$LAYYYTER
cherry valley forever
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DEAR READER
we're not kids anymore.
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Xuebing Du
Not today Justin
Game of Thrones Daily
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Cosimo Galluzzi
izzy's playlists!
@theartofmadeline
Product Placement
Three Goblin Art
hello vonnie
macklin celebrini has autism
NASA
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@silver-dusted-scribbles
CHAPTER COVER!!!!!!! It looks so cool!!!
:3
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME
ἥκω Διὸς παῖς τήνδε Θηβαίων χθόνα Διόνυσος, ὃν τίκτει ποθ᾽ ἡ Κάδμου κόρη Σεμέλη λοχευθεῖσ᾽ ἀστραπηφόρῳ πυρί
"I have come, the child of Zeus, to this land of Thebes. I, Dionysus, whom Semele the daughter of Cadmus once bore, brought forth by the fire of lightning."
Bacchae - Euripides
red! i saw jacques ze whipper at the renaissance festival the other day, and he mentioned you designed one of his pins!! you got several cheers for it too
I DID? venn diagram overlap between the renfaire crowd and osp crowd DOES make sense I guess- but yes I designed the enamel pin! I had an alt version where the background was just More Fire but Jack picked the more sedate option
Adam Lambert’s voice is INSANITY, like i don’t understand how its even possible to sound that good, but honestly where was the ANGUISH in his performance i Didnt see any ANGIUSH, just rockstar swag. Imo Judas is supposed to be like 50% cool and 50% wet pathetic dog, and i didnt see nearly enough wet pathetic dog
@margridarnauds THANK YOU! I just saw a bootleg on tiktok of the entire performance and you captured the feeling perfectly.
Alright, so in the interest of fairness, I did check out clips of his performance on Youtube, and...I stand by my appraisal, honestly.
Which is a pity, because, again, and I know I keep saying this ad infinitum, but I do like Adam Lambert. He's done some songs that I really love, including helping so many yaoi AMV makers in the 2010s with "For Your Entertainment". He's someone who was proudly out at a point where it really wasn't socially acceptable yet, and I think that, in a different timeline, having a well known queer public figure as Judas would REALLY add a different layer to the performance, similar to Tim Minchin's casting in the Arena Tour. I was REALLY hopeful about his casting.
But. There's always a but when I start off talking about how much I like someone off the bat. I didn't really see Judas in his performance. I think he put on a solid concert version of Judas' songs, but he didn't have the desperation, the panic, and yeah, that wet cat energy that you described. The difference between JCS and your typical Methodist passion play is in Judas. If the audience doesn't feel anything for Judas, you've lost JCS, even more than if the audience feels nothing for Jesus. There are plenty of productions I've seen where I didn't care for Jesus coughJohnLegendcoughcough and ultimately still enjoyed it for the most part, even if there was still a hole, but I don't think I COULD like a JCS production where I don't care about Judas. Both roles are integral, but imo, Judas is more important than Jesus (though I know that is HEAVILY your mileage may vary territory.) Judas is the person the audience is first introduced to, he's the one who's most like *us*, our proxy into this world that they're constructing -- whether that's a post apocalyptic dystopia, the Occupy Wall Street Movement, a bunch of hippies prancing around the desert, or sometimes even 1st century Judea. (and I have a Lot of thoughts about JCS in conversation with 1776, because they're two very different musicals that also are doing very similar things to religious or quasi-religious figures at roughly the same time.) For a solid chunk of the musical, Jesus is someone we're watching, but we never fully know what's going on in his head or even if he really is who he says he is, and that's a vital point of the musical (though some productions are more ambiguous than others -- ngl, I personally prefer when the nature of Jesus is left as ambiguous as possible, since otherwise, the show risks losing its individual voice). Judas...we know him. We understand his fear, his terror at the authorities, hearing the people around him growing louder, more radical, and not being able to stop it, seeing this man who he admires (...and loves, again, imo, though I also think that love is textual no matter what, it's just a question of it's platonic or romantic or somewhere in-between) going down this path that he can't pull him back from, a path that he doesn't understand. He's a man in an impossible situation! And he starts the musical off in that impossible situation! Every single Judas, regardless of what else the production chooses to do, starts the musical out in a place where he's already seeing the wolves begin to circle, he's feeling the tension rising, and there's nothing that he can do. So he's in this place of deep fear, desperation, and frustration, which then eventually gives way to despair and regret.
