Hello RetJ fandom
Take this monstrosity I finished at 2am and join me next time where I diss the Mercutios too
edit: Mercutio version here

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@derthottiesttod
Hello RetJ fandom
Take this monstrosity I finished at 2am and join me next time where I diss the Mercutios too
edit: Mercutio version here
Mercutio version! Tybalt version here
I know these don't get many notes but it's so fun doing them
Cameron Mackintosh, The West End, and Transphobia in Musical Theatre
So I cannot be a trans person who talks about musicals without addressing this. I haven’t seen anyone else talking about this, and they may well have I just haven’t seen, and this interview is a few weeks old now.
For those unaware of who Cameron Mackintosh is, he perhaps the most famous musical theatre producer and is the producer behind the original productions of: Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Kinky Boots, Cats, Mary Poppins, Oliver, Little Shop of Horrors. And the West End versions of: Anything Goes, Follies, Carousel (1993), Oklahoma (1980), My Fair Lady )1970s and 2001), Godspell, Avenue Q (2006), Hair (2010), Sweeney Todd (2015) and most recently the West End production of Hamilton (2017-present), as well as many other musicals. He was knighted in 2017, as of 2019 he has an estimated fortune of £1.28 billion and has been called "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times.
Let’s take this point by point shall we?
"Classic West End musicals should not be rewritten to make leading roles transgender”. They wouldn’t have to be. If a trans man was cast as Raoul in Phantom of the Opera, nothing would be changed, nothing would be rewritten, it would just happened to be a trans man playing the part instead. Because trans men are men, trans women are women, they are not ‘other’. Nothing, absolutely nothing would have to be rewritten. For all the audience would know, that could be a cis actor playing the part.
You know how I know casting an LGBT+ person as a character who is cis or het makes no difference? There are multiple gay actors who have played Erik/The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera and the role never had to be ‘rewritten’ for them.
If what he means is the music would have to be rewritten, I don't accept that either. I doubt a trans person is going in for a part they do not have the range for. Some trans people may not be able to sing way out of their assigned-birth-gender vocal range, but some can. I doubt this man has ever sat through an audition of a bass Christine Daaé or a soprano Phantom. There are cis men singing high notes in Jesus Christ Superstar, of course plenty of trans woman can sing high notes. Vocal range is not static to your birth gender.
“You can’t implant something that is not inherently there in the story of character.” People make headcannons about characters being trans because there is no proof that they aren’t. Nowhere in any of these musicals that Mackintosh producers do any of the characters ever call themselves cis. For all we know Munkustrap or Mary Poppins or Enjolras could be trans, and some trans people find comfort in that. Show me somewhere in the original libretto where it says any of these characters are “cisgenered”. You can’t. No of course the original writers never thought about that, I’m some of them are transphobic and would hate the idea, but it is not implanting anything that goes against anything mentioned in the text. And again, like in the point above, would not change anything to the story.
Ah, there it is. Suddenly we’ve gone from trying to hide the transphobia behind ‘no, it’s just that it wouldn’t fit in the story’ to ‘trans people are unnatural and putting trans people in things is just forcing people to see them’. As if this needs to be said, but there is nothing unnatural about trans people. Casting trans people is not ‘forcing wokeness’ it’s just employing anyone who is talented enough for the part. For a community that prides itself on being inclusive and lgbt+ positive, that really does only seem to apply to cis gay men a lot, doesn’t it.
Already addressed above why it isn’t “inherently there in the story”, but also no, being trans isn’t a ‘gimmick’, casting a trans character in a role is not a ‘gimmick’ done to try and bring in lgbt+ viewers (at least it never should be). Actors are not just a silly part of your show, they are a key part of your show and they have their own experiences that they bring too the table and make each character their own, and that includes trans people.
That’s very interesting. Wrong, but let’s see what he means. There’s a new musical opening up soon on the West End where the lead character is a trans woman. It’s an adaptation of the book Breakfast On Pluto, which was also adapted into a movie in 2005 staring Cillian Murphy. Now, I do adore the film because as a teen who was starting to question their gender it spoke to me a lot, but it did make the mistake of casting a cis man as the lead trans woman. But it’s 2021 now, and Mackintosh said new musicals with transgender characters could cast trans people in those roles. So that’s what Breakfast On Pluto did right?
