs, taking pictures, and talking to his fans. and i did get to see him brush his hair back with his hand and i just about died (tbh i was already deceased after seeing him in the show lol).
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when he got to me, i told him how i became obsessed with him in grease: live and how i was surprised to see him in gossip girl (though i never mentioned that a couple of hours ago, i was literally in the hotel where he made out with blake lively).
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he smiled and said "thank you" ever so sweetly and he blushed. aaron is actually kind of shy and he's very modest, despite the fact that he's everyone's broadway boyfriend.
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we took a quick picture (photo credit to my dad). i asked for a hug, but he had to kindly decline because i don't think security would allow him to (big sad).
besides aaron, i met sahr ngaujah who played henri de toulouse-lautrec (one of the two "interesting men") and jeigh madjus who played baby doll and is a drag queen in this show.
overall, the experience of seeing the show and meeting the actors/actresses was a ton of fun, but hella tiring. i got to meet the love of my life, aaron tveit, but man... it took a lot of energy to profess my love to him haha!
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i'm so happy i get to share my story with y'all — look out for parts 2 and 3 soon! peace out, chickens!
#aarontveit#aaron tveit#broadway#nyc#new york#gossip girl#gossipgirl#catch me if you can#next to normal#rent#hairspray#grease#les mis#graceland#trip van der bilt#danny zuko#mike warren#link larkin#enjolras#moulin rouge#moulin rouge broadway#christian#satine#singing#dancing#acting#love#boyfriend#smile
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