#credit to Starkid’s musical: Twisted

[sorryiwasasleep]

A Thousand and One Nights will never not get me 

#twisted #twisted starkid #aj holmes #kaley mcmahon #are musical genuises #for the entire twisted soundtrack #AND the 90s disney pop version over the credits #is simply magnificent #twisted is my favorite starkid show and I just really love this song so much #a thousand and one nights #jafar and scheherazade #this is all your fault jafar #starkid #I dont even mean 'get me' in like a cry way #I just mean like the amount of emotion is evokes from me #is simply so MUCH #always #even when most things aren't cutting through #so it just means a lot to me #aladdin #jafar #scheherazade #dont even get me STARTED on dylan and merediths voices #AND britney and carlos' #just so so good #dylan saunders #meredith stepien #britney coleman #carlos valdes

[disastergenius]

Celebrating 15 years of Team Starkid with my (current) ranking of all of their shows and brief thoughts on them.

VHS Christmas Carol

I don't know how this became my favorite. The music is top tier, I've liked every version of it.

I was initially nervous to watch it because I wasn't sold on the original format, but it grew on me.

Also it's the second best adaptation of A Christmas Carol (the best is still the Muppet Christmas Carol)

2. A Very Potter Musical

My first ever Starkid show.

I watched it with my sister on our very old computer. I was in maybe 6th grade and had become quite obsessed with musicals and Harry Potter, so it perfectly combined my interests.

I truly was not totally sold on it just because 6th grade me was not prepared for all the cursing and the dirty jokes (6th grade me was a very different person) but Granger Danger fully hooked me

I still hold that Granger Danger is the best Starkid song, i do not care that it gets (over)played all the time. I also love that they keep having to come up with new ways to perform it (my favorite/the best being the LeakyCon one with Meredith directing the rest of the cast who only half-remember it)

Definitely ranks high just because it was the first and nostalgically I love it so much

3. Trail to Oregon

It's so fun as a concept and one of the few shows I like that really uses audience participation and makes it work.

Joey credited as "Everyone Else" and every shot with Clark in the background

I like the smaller cast, it's such a feat to run a show like that with 6 cast members

4. A Very Potter Sequel

it's ranked 4th but it probably actually ties with Trail to Oregon

I watched it after AVPM (so my second starkid show) and it did not disappoint

I do think it is stronger than AVMP for most of it

I quote Draco a lot

5. Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier

Definitely my favorite parody they've done. There's a great video that breaks down why it works so well: they've nailed the style.

Around the same time I first watched Twisted was also around my Wicked phase so that helped a lot.

Dylan Saunders knocks out it out of the park as Ja'far, he puts so much depth into the role. It works as an actor and for the part and helps a lot of the humor since Ja'far is the straight man of the show.

The entire soundtrack slaps including the bonus demos

6. Nerdy Prudes Must Die

The songs are great

The production value on their shows has gone up exponentially, and they make good use of it. The effects are so so good

I've never been more uncomfortable as when the words "dirty girl soup" were first said

7. Black Friday

probably tied with NPMD but

I think plot-wise it is better than NPMD, and overall so are the songs. I think maybe the live version that's on youtube is what makes it slightly below NPMD because everyone was sick so it sounds very different between the live and recorded.

the garland and lights becoming wiggly is peak set design

I think it has some of the most memorable songs

the return of Dylan Saunders and his lovely ballads

Take Me Back is a top tier love song for Starkid

8. Starship

Probably the 3rd Starkid show I saw

Joey Richter absolutely sells the performance (he's not carrying it because the whole cast is great) and is fantastic as the lead

puppets! so many puppets!

