it's time for musicals

sideblog for my musical theatre hyperfixations & ensuing rabbit hole current: Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice, School of Rock, Hazbin Hotel), Will Blum main blog: @it-me-sannore

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Guys.

Breaking my hiatus to put on record that I saw Beetlejuice the Musical LIVE!

It was everything I thought it would be.

My life is complete.

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Yes! They've released the Production version of the same snippet!

Love the costumes, the hair, the staging. Enjoying the fullness of their sound.

Trying to be reasonable and not buy a last minute plane ticket to see this limited run 😬

For my fellow Will Blum stans - his expression here makes me laugh! O__o

I love the commitment to acting in the background!

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🎵VooOote yes, voOOote yes, vooote for in-de-PENdenCYYY 🎵

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"Sit Down, John" - Will Blum and company of 1776 at Paper Mill Playhouse

Edit: There's a YouTube version! With a horizontal video! You get to see more of the room that way. This is where YouTube will always reign supreme for me.

[xx-emi-chan-xx]

Original by @SaucyMist:

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Alex Brightman sings a snippet of "Piss (A Love Song)". Link to full convention video on YouTube - song is at 30:58 mark.

The Hazbin Hotel: Live on Broadway version we never got.

I dream of a day, when we'll have a live Piss (A Love Song) with both Cherri Bomb and Sir Pentious voice actors. For now, we have this and our imagination.

Side note: the other thing I think about is how different the Gravity performance would have been, if Alex was there to accompany? We got Jessica Vosk, middle of the stage, smashing the vocals on that track like the boss queen she is. And then what, Alex would be on the side going "yeah.. Yeah.. YEAH!!!" hah. So in that case, I guess I'm glad we got solo Vosk serving.

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I clipped it 🤪

With the context of the episode, it's soooo gross. The fixed, unyielding gaze. The lick of lips. Why so creepy, Gabe!

Only a hyperfixated fan would be like, wow, great acting choices. Bravo! Excellent job on being creepy, good sir!

I guess that's who I am now.

[juicy-beetle]

Dewey made shirts for the band and that jerk Freddy got hold of some sticky notes

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Alex Brightman on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - "Turn Me on Take Me Private", Season 22 Episode 5.

A classic series. A great episode. Storyline really captured parasocial relationships and the grey lines of the internet.

Alex, though gosh. He does gross and creepy well. I felt so uncomfortable with this character and his intentions. And at the same time you kinda feel sorry for him, against your own will. A++ acting.

Here's Alex as Gabe, with a beard. Followed by Gabe, about to make bad decisions.

Then inexplicably, the beard disappears and we have baby faced Alex as Gabe the paralegal turned lawyer.

I love court room scenes. Particularly when there's a satisfying turn of events or gotcha moment. Daredevil and My Cousin Vinny spring to mind. I want to watch to the Lincoln Lawyer series too. This one had some solid, twisty moments to it, when it leaned towards the defendant then swung towards the prosecution. Felt satisfying.

Look at that intense look on the 2nd close-up shot, with red-rimmed eyes. For a self professed stage actor, I think Alex's acting excellently for the small screen! There's a small moment where he licks his lips and it was such a tiny movement BUT SO CREEPY for the character. I can't bring myself to clip it, it gave me the heebie jeebies.

Filmed during covid times - they used the reflection of a plexiglass divider that was placed in the courtroom to transition the shot between two people who were facing each other. Genius. Here's an example of it with the wonderful Eva Noblezada, who played Zoey the victim.

And lastly, here's Gabe getting arrested. Poor deluded guy. Conflicting feelings between Alex appreciation and creepy Gabe. Alex- I mean, Gabe got apprehended 3 times in this episode.

Getting good at resisting arrest. Now put him in jail!

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This was uploaded 18 years ago so Baby Will Blum.

Crisp enunciation ✅

Sweet dance move(ments) ✅

Vocals 🔥

Riffs galore. Crystal clear and tenory. Such a difference to his slightly gravelly voice of now. This performance is so joyous and hopeful. Makes me happy to watch.

The reason why I wanted to share it? I just looked up the lyrics after 3 weeks and finally found out he's singing "jet wings" and not "jeggings". Also figured out why the song is called "Boy With Dreams". Derp. I'm a goose. Lyric blindness strikes again!

"Boy with Dreams" from "Edges: A Song Cycle" performed by Will Blum

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Will Blum cementing his presence on my tumblr and in my life with his dulcet tones.

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SALLY AT THE WATER PARK from TEN BRAVE SECONDS - performed by Will Blum and Carson Stewart

Okaaayyy good sir! Sing your ass off! I have uncontrollable stank face right now. This performance is so good!

There's so much ear candy in this one song. The riffs. The emotional story telling. It builds up so good! His voice has such warmth and depth to it.

And then them forearms. I don't mean to objectify. But who doesn't like some good looking folded arms, accentuated with rolled up sleeves.

That aside, I also particularly enjoy the lyric, "'You should know I like it fast' and I was like 'ok'. She didn't mean what I thought she meant" Teehee.

Be back later, too busy smashing the replay button. Adding to the playlist.