That’s what they did, right?
Oh...
Yes a new musical with a lead trans woman character has cast a cis man to play this character. All the while turning down all the trans woman who auditioned, as if auditions should have ever allowed anyone other than trans women to apply, and casting a trans woman to play one of the other side cis characters.
The team behind the musical doubled-down after the backlash and were quick to point out that they have other trans people on the crew so that’s good enough right? Wrong.
Violence against trans women goes up when cis men are continually cast as trans women. It perpetuates this idea that trans women are actually men when audiences see the actor outside of the character and the actor is a man. Cis men are terrified of being perceived as gay for liking a trans woman and when the trans woman characters in films, tv and theatre are all played by men (most noticeably and recently Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl) it only seeks to push that belief further.
Cameron Mackintosh doesn’t believe trans people have any business playing characters that were not 100% explicitly written as being trans and we should essentially ‘stick to our own stories’. But then when a new musical comes to the West End with a lead trans character, a cis man is cast.
I implore everyone to watch this short clip from the documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen:
And just because cis women do not abuse and attack trans men to the same scale that cis men do to trans women, it still means seeing a female actor play a trans man contributes to transphobia in the audience as all they see is a woman 'pretending to be a man', a 'man in a skirt', someone who off-screen is not that gender.
Tdlr: Trans people can play cis characters and it doesn't require the role to be re-written, or the whole script to be re-written. Trans characters should be played by trans people.
ATTENTION EUROPEAN MUSICAL FANS
My completed English-language scripts for Roméo et Juliette, Elisabeth, and Notre Dame de Paris, as well as choice lyrics from Rebecca, Mozart L’Opéra Rock, Tanz der Vampire, Starmania and others are now posted on my new website for lyrics and translations, The Curtain Falls! Very quick and dirty site, but it’ll do for my purposes. Also includes extra fun stuff like Opera & Operetta, Song Parodies, Pop Standards, and more! Some quick links:
Roméo et Juliette: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here are everyone’s singing teenagers in love with terrible home lives! Tightened up some of the direction, cleaned up some ambiguities, and hopefully made it more professional. A lot of the lyrics are from my still-discovering-rhyme salad days, so YMMV on the quality; I’ve been keeping up with re-writes, though. My adaptation, though uniquely mine, based overwhelmingly on the original French production with choice additions from the Hungarian, Austrian, and Revival productions. Definitely not a playable or even feasible script–my main priority was getting the song lyric translation right.
Notre Dame de Paris: The most complete of the lyrics so far, though I wouldn’t discount polishing up the major songs. Tried to go my own way as much as possible from the Will Jennings translation, which wasn’t hard. Based mostly on the original French with choice changes from the London/Italian rewrite here and there.
Elisabeth: Went the completist route for this one rather than adaptational, as I focused on just getting the lyrics down pat. Since this is the most recent, no doubt I’ll return to tighten it up some more. Unlike RetJ and Notre Dame, where I tried to adhere to the original meaning when possible, most of the major songs are much more looser as I aimed for singability and smoothness than strict fidelity. My basis was the 2006 Vienna production, but I also referred to the 2002 Essen one as well.
Hope you enjoy! Also consider donating, put some pennies in my hat, if you would. Thanks!
guys i made this for tiktok (i’m emptymasks on tiktok btw) and it’s blowing up a little!? i think it’s now my most commented on video, and my like third highest viewed and so many people are finding it that have no idea about any of these musicals and this was my master plan all along!!!! i’m screaming!!
also in case this reaches anyone on here not already familiar with european musicals, yes they’re amazing, hi hello, these clips are almost all from proshots because hell yeah european musicals love to make proshots and i have a playlist on my youtube emptymasks of full length euro and asian musicals, most with english subtitles. and below this read more is a full list of the men in this video in the order they appear, have fun
Afficher davantage
reblogging this in case i forget i am unfortunately attracted to men
lucheni be like: i am the one telling the story, and i get to choose whose face i get inappropriately close to
Is it even a German-language musical if they don't have "Schatten" somewhere in the lyrics
PREACH!
my sexuality is Aaron Tveit approaching a microphone
but mom how will other people know that you, a white Texan, are a Christian
Jesus
I bet those two are couple now..
me too
This is such a great story
update from Houston pride 2019! we’re friends
mlm-wlw solidarity
excuse me, something so wholesome should not be allowed to exist in this cruel dark world.