9. Holy Musical B@tman

my previous exposure to Batman at this point had been the 60s Adam West TV show so really this is like the spiritual successor of that, so honestly i was totally unfazed by the number of puns, I just assumed that was how Batman media was

Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth is great, but I also love Joey Richter's in the Apocalyptour

"you got my hopes up so high, then mugged and shot them in an alleyway!" i quote an unreasonable amount

10. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

tbh I did not super like the show when I first watched it but it grew on me overtime. I think i really started to enjoy it when I went back to watch it after they announced Black Friday was going to be a sequel

11. A Very Potter Senior Year

it's so long guys

I think Joey Richter is the best part of it, Sidekick was fantastic

i do love that they got basically everyone they could to come back and do it

most of the callbacks work really well and make it fun

12. Ani: A Parody

fully gonna admit I haven't seen the full show itself, but I do really like the music

it is truly in the Star Wars spirit

13. Firebringer

I really wish I liked this show more, I think it's a fun concept and overall was fun

the opening number is really good musically

i think the humor and the unnecessary cursing didn't really work for me

14. Me and My Dick

I just think overall this show isn't to my taste but it's quite fun

#team starkid #starkid #starkid 15 year anniversary #15 years of starkid

[lynpheasmagix]

Winx Musical Casting - The Specialists and Stella Edit

This is a part 2 of this post:

ITS TIME FOR THE BOIS LETS GO

First up, here's a slight edit for the Stella casting. I had Stephanie Styles as Stella. Recently, I had an idea of who would fit better.

Bonnie Miligan.

oh im sorry its TONY AWARD WINNER BONNIE MILLIGAN

This. woman. is. a. POWERHOUSE? Not only does she have AMAZING VOCALS, but shes an amazing actress with spectacular comedic timing and is just an amazing performer. Her credits include Pamela in the Original Broadway Cast of Head Over Heels, and Debra in the Tony Award Winning Musical, Kimberly Akimbo. Pamela already gives Stella energy so I think she would steal the show as our favorite ray of chaotic sunshine.

Examples:

these 2 songs ARE JUST STELLA OMG

Now onto the boys...

Sky: James Tolbert

This man is OOZING with charisma. He's mostly known for working with team Starkid as a choreographer for A Very Potter Sequel, Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, Black Friday, and VHS Christmas Carol Live. His onstage credits include Snigglotts,/Vice President Bob Morris/Xander Lee/Ensemble in Black Friday, Blinky/Snigglotts/Ensemble in Nightmare Time, and The Ghost of Christmas Present in A VHS Christmas Carol Live. I think he could add way more charisma and character to the Wonder bread man that is Prince Sky of Eraklyon.

Brandon: Milo Manheim

Now, I don't know if Milo has done any theatre BUT his credits do have him all the musical theatre skills (singing, dancing, acting, etc). He's mostly known for playing Zed Necrodopolis in the DCOM musical trilogy, Zombies. He also placed 2nd on Dancing With the Stars in 2018. From the videos I've seen of him, he seems to have the right kind of vibes for our favorite himbo squire.

Helia: Dean John-Wilson

His credits include the title role in Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End, Lun Tha in the West End revival of The King and I, and, most recently, L in the English Premiere of Death Note the Musical in London. His voice is amazing and he really gets into his character's heads. The most recent example being L.

Timmy: Matt Doyle

This man has played a vast amount of roles. His credits include Hanschen in Spring Awakening, Elder Price in the Book of Mormon, and Seymour in the Off-Broadway production of Company. But, he's mostly well known for playing Jaimie in the Tony winning revival of Company, WHICH HE WON A TONY FOR! I think he could definitely bring the nerdy and helpful energy to bring Timmy to life on stage.

Riven: Gus Halper

What really sold me on him was his credit that that he's most well known for playing, Mischa Bachinsky in Ride the Cyclone. I feel like the character's two songs are both sides to Riven. He could bring the misunderstood bad boy energy while also getting vulnerable and emotional at moments.

Nabu: Michal Maliakel

Currently, he's playing the lead role in Aladdin on Broadway. In the past, his credits include Cover Raoul in the International Tour of the Phantom of the Opera, George Nowack in She Loves Me, and Artie Green in the Kennedy Center production of Sunset Boulevard. I personally saw him as Aladdin and he was amazing. I feel like there are some similarities between the two characters so, I think he could bring the energy of the specialist that deserved better, Nabu.

#winx club #winx specialists #winx sky #winx brandon #winx helia #winx timmy #winx riven #Youtube

[teamrocketmemes]

[ TWISTED | ACT 1 — SENTENCE STARTER ]

A sentence starter with quotes taken from the Starkid musical: “Twisted”. Change pronouns/titles when necessary to fit your needs.