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I've been too busy to post but have continued to drink up Alex Brightman's career in the background.

At the moment, I'm digging into Will Blum's repertoire as a side quest. I love his singing voice and his portrayal of Beetlejuice is fantastic. That's the beauty of theatre, that each performance is different and each performer gives their own take.

Here's a fun two-fer - an interview with Will Blum, talking about one of the times he had to go on mid-show for Alex (this is the food poisoning one). Story starts around 16:30 mark.

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Time for another installment of songs that Alex sings

So confession time, I say I love musicals but only in a Top 40's music kind of way. I like the popular ones that appeal to wide audiences. I mostly enjoy the modern-ish sounding ones (with some exceptions).

This to say, I'm not super familiar with Cabaret. The closest I've gotten is Chicago, with the Bob Fosse dance moves.

So I watched this song with the fresh ears of a babe and thought it was going to be in a cabaret-style. Obviously I was mistaken and it was from Cabaret (with a capital C). However I really enjoyed it because I'm a huge fan of acapella! I had a really intense collegiate acapella phase that started during Glee Season 2 (real ones know why).

There's a really wonderful fullness of sound and some sweet harmonies. And it gets a bit spooky at times with what feels like a descending crescendo that I assume is in some kind of minor key (the art of making up musical concepts like an armchair expert).

Alex sings this song so earnestly and with so much feeling. I think that's what appeals to me about his performances, it's always about the story and the emotions and transmitting that to the audience. I can't quite capture what I want to say. I'll try again in a future post :)

I've since watched 2 other performances of this song - Adam Lambert and Alan Cumming - clearly this song can only be sung by A-named people. They had different vibes which I didn't enjoy as much, which makes sense since Cabaret has never really interested me for the same reason.

It does make me think that this performance doesn't match the "true" Cabaret style and intent. But I probably liked this version much more for that exact reason! Bonus points for the School of Rock shirt.

I also have word blindness for lyrics and the juxtaposition of singing the words "I don't care much" so earnestly did cross my mind but doesn't really affect me because all I hear is his smooth, clear tenor-y voice. The warmth of the tones. That beautiful Broadway enunciation. The emotion in his face and how it ends with a sense of... longing? Loss?

The best. Adding this one to the playlist.

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This is the second time I've found an Alex Brightman song on Spotify, searched it on YouTube and found a video of the live performance. Thank you past and present Alex Brightman/broadway fans. Doing the Lord's work.

It's a performance of "Is This Love" (by Bobby Cronin) with Allison Case and Alex Brightman from August 2009. So this would've been baby Boq!Alex.

My honest thoughts - it's a live performance. The voices get a bit pitchy to my ear. Or their voices don't blend? Maybe it's the audio mix? Any which way, it's not smooth.

But I'm a sucker for a duet. This song is like a meet cute or about falling in love, and it feels very sweet.

Obviously, layer on my blatant Alex bias.

I love how Alex sings "wait that's not fair, that's not fair, don't you knoOow it".

The next is a wonderful combo of his delivery and just the beautiful lyricism of the words: "her hand was so close, how I want to hold it~~".

And then when he chooses to option up with, "This must be love and now I knoooow IIIIIIIIIIITT!"

Ending it with a high five - what cuties.

[impactrueno]

"married in red, you'll wish yourself dead"

previously posted on patreon

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You know when people go on quiz shows with a specialist topic? I feel like I'm training up to be an Alex Brightman expert. That would be the craziest niche topic.

Here's a fun fact I learned today - Alex was meant to be on The Broadway Cruise 2025. He didn't end up on the final listing or setting sail with it but dang, that would've been fun.

I hate boats and have made it a mission to never go on a cruise. However, I'd probably reconsider my life choices very seriously if the opportunity came up again...

And still choose not go. But I'd totally waver.

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I have an Alex Brightman focus playlist that I use to concentrate while I work. It has all the songs from Hazbin Hotel 1 & 2, Beetlejuice and School of Rock. I know them well enough to enjoy but not totally distract me from what I'm doing.

I decided to add Helluva Boss (which I haven't watched yet) and a variety of Alex's songs on various musical projects (which I loosely group as his concert era). I'm less familiar with these songs (less than 10 plays each).

Big mistake. Huge.

Worked fine as usual until I got to the new songs. I struggled through one paragraph over 1 hour because I kept looking over to see what song it was (Mean To You), who else sang on it (House of Asmodeus, Stars of David), rewinding to hear something (Goosebumps, Why Must We Tell Them Why, The Ballad of Sara Berry) or zoning out to guess the Alex parts (all the above & more).

I guess I'm not ready for these new (to me) songs. Will need to put them aside for the weekend, when I can give my Alex musings my full attention.

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Alex has all these different tones to his voice - I'm going to work on categorising them in my head. Noting I have no musical/vocal knowledge lol.

Let's start with his lovely crystal clear, angelic voice. One of my favourites is his Boq from Wicked.

Here's a recent, quality audio of it with Lewberger.

That enunciation. The emoting. The crystal clear tenor-yness. The juxtaposition of the young Boq song with Alex's greying hair hehe.

Let's daaaaaaaaaanceeee!

This one feels like smooth, buttery goodness.