@hellsite-hall-of-fame @world-heritage-posts
A dating service where matching is based on people’s search history exists. You’re a serial killer. You go on a date with a writer.
Serial Killer: metaphorically, if you were to kill someone, how would you do it?
Writer: Air shot between the toes, it’ll look like a heart attack.
Serial Killer who is obviously in love already: *sucks in a breath* ok
Writer: how long would it take to die if you were to potentially stab someone in the guts
Serial killer: anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes
Writer, already bringing a ring out: *shaking* thanks
A++ addition
Writer: *shows the serial killer the murder scene they’re writing* babe, i’m not sure if this would actually work?
Serial killer: *kisses writer on the forehead and leaves, comes back later, a suspicious scent of blood coming off them* it works baby, you’re doing great
I LOVE THIS
Oh no, murder comedy is my jam
I love this, I love all of this, but quick question, does the author know? Like are they aware that their significant other is a serial killer or do they just think that they have a morbid sense of humor? It’d be even funnier if the author had no fucking clue, like how Aurthur Conan Doyle was apparently stupidly gullible, and on top of it they’re a horror or crime novelist. Like the serial killer works at a butcher shop or something so it’s completely normal for them to come home smelling like blood, no murders going on here, no sirey. Just my darling coming back home from a long day at work.
Now fast forward a bit and the author has managed to get their first book published, with loving support from the serial killer who helped them fine tune all the murder scenes, and it’s a big hit. Enough so that a detective with the local police department has noticed some disturbing similarities to several active cases, including details that were never released to the press. Obviously he brings this up to his superior and convinces him that there’s something to the theory, but it’s all circumstantial right now. He stakes out the author’s home and is super convinced that the author is the murderer, but they don’t seem to do anything??? Like they literally are at the house all day, that’s it. Most they do is leave for groceries.
So you get this dynamic of the serial killer mining the author for creative murder schemes, the author being lovingly encouraged by the serial killer, and finally the detective who is just so sure that the author is the killer and that if he sticks it out long enough he’ll FINALLY have proof.
Plot twist, The serial killer and detective use to go out so it gets sub what personal.
“You need to stop seeing them. I think they are a serial killer.”
Serial killer breaths in. “Look-”
…perfect
I don’t like actual murder mysteries, but this is perfect
THE ORIGINAL POST HOW DID I GET SO LUCKY
Oh my god I would watch/read the hell out of this shit
so true bestie *kisses you on the cheek to signal to the roman guard to arrest you*
This is one of the thai restaurants in my hometown and i can tell you first hand this lady is wonderful
little update bc someone from my hometown wrote an article about her and these are some highlights:
and my personal favorite:
Found the article.
Should’ve known it was Marquette.
this is such a fun article and also:
and bc it’s worth reiterating:
I would whole heartedly love this woman if she said, “what you want motherfucker?” as soon as I walked in the door. Just like home
Olympic rings were made from trees grown from seeds brought by international athletes for the 1964 Tokyo Games.
Olympic torches were made with recycled aluminium used in temporary housing unit built after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The theme and motif reflect people's yearning for recovery.
Olympic medals were made with metal from recycled electronics that were proactively donated by country's citizens over two years.
This is such an important and genuinely terrifying post. I could completely go off on the rise of anti-science, but for now I’ll just add: it isn’t just boomers that get deceived. This is a warning to all of us.
Pay ATTENTION to what you are being told. If you think you cannot be deceived, you leave yourself open to deception. Question, doubt, research research research. Learn about your personal biases, dig up any subconscious cognitive dissonance. Keep an eye on your mind.
pink in the night
If there is a time I don’t reblog this it will be because the apocalypse got me
also the creator confirmed the brunette girl is trans!!
i will reblog this until my fingers fall off