“Duty and devotion — the two D’s.”

“The Happiest Place on Earth became ‘Da Crappiest Place on Earf’.”

“My book! It’s covered in mud! Oh no, wait it’s that shit?!”

“That smell is me, [Name].”

“We try to catch him, but he’s always just one jump ahead.”

“[Name], you’re alive?! I thought you choked on shit!”

“This is all your fault, [Name].”

“Now, I’m not sure if the thief meant that the prince had a big horsey ass or a horse ass for a face.”

“But [Name], isn’t she known to sicc tigers on visiting princes?”

“Dead bodies in the street. The state of this kingdom… It’s no place to raise a monkey!”

“And most importantly, you get to loot ‘em.”

“I steal only what I can’t afford… And that’s everything.”

“My ass cheeks… They’re hanging out…”

“It is because your Princess just sicced a Bengal tiger upon my ass!”

“Well, I am grateful for your tiny ass, my lord.”

“And she treated it as if it were a throwaway joke!”

“Well, perhaps we don’t want to share the credit any longer!”

“Nobody makes an ass of [Full Name]!”

“He wanted to fuck a fish!”

“Will anyone ever live up to your impossible standards?”

“Marriage is a medieval construct that represents the ownership of women. It’s like slavery.”

“That’s supporting a corrupt system. You’re a part of the problem.”

“True beauty lies within, but no scratch could tarnish your heavenly glow.”

“Sorcery is a craft for fools and dreamers.”

“Magic does nothing if not touch the soul.”

“I wish I had the power to rewrite this tale.”

“Change scares old people.”

“There she is, guys! Get her, right there!”

“Unlike [Name], he probably had a family who loved him.”

“Colorful expressions in the marketplace these days.”

“I’m gonna have so much gold! I could swim through it, like a pool.”

“THEN you can get your nut out… Your eternal nut out.”

#★ mod james. #★ our memes. #sentence starters #rp meme #ask meme #inbox meme #musical memes

[all-of-the-good-ones-are-taken]

A Thousand and One Nights (Credits ver.) | Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Visier (2013)

#music #song of the day #starkid #a thousand and one nights #a thousand and one nights (credits ver.) #twisted #twisted: the untold story of a royal visier #2013 #aj holmes #britney coleman #carlos valdes #twisted an untold story of a royal visier

[gotta-get-back-to-hatchetfield]

An unsolicited take on the Twisted soundtrack from some bitch that can barely read music

Since we’re at the end of Twisted week I just want to add a quick(ish) note on the soundtrack because while I am so glad that the absolutely glorious and iconic lyrics get so much credit, I think not enough is said about the actual music itself. So, introducing an unsolicited take on the Twisted soundtrack from some bitch that can barely read music.

Twisted is unique among Starkid musicals in that the thing it’s parodying is also a musical and goddam did AJ rise to the challenge. Specifically I think the thing that makes the Twisted soundtrack so good for what it’s trying to do was the decision to sample Disney songs rather than either directly parody them or make them entirely original.

Part 1: Narrative

Firslty, using familiar Disney refrains acts like a shorthand to help you track the narrative, and allow you to draw on those emotions you’ve previously associated with the Disney equivelant of the song, almost like the effect of using a narrative/character trope. Good examples of this are ‘I Want Everything’ sampling ‘Part of Your World’ from the Little Mermaid and ‘Golden Rule’ sampling ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘Bear Necesities’ from the Lion King and the Jungle Book, because the Twisted songs fulfil a similar role in the story to the Disney ones they borrow from.