It's an important role! It's NOTORIOUSLY demanding of an actor, both emotionally and vocally. And I don't like comparing Judases to Carl Anderson, because I think it's inherently unfair to compare them to a dead man who's cemented himself as The iconic Judas. I love Carl, I heard Carl's voice on the JCS cassette tape that I grew up with, so I won't compare Adam Lambert to Carl (...coughing baby VS hydrogen bomb.) I'm also not going to compare him to some of my favorite Judases from traditionally staged productions, because I get that the Hollywood Bowl has very specific blocking requirements that limit what you can do. I don't think it would be fair to compare him to, say, Drew Sarich or Brandon Victor Dixon or Josh Young or Han Jisang or even Zubin Varla's vocal performance on the album.
But I am going to compare him to Tim Minchin, who was also given limited blocking to work with in the Arena Tour. And, on the record: Tim Minchin's never been my favorite Judas. I listened to the Arena Tour once and decided to never touch it again, due to the copious amount of autotune (though, ngl, relistening to Judas' parts actually HAS made me warm up to it, so that's a positive? I definitely think I was too harsh on it all those years ago. As I said, I'm not ashamed to admit I can change my mind.) I don't have any prior attachment to Tim Minchin's Judas, I'm not biased on that account. Vocally, he sounds rougher than Adam Lambert -- Tim Minchin isn't a bad singer (a bad singer couldn't sing the role, given how challenging it is), but I wouldn't say he's KNOWN for his insane vocals -- he's known for his quick wit that's paired with emotional depth, and that's what he brought to his Judas and what, I think, makes his Judas memorable. Looking at Damned For All Time, a lot of his movements consist of basically going up a bleacher, down a bleacher, up a bleacher again (though I think the "elevator" was a stroke of genius on the part of whoever thought that up). He doesn't have the freedom to run around frantically like some Judases are able to (or even like the Judas I Said I Wouldn't Compare The Others To, who is running around the DESERT while sweating in what looks to be pretty scorching weather while being chased by various pieces of military technology). But he infuses those movements with so MUCH tension, constantly looking between the Pharisees, who are showing surface level support while being smug bastards (and Judas knows it), smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves, almost walking away in disgust at one point, all to sound absolutely empty when he finally gives Jesus' location away, not even looking at the money as it's tossed at him.
In Judas' Death, he is FRANTIC, he's grieving, he's horrified, he's furious at the Pharisees, he's punching Caiaphas (...honestly, we need more productions where Judas is allowed to punch Caiaphas. Just once. Especially since Arena Caiaphas is probably one of the least sympathetic takes on the role.) He's SOBBING, his voice is breaking as he's collapsing on the stage. This is a totally broken man who feels abandoned by everyone. And, for what it's worth, I think that he had a director who was much better at giving him something to work with (...like punching Caiaphas), but a lot of it comes down to him as well. A good actor can work with bad blocking, but good blocking can't save a bad actor. I think even if he had less to do physically, he would still have been able to act his way through the role effectively.
