I didn’t like the reprise of TGWDLM: the tumblr post.
Before I start I must give a formal warning, and apology to Starkid/Hatchetfield fans who enjoyed the reprise. This post will contain the following:
A very emphasized distaste for the reprise.
A strong dislike toward most aspects of said reprise.
A rather large amount of hatred for the way Hidgens is portrayed.
I feel the need to include the fact that I started writing this at 2am
Also: I have nothing against the actors, or Lauren who directed the reprise, I love them all dearly. However, I’m a very nitpicky person, and I cannot dislike things casually without doing a somewhat in depth analysis about why I don’t like it, and then saying something about it. That’s just how I am, and I want to establish that because I know how people on the internet can be. Okay? Okay…
I also want to clarify that I’m not trying to be like one of those Monster High G1 OG purists, because I’m not. This post is mostly for myself, because I have a lot to say and nowhere else to put it.
Stage, set, set pieces, blocking, choreography, & empty space:
I feel as though the set was overhyped. It was cool, don’t get me wrong, but overhyped. It wasn’t all they amped it up to be, and I was dissapointed by that. Like I said, it was cool, but it just didn’t stand out to me. Most of it was grey, not particularly eye catching, and it lacks something. I’m unsure what, just something. It lacks liveliness, color, and I don’t think it fit all too well with the majority of the show. It doesn’t look like what it’s meant to be portraying to me, sure, some of the set pieces did help, however it doesn’t look like what most of the scenes require. I feel as though the set vaguely blocked off opportunities for blocking and choreography, specifically with Not Your Seed, but that’s something I’ll get into later. Maybe.
I think the amount of set pieces that they had just wasn’t enough? Set pieces did help make the scenes more lively, yes, however there just weren’t enough to make up for all the empty space on the stage, and the size of it. I have this issue with scenes specifically taking place in Hidgens’ manor. There aren’t enough set pieces, it doesn’t look like a living space, it just looks like a stage with a couch and wall decorations. I know there weren’t many set pieces in the original, and I’m aware that all they had were chairs, but even then the space was utilized well because the stage was just the right size for the small cast that they had. They didn’t have so much empty space that they needed to fill.
The blocking and choreography bother me deeply, not because I think it’s bad, which I don’t think that, but because it’s all so far apart. The issue I have is mainly with the blocking, all the actors are placed so far apart from one another to a point where it makes the scenes feel less organic. My specific example of this is the scene in the break room right after Lah Dee Dah Dah Day, it doesn’t feel like the characters are even in a room together when they’re talking. The way they move and act around the empty space doesn’t convey what the scene is supposed to be conveying, it doesn’t feel like what it’s supposed to. To me, it just feels like they’re just speaking their lines at each other in separate rooms, the lack of set pieces contributes to this. Had there been more set pieces, I feel like the large gaps in the blocking would be less of an issue.
All the empty space bothers me so very deeply. Having a large stage is cool, they got to have a big set, more space for dance, but the space is just too much. During group numbers, everybody is either too far apart making awkward gaps, or they’re too close together with a void of empty zones threatening to consume them because there just aren’t enough people to make a stage that size look composed. A cast with 8 people, and only 7 of them in most of the group numbers, is just not enough for a stage that big. In all honesty just 2 added people would have been enough, like Bryce and Kim as their ensemble characters like Brenda, Stacy, Shapiro, Sylvia, Karen Chasity, Rosary… the addition of at least two cast members would’ve gotten rid of so much empty space. This show just has too small of a cast to be on a stage that large.
Line delivery, tone, cadence, & the natural flow of words (or lack thereof):
There are a few characters who I felt lacked their original tone, and speech patterns: Emma, Paul, and Hidgens. I’m going to section them off and talk about the issues I have with their speech separately.
Emma: I feel as though Emma’s way of speech was almost completely annihilated in the remount. My main example of this is the Beanies scene with her and Paul, which will come up quite a few times. When she’s speaking to Paul, asking him what he’d like to order and after he tips her, she completely lacks her original flow of speech. She doesn’t sound like she’s supposed to. Which is, to put it in a simplified way: exhausted by life and what it’s always throwing at her, always vaguely annoyed by something, and when the scene requires it; terrified. She doesn’t sound like that. It might just be me, but I don’t hear her emotion conveyed through her voice, and I honestly don’t see it on her face either. What I’m hearing is just this nonchalant way of speech, and that bothers me, there are hardly any ups and downs in her tone of voice. When she’s talking to Paul after he tips her, kind of talking shit with him about her job and coworkers, she doesn’t sound relieved that she actually has somebody to complain to about the bullshit. Just nonchalance, and she displays that throughout the whole musical.
Paul: it’s honestly the same issue I have with Emma. He completely lost his original flow of speech, he doesn’t express his terror in the way that it needs to be, he doesn’t act or speak awkwardly around her like he does in the original. It just sounds like rehearsed lines instead of a real sounding conversation. He and Emma display that same sort of monotone, nonchalant tone of voice and body language throughout the entire thing, and it makes it hard for me to feel generally anything for these characters. The loss of Paul’s original flow of speech also pulls forward the loss of most of the romantic tension and buildup between him and Emma, and I find that without his flow of speech, without his expression of character: I see no point in the ‘kiss me?’ Scene. It makes the scene empty, and less funny.