Book marking the narrative in this way, firstly makes it easier to follow what’s going on, which is important when you’re taking long ass detours about some guy fucking a tiger, but secondly it highlights where the plot deviates from the standard Disney narrative which is literally the whole point of Twisted. When Jasmine gets the standard Disney introduction of princess-that-wants-shit it makes it easy for us to connect with the character and understand the tropes she’s drawing from, by using the music to signpost to us that we have met this exact character before, not just in Aladdin, but in literally every Disney princess movie. This meas that the eventual character development she undergoes at the end, which is not typical of the Disney princess character arc, becomes more impactful. This is then where the decision not to rely too heavily on parodies really comes into its own, because (as far as I can tell) ‘The Power In Me’ doesn’t seem to sample any Disney songs, which signals to the audience that Jasmine has broken free from her trappings of her Disney character to become the Twisted character. This point is shown more generally by the fact that the songs in Act 1 sample Disney songs far more than in Act 2, because their role is to set up the tropes of a classic Disney story, whereas the songs in the second half exist to support its subversion.

( Fun note: The Starship soundtrack (my beloved) also uses this same trick. ‘I Wanna Be’ very clealry samples ‘Under the Sea’ from the little mermaid, and also serves a similar role in the narrative, ‘Kick it Up a Notch’ is very clealry in the style of every Disney villain song (and also what every Disney villain song wishes it could be) etc.. (and I do mean etc I could keep going on with this comparison ‘hideous creatures’ -> ‘kill the beast' etc...) )

Part 2: Humour

The contrast between hearing familiar Disney songs from childhood and Starkid style humour, really emphasizes certain jokes and takes them from funny to hysterical. My favourite example of this is the first joke of the musical which is hilarious and sets the tone brilliantly:

Jafar: and all the greatful citizens will say to me

citizens: fuck you, fuck you, fuck you

This joke, while hilarious anyway, is made so much funnier by the contrast between ‘Dream a Little Harder’ very heavily sampling ‘Belle’ from Beauty and the Beast. The sampled song sets our expectations for the kind of response we should expect to follow Jafar’s pronouncement, so then when the very un-Disney response of ‘fuck you’ comes along, still to the tune of the Disney version, our subconcious is taken by suprise which is one of the key ways that humour happens. The same thing is achieved by ‘I Want Everything’ leaning more heavily into ‘Part of Your World’ just as it comes up to some of the key punchlines in the song (e.g.’so the fuck what’, ‘I want the moon, I want to live on the moon, and eat it in a pie, and keep it was a pet, and wear it like a gemstone in my hair’). I also think this is why keeping ‘Take Off Your Clothes’ as a parody of ‘A Whole New World’, and also one of the only direct parodies in the whole show works so well, because the contrast between the words we expect to hear next (because we all subconciously know at least a good chunk of that song) and every single fucking sentence we actually hear makes it so much funnier than jus the lyrics alone ever could.

This is also yet another instance where I think they did just the right amount of sampling, because the contrast trick is an easy way of getting a cheap laugh on the night so would have been easy for them to lean into too much. But, the problem is since contrast jokes rely on a degree of suprise, once the audience starts to expect it (as would be the case if it had just been a soundtrack of 12 straight parodies) then it loses its power so by deploying it responsably and sparingly, it means it doesn’t lose its magic through the course of the musical and even on rewatches. There may come a day when I don’t spit out my drink on the opening joke but last week proved that it is not this day.

In conclusion the Twisted soundtrack is a masterpiece that feels exactly like a Disney soundtrack without straying too close to any actual ones that already exists. I also love the Brittany/Carlos pop cover of ‘A Thousand and One Nights’ as the end credits firstly because it fucking slaps and also because that’s such a Disney easter egg because they literally always do that.

It’s 3 in the morning and I know very little about either Disney or music so I might be wrong about some of the references so please feel free to add or correct any that I’m misidentifiying. Would be interessted to hear which ones other poeple have picked up on.

#starkid #twisted #rewatchers1000 #how did this end up as an essay i'm literally an engineer I ahven't written an essay since school

[vesperione]

As some people know, I’m very active about social issues happening all the time. However, I am a minor and can’t go out alone to protests. But I can fight online.

So let’s talk about racism

Whether this is deliberate in the fandom or not, I’d like to address the issues of the POC recognition here. I remember back when TGWDLM came out that everyone was begging for Corey Dorris to get a solo. When he received a solo in Black Friday, it was practically ignored. Whether it was because people didn’t like Our Doors Are Open or some other reason, I personally thought it was a fitting song for Frank. As well as this, when it was announced James Tolbert, who’s been choreographing StarKid musicals as early as AVPS, was joining the cast alongside Curt, Kim, Angela and Kendall, I saw a lot more people getting excited to see everyone’s performances and James was hardly mentioned.

