Something you realise experiencing musical theatre primarily via cast recordings is that, separated from the spectacle of the stage, from a lyrical standpoint a lot of very well-regarded stage musicals are very bad.
I finally got to see the bttf musical in germany! (after seeing it two years ago on broadway)
some changes from the original version and other thoughts under the cut (beware of spoilers!)
-first of all, i was really impressed by how well they pulled off all the special effects. apart from the plutonium not glowing and another mishap towards the end (more on that further down) everything was just as it was supposed to be
-marty doesn't refer to himself as "tardy Marty" in the parking lot scene, he calls himself "last-minute Marty" instead
-doc doesn't namedrop the manhattan project either. instead he says that he's kept the radiation suit from "my time with Oppenheimer".
-unfortunately they removed the little discussion between Marty and Doc about how to pronounce "flux capacitor" :(
-after they finish bullying george, biff and his gang run out of the cafe yelling "and now we'll get that fourth-grader!"
-lorraine's dad complains that Marty is apparently the fifth boy this month to fall out of a tree in front of his house
-raphael groß (who plays marty) really struggled with his zipper after "pretty baby". he was still frantically trying to close it after lorraine's parents were already in the room
-when marty first knocks on doc's door, he opens it for a sec just to slam it into Martys face again. then he opens the door again after a moment of consideration and pulls marty in (pretty similar to the movie)
-later, when Marty convinces doc by telling him the story of how he invented the flux capacitor, doc opens the door again and marty falls in. doc somehow completely misses him and looks out the door in confusion until finally spotting marty down on the floor.
-also doc's guess for who's vice president in 1985 is daffy duck. complete with a spot-on imitation
-after "future boy", while ushering the background dancers out of his garage, doc tells the last one "i liked your part the most!"
-speaking of doc, his actor was clearly having so much fun with the role. he also managed to sound super similar to Lutz Mackensy (who is doc's german va in the movies)
-although unfortunately, doc's actor was also pretty prone to send saliva flying while speaking. after the whole "lots of watts!" thing with marty he even went "aw, i got spit on you marty, i'm so sorry" and proceeded to wipe it off Marty's face without even breaking character
-i was pretty curious how some of the stuff would be translated. unfortunately biff's specific insult towards Marty from the movies ("milchgesicht", literally "milk face") did not make it into the musical. they also changed the translation of the enchantment under the sea dance from "Verzauberung unter dem See Tanz" to "Magie unter dem Meer Tanz" which i guess is closer to the english one but still. also the translation of "if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything" was (understandably!) shortened from "wenn man sich nur ordentlich bemüht, kann man alles auf die beine stellen" to "Wer will, der kann!" the last one fit into the songs much better
-however, some stuff was left completely untranslated. doc just calls Marty "future boy", which leads to a pretty hypocritial moment when marty uses "heavy" (yes, the english word) and doc shortly does the "this is temporal physics, weight has nothing to do with it" bit before calling marty out on suddenly using english slang words when they're supposed to be speaking german. and then he proceeds to call him "future boy"
-the hill valley high school song was extremly shortened. instead we got an additional scene of lorraine telling her friends about marty (who are not quite as hyped as she is). at one point lorraine dramatically drops against the lockers behind her and goes "Oh, but what if he's in college?!" and one of her friends does the same and goes "yeah, or in special ed?" lorraine also calls herself "Lorraine Klein" und asks "doesn't that sound wonderful?" just before walking off stage and her friends turn to the audience and shake their heads before also leaving
-george struggled a bit to finish his milk (chocolate!). he got his own little applause after finally emptying it
-docs vision of the year 2020 in this version doesn't include kale. instead he mentions that people are riding electric scooters "even the adults!" and that everyone's staring into little rectangles and talking into them (he even copied the way people hold their phones while recording voice messages)
-upon spotting lorraine in front of his door, doc veeeryyy sloooowly closed the curtain in front of the window
-later, when showing his plan to marty, doc doesn't even try to argue against it when marty compliments his model. they both loudly go on about how it's absolutely amazing and doc pulls marty towards him several times and leans his head against him.
-doc in general was just so affectionate with marty. he ruffled his hair several times (marty's hair looked super fluffy btw) both hugs were also on point, especially the last one. marty pretty much threw himself at doc there and buried his face in doc's shoulder (my heart!)
-when lorraine asks george "where have you been all my life?" he tries to lean against the wall next to her but somehow completely misses and instead falls flat on his face
-doc at first falls for the "thank you note" marty gives him and goes "oh, that's so nice of you, you shouldn't have" until stopping and then going "wait, this is information about the future, isn't it?!"
-to my surprise, "the power of love" continued without being interrupted by an incoming delorean. instead it just awkwardly faded out and the actors quickly shuffled offstage during the applause. then nothing happened for a few more seconds until suddenly the curtain dropped and we were told that there's a technical error and they need a few minutes to "fix the space-time-continuum". after a bit, the curtain rose again and marty waved and said "Hi again, Hamburg!" before they performed power of love again and everything continued as it should. we even got the flying car at the end
-speaking of the delorean, there was one downstairs in the lobby to take pictures with! i finally fulfilled my dream of being in that car, haha. there was also a small section with the clocktower complete with cables to also take pictures.
all in all it was absolutely amazing. i will definitely be back!
Also, goes without saying that y'all have a month's reprieve before I become incredibly annoying about this. Or, rather, more annoying than I've been so far. 😅
Groundhog Day is a show that was close to perfect right out of the gate. And yet, from its first public performance in July 2016 right through to the revival currently running at the Old Vic, its c…
Wrote about Groundhog Day returning, the changes I saw in 2016 & 2023, and what it all means to me.
one thing about ghd is that it’s the first time loop story that made me actually care about the other characters that are unaware they are stuck in the loop. listening to One Day and realizing the horror that all these people have hopes and dreams that may never be realized and they have no idea…..
NO YOU DONT EVEN GET IT PHIL CONNORS LIVED HIS WHOLE LIFE IN CONTROL. HE THOUGHT HE HAD SO MUCH POWER BECAUSE HE BASICALLY DECIDED WHAT HAPPENED THE NEXT DAY/WEEK WEATHER-WISE. HE WAS LIKE THE GROUNDHOG PHIL. BUT THEN WHAT HE PREDICTED WAS WRONG AND THERE WAS A BLIZZARD. PHIL WAS FINE BEFORE HIS PREDICTION WAS WRONG. HE LOST THE CONTROL HED ALWAYS HAD.
FUCK I LOVE GROUNDHOG DAY
YES HELLO
and then he starts predicting in a different way he starts predicting people and interactions and relationships but even the literal time-altering event can’t get him a perfect prediction. he learns to stop expecting to be in control, to stop wanting to *know* everything that he can use just to help himself.
wait this ask reminded me of my favorite letterboxd review ever hold on-
are you seeing this shit maddie
also phil connors’ parallels with Punxsutawney phil are so so important. thankb you
i was gonna make a joke post about the contrast between the making of ghd the movie and the making of the musical but it’s too similar to that other joke post i made so i’m saving it
i’m trying to rewatch some ghd like father like son gameplay to jog my memory on the lore but i don’t think i can stress enough the sheer rage that boils within me when i have to watch even a second of that game
HEARTBREAKING. your favorite movie ever got a video game sequel with an interesting concept that was ruined by painfully millennial nostalgia bait writing
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