Hidgens: He lost so much for the sake of just being a “crazy” comedic character, including his speech patterns. He had variation in his tone of voice in the original. There were times where he was quieter and louder than others, he raised his voice quite a bit, yes, however; not to the extent that he does in the remount. All of his lines aren’t really spoken, they’re moreso excitedly shouted. He’s sort of the polar opposite of Emma in this situation, Emma didn’t really have any ‘ups’ in her tone of voice, but Hidgens didn’t have any ‘downs’ with his tone. It’s just one loud tone of voice that doesn’t seem to express any emotion in particular, it makes it difficult to feel anything for the character, because all he seems to express is his being ‘crazy’ and ‘unstable’. His voice also just sounds odd. It makes me deeply uncomfortable with how he sounds, I literally cannot sit through Show Stopping Number because he doesn’t drop the fucking voice when he’s singing and it disturbs my soul so very deeply. He sounds like he’s severely constipated, and proud about it.
Acting with your confidence, and not your character:
This is a very big nitpick I have, I don’t actually have a lot to say about it, but I find that most of the actors were doing this. I don’t think Jamie or Corey were, Joey kind of wasn’t, I don’t think Jeff was either, but I’m afraid I can’t say the same for the others.
It’s good to be confident when you’re acting, don’t get me wrong, but I feel as though the confidence was all that they were acting with at times. It’s part of the line issue, it’s what I think makes them so… blah sounding. To me, it’s what made Emma and Paul seem so empty. They let their confidence act for them and it made the scenes feel emotionless. I struggled to laugh at the things that were supposed to be funny, that I know are funny because the actors let their confidence guide them in their acting. It felt to me like they were kind of overconfident in it in a way. It’s too much and not enough at the same time, and it makes things feel wrong in a way. It kind of just felt like “laugh at this you know it’s funny” if you get what I mean?
Will acted with his confidence more than he did his character. I didn’t like it one bit. Hidgens is supposed to be a character that’s more than just ‘crazy’, but the unstable aspect is ALL that Will seemed to lean into. There was no anger or disappointment in the scene where he realizes that Alexa cannot, in fact initiate self destruct. He just threw it for no reason. There was no emotion behind it, it only happened because it was in the script. His rendition of Hidgens is comparable to a child. There was too much excitement in him, he didn’t act like a man who experienced an intense, life changing tragedy that killed everything he loved, and changed the core of who he was as a person. I may make another post going into detail about this, I’m not thinking to my full capacity since it’s almost 4am and I’ve been writing this post for nearly two hours, so I’m not expressing my hatred for this rendition of my favorite character properly. I haven’t particularly liked any rendition of Hidgens more than the original, but I like this rendition the least. The original is the only rendition of Hidgens that I can actually enjoy without feeling like it’s all just wrong. And I’m not saying I like his original actor at all. I dislike Robert just as much as the next guy, but his rendition of Hidgens is the only one I genuinely enjoy.
I find that Mariah let her confidence drive her a little too much, in certain aspects of scenes, for example: the Beanies scene, she gave too much and too little in the dialogue that she had, her body language and facial expressions didn’t fit very well with what she was supposed to be expressing in that scene. Another example would be the Meteor Sequence thing where all the characters are passing by as the meteor approaches the starlight theatre, when Zoey is meeting up with Sam. She gave too much when Zoey and Sam were flirting, and Zoey says Sam’s uniform is sexy. I don’t know if this is just a personal idea that I have, but she’s having an affair with a married man, and with the reputation she has I’d think she wouldn’t literally scream that she thinks his uniform is sexy? I dunno.
Lighting & Other Visuals:
I particularly don’t like how they did the lighting, it feels wrong to have so much white light in all these scenes and songs that are meant to be darker and more ominous, like Not Your Seed and Americas Great Again. I don’t have much to say about that one, it just doesn’t feel right.
I didn’t really like how they did so many wide shots of the stage, it felt odd, and far less cinematic than pro shots have been in the past. I think they were just doing it to sort of compensate for all the empty space and the gaps they had on stage.
Scene pacing & Song tempo:
So many of the scenes were just moving way too fast. All the lines were said too quickly, with hardly any pauses between them, no chance to really think about what the characters are saying before they rush into their next sentence. I have this issue with Hidgens especially. There’s no anticipation or pausing between his lines, even when he’s talking to other characters. It’s just one line after the other, talking talking talking like they’re just trying to get through the show.
I have the pacing problem and excessive tempo in Not Your Seed specifically. The entirety of the song is just too fast, it only slows down once during the “why does it hurt to love you?” Verse, but even then it’s still moving too quickly. Like I’ve already said, it just feels like they’re trying to get through the show and be done with it.
Things I did actually like about the reprise:
There aren’t many things that I like about the reprise, but here are the things I do enjoy.
I did really like the whole “it was in my mouth” bit with Ted, and the Borat voice. That did actually make me laugh, it was funny as hell.
I did also like the added verses to Let It Out. It’s been stuck in my head and I really want to do a cover of it.
I did like Hidgens’ conspiracy board thing. It made me laugh and it did make me happy because of the Beatles photo on there, specifically having to do with the “Paul is dead” theory since I love the Beatles a lot.
I do want to reiterate one thing though just in case:
I have nothing against the actors or Lauren, I just feel like there were a lot of things that they could’ve done differently, and improvements that could’ve been made that just weren’t. I also just didn’t like the reprise, and that’s okay.
Ok byeee it took me over 2 hours to write this whole thing and I need to sleep. There’s probably other stuff that I forgot but I can’t be bothered, really. It’s late and I’m tired.