One of the most iconic StarKid musicals for diversity is Firebringer featuring Tiffany Williams and Lauren Walker, both women of colour. Their performances were amazing, yet where do the fandom speak about them?

And what about Britney Coleman? Who sang for the credits of Twisted and also played Dean Thomas who has gone on to perform on Broadway. Where do people acknowledge her?

This upsets me a lot, as does the current situation in America, but the things these people need now are a swarm of love to show we know we’re there and we all appreciate them being a part of StarKid.

Thank you for reading and proceed with your day

#tw racism #starkid #black friday musical #corey dorris #tiffany williams #lauren walker #james tolbert #britney coleman

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

The Music and Lyrics of Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier

I am obsessed with the complexity of the musical and lyrical composition of Twisted as both a standalone piece of theatre and a work that parodies and honors the music of traditional Disney music so I decided to make a separate post talking about a few of the highlights. Enjoy my ramblings!

“Dream A Little Harder”

This entire sequence is an obvious parody of the opening sequence to Beauty and The Beast, ‘Belle’. It is absolutely not subtle at all and that’s exactly why I love this number so much. As the song progresses and the ensemble sings together more, it sounds more like a generalized version of the classic Disney musical sound, with its whimsical notes and pure tones (looking at you, sopranos) and I have to give major kudos to AJ Holmes for not only this song but the entire score because it’s hard enough to make your own music but it’s even harder to make a song sound like another song from a different and very well-known composer without making it sound exactly the same and getting sued because of it

“Everything and More”

The Princess’ solo is hilarious and way more subtle in its Disney references in that it sounds like a general solo but musically and lyrically mirrors “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid which becomes more and more noticeable with each listen of the recording

“A Thousand and One Nights”

Not only is this a perfect musical duet between Ja’far and Sherrezade, the title references the source material for Aladdin, which is a nice nod to the original tale

You know that StarKid are true Disney kids when they take the most memorable song from the show, which happens to be a romantic duet with the main character and their love interest, and turn it into a playfully overdone pop version that’s sung over the credits by two famous people - in this case Brittney Coleman and Carlos Valdes, who I’m 99% percent sure are actually reincarnated 90’s pop stars with those vocals (both hilariously accurate while also incredibly well-sung)

“Happy Ending”

One of my favorite things that musicals do are numbers where each character sings their own individual melody line all together with other characters and it ends in gorgeous harmonies (ex. “One Day More” from Les Mis) which is really hard to write for and Holmes and McMahon executed it so well that listening to this song makes me tear up sometimes and I’m not ashamed

Ja’far’s solo sections are a musical reference to “The Wizard and I” from Wicked which is both a great general musical theatre reference and a lovely nod to the other half of Twisted’s plot inspiration    > Lyrics from “And one day the Genie will say to me, ‘Ja’far you’re a man of such virtue” to “I’d like to bring back your bride” - Twisted, lyrics from “And one day he’ll say to me, ‘Girl who is so superior” to “If I de-greenify you?” - Wicked

“Take Off Your Clothes”

Anyone who attended middle school and/or had an internet connection in the 2000s was made aware of the many supposed instances is subliminal messaging in Disney cartoons of the 90s and early 2000s, especially the one about Aladdin’s line when he goes to Jasmine’s window at the palace before “A Whole New World”. Instead of being heard of as “Good tiger, now take off and go”, many people believe Aladdin actually says “Good teenagers, take off your clothes”, and used this as an argument that Disney was polluting the young minds of innocent children (x)

This song also references the supposed subliminal message that a reference to the special effects department of The Lion King, in which a puff of smoke reads ‘SFX’, actually spells out the word ‘sex’ (x)

The fact that they made an entire song about this proves that these kids are actually Disney fans, 10/10

“Twisted”

The introductory notes also feel like a Wicked reference with the use of electric guitar and strings together, very strong Stephen Schwartz and Alex Lacamoire vibes

