going off wikipedia, in the warriors movie the gang reaches the park and ajax aggressively approaches a lone woman who turns out to be police. on the concept album, during the park at night, the girls are harassed by a policeman in disguise who keeps spitting textbook sexist rethoric at them (you'd look prettier if you'd smile) and ajax decides to take matters in her own hands and beats him up. said policeman is actually played by movie ajax and by attacking him, musical ajax, who's a woman, sets the record straight on a meta-narrative level: she calls out her male counterpart for his violence against a fellow woman, punishes him, avenges her- by doing this, she seeks absolution for her own self.
how genderbending the warriors (2024) is done not for the sole sake of "bad-assery"
okay here we go feminist ramble time for our newest chick on the block: warriors. now i'll be honest, prior to listening to the album, when i first heard that the warriors main girls were originally dudes in the movie and the novel, i thought that the decision for the genderbending, in lmm's perspective, were from the following: 1.) girl power move in like a very basic meaning of the word "bad-ass" 2.) simply a twist on a cult movie about big gang bros loved by the film bros, and 3.) a way to have the schuyler sisters back together gjfkdfldf
but when i read more about warriors and its development and how lmm took inspiration from the gamergate controversies of 2014-2015 aka among the peak of gamerbro misogyny campaigns, that's when i realized that Oh Shit Is Serious - because adapting a story about a group being framed and targeted and harassed for something they are accused of doing without any substantial proof other than a man screaming "THE WARRIORS SHOT CYYYYRUUS" with 21st century misogyny campaigns in mind makes the theme of fighting back a lot more complicated and a lot more resonant, going beyond just marketing a cast you can call "badass"
take the hurricanes' quiet girls, for example. the hurricanes (concept album version) is the only gang that lets the warriors off the hook and with a stern warning: quiet girls don't make it home. here, the hurricanes berate the warriors for not saying shit or attempting to defend themselves from accusations they know well aren't true. THIS MESSAGE IN PARTICULAR is what stays and influences ajax, fox, and swan til the very end of their stories.
literally one song after this does ajax show how easily she resonated with the hurricanes' lesson by finally sticking with her gut and actually choosing to fight back against both the baseball furies AND against the sleazy undercover cop. the latter encounter is one of the instances that really solidifies the recontextualization of the story because in the OG movie, ajax (a dude) WAS the sleazy fuck up harassing a woman in a park - and now with the literal character switch, ajax goes from being just a rebellious gangbro dude bro into someone whose want to fight is warranted. such a want to fight is seen in fox seeing as fox is the first to comment on the quiet girls scene and that, in the concept album, she is the one that instigates the rumble against the police in union square - saying that she is sick of being afraid of them and their 'fuckin powder blue' colors (also notice how she is the only warrior that really does say fuck the cops i think that's cool BUT I'LL TALK ABOUT FOX MORE NEXT TIME)
to a less obvious extent, swan also gets the receiving end of this recurring theme - by the album's finale, the usually violence-averse caution-first interim leader becomes a lot fiercer in protecting her crew. but perhaps among what i consider to be the biggest recontextualized change in the feminist sense is MERCY and her motivations to join the warriors in the first place. according to the wiki, her attraction to swan and the warriors and um seeing the orphans as wimps is what led her to switch sides BUT IN THE CONCEPT ALBUM, mercy's motivation to become a warrior is deepened, rooted in admiration rather than attraction - wanting to be like those women who hold their head up high. and again, we see this in Sick of Runnin' when she takes part in the rumble, finding her bravery within their ranks as they fight back. here, mercy becomes less of a swan tagalong and more of someone that wants what the warriors have: pride.
of course now that i type this out i realize that warriors is not based solely on the feminist rhetoric as with their theme of hope amidst adversity, the story is more intersectional and rooted in community struggle and wanting for more than that. but nonetheless, i genuinely believe that the twt filmbros arguments on why the genders should not have been changed in the first place just for "woke" points is kinda like,,,very shortsighted because not only does the narrative of women narrowly escaping unwarranted accusations actually fucking fit, but the act of learning to fight back amidst all odds - be it that of disbelieving, predatory men or the power of oppressive pigs - stays resonant for women yesterday, today, and the days to come.
ultimately, warriors (2024) is not solely a tale of female badassery - rather, it is a tale of the need for such "female badassery" in the face of past and present realities, which is why it somehow fucking worked.
Hey Boppers, it looks like the cat is out of the bag and the Warriors workshop has been secretly been underway for the past several months now and strangely it would appear that the Hamilton anniversary last year was also potentially used as an excuse by Davis and LMM to get some of the musicals alumni to participate for the potential Warriors Broadway adaptation.
Renee Elise Goldsberry seems like she may be taking on the role of Cyrus for the musical adaptation because she has been everywhere liking Warriors content on Instagram and even canceled some of her future productions for unknown reasons.
All of the original Warriors from the concept album will be replacing their roles for the production.
Leslie Odom Jr may be Masai.
There are also a handful of other Broadway actresses that have alluded to being interested in the Warriors but have been very vague.
One thing that is really cool and refreshing to see is that the Warriors has a lot of women behind it and it seems as though LMM despite being a writer is taking a bit of a backseat as Eisa Davis will be making a lot of the revisions and more importantly, for the first time ever one of his productions is also going to be directed by a woman which is Jenny Koons.
She's mainly directed a lot of Off-Broadway productions, but this is going to be her big break and with revisions being made by Eisa Davis it's going to be interesting to see what gets added.
this is your daily reminder that Eisa Davis also wrote Warriors
even in the professional interviews i'm finding, everyone just wants to talk to LMM and talk about LMM, and he's pretty cool but we're not gonna forget a Black woman wrote half of this, yeah? we good? good