Compare that to Adam Lambert's take on Damned For All Time and Judas' Death. During Damned For All Time, he's mainly interacting with the audience, even keeping time with his leg when he turns to interact with the Pharisees (who he barely interacts with.) When he goes up to them, he leisurely strides across the stage. He hits the rocker high notes, but it feels like it's more for vocal embellishment than to convey Judas' mental state. In sections that are meant to be addressed to the Pharisees, he's facing the audience. This isn't Judas making the heartwrenching decision to betray his best friend, it's a rocker performing at a concert. And yes, again, I'm aware this is the Hollywood Bowl, there are limitations, but that didn't stop the theatre actors like Cynthia Erivo, Philippa Soo, and Josh Gad (welcome back, king, I've never been so unsettled in my life as hearing Olaf's voice coming from King Heros, 10/10 casting). Or, hell, it didn't stop Corbin Bleu from getting on top of Dove Cameron in the Mamma Mia performance, causing an entire generation of Gen Z theatre fans to wonder why they suddenly weren't sure if they were more jealous of Chad from High School Musical or Mal from Descendants. And there have been some cases of theatre stars who are more or less stuck singing in place where they can still deliver convincing acting (Norm Lewis and Alfie Boe being one note away from tearing one another's faces off as Javert and Valjean while being on separate sides of the stage from one another and looking at the audience). It's possible to do that and convey that kind of emotion even when you're in a concert setting, but that takes a combination of training, experience and skill.
In Judas' Death (though I do think his acting is stronger here) he turns around, changes where he faces a few times, but those turns are perfectly choreographed -- they imitate desperation, but don't achieve the realism of desperation. His face twists in despair, but never enough to actually be unattractive or raw. He collapses on the ground, but he's perfectly...composed? He's belting out these high notes that are meant to signify Judas' heightened emotional state, but they're perfectly controlled. He shakes his head and sings the "I don't know how to love him" reprise, but he's still able to add little vocal embellishments to it. (I do think he loses composure more for Judas' actual death, in all fairness, but that almost feels like overkill following the underperformance in the song.) Basically, his performance, to me, is the "Everyone is Beautiful but no one's Horny" of musical theatre. It's smooth, it's polished, but that means that it also isn't Judas. I don't want an actor to ruin their voice/knees/etc. in the role -- no role is worth that -- but there are ways that other actors HAVE been able to convey his mental state in a way that is convincing while not shredding their vocal chords.
Do you prefer “Is your life just one more life” or “one more lie”?
“one more life”
“one more lie”
important question for les mis (specifically grantaire) fans!!
just saw a performance that used "one more lie" and it got me thinking. i've always liked "one more life" - it feels like grantaire is protesting the futility of the revolution, and the fact their deaths "mean nothing at all," whereas "one more lie" feels more like a personal attack on enjolras/les amis?
pls feel free to reblog/comment with propaganda in either direction!
yes I'm obsessed with jesus christ superstar. no i can't watch/listen to trial before pilate because hearing a crowd yell "crucify him" brings up bad memories of youth group passion plays. we exist.
do i need to catch up on calamity to watch lovm season 3? i still haven’t watched the finale and i’ve remained relatively unspoiled, but other than zerxus being a demon are there any other major spoilers?
It's a really stressful and confusing time for Jack
based on this post by @see-arcane
Seward, after two weeks of doing battle with Dracula: I have no idea what the hell is going on here
Quincey, after five minutes of eavesdropping: what if it’s a vampire
he's a cult leader, he's a fashion icon, he's a war veteran, he's immortal, he dies all the time, he's haunted, he's high and he's sober, he's agnostic, god hates him personally. i didn't say his name but he popped into your head, didn't he?
oh mina how I’ve missed you
Dracula for real was like, "Since I'm having company over, I'll lock my pet Jonathan in the bathroom for the day"
I do think that the funniest way to imagine the three friends proposing is having them all come together talking about how they are going to propose to Lucy but it's in that farcical way where each of them thinks they're getting advice from the other two through wordplay fueled misunderstandings, until finally Arthur's like all right "raise your hand if you're in this room and you're planning on proposing to Lucy, and then they all raised their hands and gasp at each other comically and then Quincey's like "all right there's only one thing to do. On the count of three we're all gonna hightail it out of here and shoot our shots, may the best cowboy win," and then they all spring up like this to go propose
Love is stored in the bead lizard and also in the bobby pins
happy Dracula daily to those who celebrate
Also credit to @bramblepatch because I borrowed a lot of the format for this from their Legend of Drizzt post from a while back.