As I mentioned earlier, it’s super hard to write original music and lyrics for a show during any given production and it’s also just as hard to musically and lyrically reference someone else’s music without risking copyright infringement. This absolute banger of a song manages to do both, while also doing the musical thing where people all sing different things at the same time while sounding great and making me almost cry with how pretty everything is

They parody The Little Mermaid with Ursula’s introduction, The Lion King with Scar, and Beauty and the Beast with Gaston’s entrance without actually sampling the music from their respective movies

“The question then is whether 'tis nobler in the mind/To be well liked but ineffectual, or moral but maligned?” poetry, I don’t even need to explain myself

Those lyrics are from the same person that wrote “We’ll remember Achmed, the tiger-fucking man!”

The duality of it all is beautiful

Overall, Twisted has incredible music and lyrics and I would die for AJ Holmes and Kaley McMahon, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

#@TeamStarkid #twisted: the untold story of a royal vizier #twisted #aj holmes #kaley mcmahon #i just really like musicals #starkid productions #starkid #team starkid #starkid musicals

[supermegafoxyawesomehottt]

List of Starkid “songs” that aren’t on the album but should be

(Disclaimer: There’s probably a lot on here that you don’t consider songs but I just added everytime someone sang in an sk musical that wasn’t on an album even if it was for like one second)

(Also none of these are official names or anything I just made them up, so i put links to the time stamp where they happened next to each thing bc tumblr is mean and doesn’t let me link them to words)

AVPM:

Are You Kids Ready To Fight A Dragon? https://youtu.be/jvyxSHwCyTg?t=124

“Pigfarts, Pigfarts, Here I Come...” is on the album but as a bonus track so do with that what you will. https://youtu.be/ZHZNpFiIQbA?t=368

Someti— *gets cut off by music* https://youtu.be/ZHZNpFiIQbA?t=507

We’re All In This Together https://youtu.be/Y5rq7RViXhA?t=201

Not Alone (Reprise) (which is on the album but as not alone/goin’ back to hogwarts reprise? But then the goin back to Hogwarts part on the album plays straight after for the credits? So yeah idk if this counts but ill put it on here anyway) https://youtu.be/8ZwaYwC4kvk?t=446

MAMD:

I’ve Seen You Around Here Before (Reprise) https://youtu.be/L6V_iZ3BeeA?t=378

Listen to Your Heart (Reprise) https://youtu.be/SnN59deYPDQ

Say Yes, Vanessa Yes https://youtu.be/SnN59deYPDQ?t=276

Me and My Dick (Reprise) https://youtu.be/Y9nElaQcPqQ?t=460

Me and My Dick (Reprise) (Reprise) https://youtu.be/ZRJA0T57wig?t=558

AVPS:

Harry Potter https://youtu.be/GlI4BwjXAC0?t=407

I Wouldn’t Count On It https://youtu.be/rWZsAlx5oOw?t=199

When I’m On The— *gets cut off by lights dimming* https://youtu.be/rodVXzP_jF4?t=645

Hermione Can’t Draw (Reprise) https://youtu.be/m3met1wtmFg?t=280

Goin’ Back To Hogwarts AVPS Reprise https://youtu.be/hT5cxOmhRZE?t=350

Starship:

Life (Reprise) https://youtu.be/1soEWFihZBs?t=513

Beauty (Reprise) https://youtu.be/2sG_Jw1tlKE?t=206

(Like there’s no reason these shouldn’t be on the album like most the others I can forgive cause they’re joke songs or something like that but THESE are beautiful especially life reprise like yes Joey go off) (also it’s an extra two songs to count for the 3 hour space opera)

HMB:

I Wanna Be (HMB) https://youtu.be/fxGohFWbZdc?t=62

All The Single Ladies... https://youtu.be/fxGohFWbZdc?t=87

AVPSY:

Hermione Can’t Draw (Reprise) (Reprise) https://youtu.be/wL8s0mZja5k?t=600

Harry Freakin’ Potter (Reprise) https://youtu.be/wL8s0mZja5k?t=799

Smurfs Theme https://youtu.be/UljCcSBf9S4?t=595

When You Have To Go All The Way Home https://youtu.be/KW13qcO-GYY?t=489 which is on the album but as a bonus song/demo (aka no Britney riffing)

