I'm back! And there are way more people reading this than I'm used to.
Welcome back to Everything I noticed in TGWDLM:R Part 4!
This is from after intermission to the end of Show Stopping Number.
Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are here
Again Spolier Ahead to the musical.
In between
Paul and Ted are walking through the halls of Hatchetfield High. Paul comes from one of the aisles holding a flashlight and after a moment Bill runs onstage after him shouting for Alice.
While Bill talks about Alice, Paul is scanning the area and looking under what I’m guessing is the doors(?) of the school. This leads to both of them crawling on the floor.
Not Your Seed
This song was so sad. You can really see how they have integrated more of Alice and Bill’s relationship and characterization from Nightmare Time.
I don’t remember which verse, but Bill starts walking towards “Alice” but she keeps pushing him away. She also keeps stopping Paul from interfering as she keeps talking to Bill.
When the breakdown happens (the “why does it hurt to love you part”) Bill is kneeling on the ground and “Alice” sits down next to him and hugs him. They stay like that for the rest of this section until the beat drops. (This whole part hit me so hard.)
The most heart breaking moment was near the end where Alice, Deb, and the other girl surround Bill and hand him the shotgun. Bill stands there frozen in place.
Paul has to run in there and grab Bill tossing the shotgun away (but you know what happens after).
In between
When the aliens get scared off by the US military we finally get to see General MacNamara. Jeff gets another wig(?), he has the iconic ponytail.
When we transition back to Professor Hidgens and Emma it’s mostly the same except as Emma connects the dots and figures out that they need to destroy the meteor Hidgnes slowly makes his way to his desk (The one under his cork board). He grabs the syringe and tranquilizes Emma.
The black backdrop comes down and a single light is hanging above Paul. MacNamara places a chair next to Paul and begins to explain everything. (The scene is relatively the same but I just like how they set up the whole scene.
Since I haven’t been shouting out people as often, shoutout Brandon Baruch and Yelena Babinskaya for the lighting. It goes crazy especially during the later songs.
Show Stopping Number
One of the most iconic songs in the musical (in my opinion). Emma and Ted are tied up, Ted even does the “Wha- What the fuck??”
The piano was not already placed on stage so I was excited to see how they were going to reveal it.
As Hidgens reveals that he has a background in musical theater, the piano (I’m assuming it’s on some sort of dollie) is pushed onto the stage from the left.
For suspense Hidgens slowly brings his hands to the piano as Emma and Ted scream and beg for him to stop. He keeps teasing them by taking his hands away from the piano and then slowly bringing them back. At one point he makes it look like he won’t and Emma and Ted go “thank god” and sigh in relief, before Hidgens breaks out into song.
Talking about Hidgens again Will’s performance is so over the top (in a good way). He doesn’t stop striking poses and moving his hips. At one point (I don’t remember if this is before or during the song) he bends himself over the piano.
When Working Boys starts that's when the lights go crazy (again good job Brandon and Yelena). It’s very colorful and Will hit those high jumps!
This is partially a tangent but I feel like when Hidgens was explaining Working Boys Ted seemed more wistful. Idk if that’s just me.
I don’t know if this is already a theory (I don’t really follow Hatchetfield theories sorry) but is the reason Ted gets so into Working Boys because he feels like it reflects him or what he wishes for? “a group of old college chums… long for the simpler times…But those glory days, they're gone for good...Or are they?” I recently(ish) listened to Nightmare Time and I feel like this reflects what we learned about in Time Bastard.
Anyways sorry for that tangent. Here is a little thing I found funny. I’m not sure when but somehow the belt tail came out right before Hidgens sings Working Boys. So throughout that part it’s just kinda swinging around. Will manages to fix it after that section of the song ends.
From the same place Charlotte and Sam appeared from Greg and Stu show up. Greg shows up like a cartoon character, his torso is fully parallel to the ground.
Paul shows up and unties Emma and Ted. They changed the set change joke but not by much. Since the piano can’t be moved it goes “Should I take this chair? Yes!”
Greg and Stu take Hidgens to the piano and rips open his stomach. It was AWESOME!!! You could see his ribs as they tore him open. You can really see how much work they put into these bits.
Ok that’s it for now. I just want to say thanks to all of you guys for reading the almost 9 page monstrosity of my ramblings so far. I gained so many new followers through this so it’s kinda nerve wracking to have an audience when I basically only had like one person a few days ago. Not really sure what to do after these posts but again thanks for reading!