Goin’ Back to Hogwarts (AVPSY Reprise) https://youtu.be/EYYs7g5H-yU?t=839

Harry Freakin’ Potter (Reprise) (Reprise) https://youtu.be/9DWR-HKzg4w?t=412

Days of Summer (Reprise) https://youtu.be/9DWR-HKzg4w?t=970

Goin’ Back to Hogwarts (AVPSY Reprise) (Reprise) https://youtu.be/Y6Jm8ZkYuVc?t=61

Twisted:

A Song Is A Dick In Sheep’s Clothing https://youtu.be/-77cUxba-aA?t=4933

Ja’fAR https://youtu.be/-77cUxba-aA?t=6415

ANI:

The ANI album is absolutely perfect the way it is stan TalkFine or else

TTO:

Gonna Get It On https://youtu.be/BxKCX-UvPrI?t=3335

Firebringer:

Our Leader Jemilla https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=280

Duck Is Lord https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=2239

Fire (Reprise) https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=3586

Time Is Frozen Now https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=3702

Happy Birthday https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=6591

Together (Reprise) https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=7269

Fire (Reprise) (Reprise) https://youtu.be/ZmVuNlu0LCk?t=7283

TGWDLM:

I’ve Been Brewing Up Your Coffee https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?t=668

Shut The Fuck Up https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?t=735

Black Coffee I’m Your Coffee Gal https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?t=1767

Moana https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?t=3704

Working Boys Reprise https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?t=5413

Cup of Poisoned Coffee (Reprise) https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?t=5643

Black Friday:

Corey’s Entrance https://youtu.be/Bqt4_tHLSB4?t=1010

Corey’s Exit https://youtu.be/Bqt4_tHLSB4?t=1178

Adore Me Foreshadowing https://youtu.be/Bqt4_tHLSB4?t=3150

Lemme know if I missed any, and also if anyone who is more decisive than me/has the ability to make decisions wants to rank these “songs” pls go for it

#this was rlly fun to make cause I really appreciate the little songs in so musicals #esp firebringer ones they’re really pretty I love harmonies #starkid

[popculturebuffet]

Nightmare Time Episode 1 Review: The Hatchetfield Ape-Man/Watcher World

I take a look at the first episode of Starkid’s new show Nightmare Time! Starkid, returns for a zoomcast, bringing back the casts of both Hatchefield plays for an anthology series of science fiction double feature picture shows! This week’s tales of terror:

The Hatchefield Ape-Man: A british heiress gets romanced by a shaved bigfoot with the help of everyone’s favorite kooky college professor. Forgotten fiances, murder and described nudity naturally insue. 

Watcher World: Bill and Alice return as Bill drags his daughter to a kitschy theme park for a day of family fun, which Alice enjoys and is as respectful about as much as you’d expect. As you’d also expect given Bill’s general luck, things take a turn for the Shining real quick. Spoilers and full review under the cut. 

Well this was a nice suprise. With the ongoing pandemic I genuinely did not think Starkid would be back anytime soon. Having just gotten back into them this years after several years of forgetting they existed via the Hatchetfield plays, I was pretty bummed, if understanding. So last week’s announcment of not only this series but a full scripted series from their sister production company the tin bros was a HUGE shot of happy I needed in this troubling times. Still need to watch spies are forver love the soundtrack nto important. 

Point is the Lang Brothers and their merry band of actors found a way to continue on via  format I didn’t realize existed outside of table reads but is a nice way to do things: The Zoomcast, basically a podcast done live on zoom, with the actors in plainclothes for the most part, with one person, in this case Nick Lang, reading out descriptions of what’s going on. Being a starkid production this also has musical director Matt Bohm playing accompaniment and pretaped if still via the actor’s own camera musical numbers. Overall while i’ts an understandably cheap production, only what costumes the actors have on hand and most props mimed, it WORKS, allowing for way more elaborate set pieces than the stage would allow and is anchored by Lang’s impeccable descriptions and the cast’s amazing as always acting really making the stories pop.  So things worked on a technical level despite having the barest of bones to work with. But did it work on a story level? Well yes, but if I ended my reviews with just that i’d have less than the 3 or 4 fans I do have, so without further ado, it’s nightmare time! The Intro: 

Now normally in my reviews I don’t talk about the intro because I come in mid way or because I just didn’t think to. This is an exception since 

A) I should be doing that anyway or at least when I cover a show’s first episode since intro’s are sometimes one of the most memorable parts of a show 

B) It’s a full musical number that’s been stuck in my head since the trailer for this series and has now set up an apartment there.  C) This series is a musical, if not to the same degree as the two plays before it, so it’d be weird NOT to talk about it’s signature song. 

So with that out of the way the intro.. is fucking impressive. Seriously taking disparate videos with probably as much as the directions “Sing this part of the song and be kind of creepy or alluring or whatever” and making it really flow? Good work, both to the starkids for bringing their a game to it as always and to Nick and Matt really did a good job   editing this together, musically and visually to be an abolute jawdrop. And somehow finding utterly stunning stock image animations that none of us realized were stock footage but still fit the tone perfectly. Just great stuff.  Some stray notes: Mariah is absolutely stunning in both voice and apperance in this, John Matheson’s bit as paul was great, and Jeff Blim of course got a great bit with his always astounding hair blowing in the breeze with him at full high pitch. Just an utterly great intro, and for Starkid’s first series in over a decade, and really ever but semantics, they really brought it. Good stuff. Onto the actual episode content. 

The Hatchetfield Ape-Man: Lucy, a british heiress played by Angela Giarratana, was saved by the legendary “Hatchefield Ape-Man”.. who apparently has a hyphen like spider-men because while sasquatches can do that. Point is she’s come back every year in the hopes of reuniting with her savior but has so far failed.  But as Lucy prepares to leave from this year’s failed expedition, an old friend finally gives her what she needs... old friend to us to her she’s just some grey haired lunatic who showed up out of the mist. Which while accurate, dosen’t quite quantify everyone’s favorite playwright/college professor/murderous psychopath/composer.

Yes at long last Professor Hidgens has returned! I honestly didn’t expect the anthology to bring in such a huge fan faviorite so soon. I mean I expected returning characters, mostly because the project allows old faviorites to come back for their own stories or for the stars of the musicals to get a chance at a much happier ending... there’s a lot of potetial there. That and let’s face it “Jane’s a Car” is a pretty dead giveaway it’s going to be about Tom’s dead wife and Tim’s dead mother coming back in horrible mash up of christine and my mother the car. Maybe. I could be wrong. I also doubt many of you know what my mother the car is and to that I say it’s an old sitcom i’m honestly suprised I know exists and know nothing about other than the title and it being about a son’s mom’s ghost possesing his car apparently. Well that and it was the basis for this. 

Point is, while I expected some returns, I wasn’t expecting one this large and this bombastic so soon, but BOY was it welcome.  So getting back on track after all that, HIdgens seemingly takes Lucy to meet her ape man, who goes by the name Klonk, played by everyone’s faviorite sexy caveman Joey Richter. Also it’s adorable he and Lauren share a streaming screen. I know practicality and all that but their engagment is genuinely a sweet thing to hear about at a time when the world’s going down the toilet fast. Fun Fact: I pegged the Ape-Man was either going to be Jeff or Joey, leaning towards Jeff, though given my love of Joey I wasn’t disapointed with him, especially with the twist... but I was EXASTIC to learn the answer was basically “Both.. kinda?”. But yeah Lucy soon bonds with the ape man, with HIdgens encouraging her since it’s more than he’s gotten out of Klonk in 11 months of looking after the guy, and this way they can get him to learn enough to decide what he wants for himself. 

So a few months, and some romantic bonding between woman and ape-man, pass but a wrench is thrown into Klonk’s wooing and attempt to tell lucy he loves her: Jonathan, Lucy’s just now mentioned fiance and royal dickhead played by Kurt Mega. And credit where it’s do whlie he clearly didn’t have to dress up, he did have a nice 50′s monster movie british person suit he put on.  Lucy is now conlficted and what not even though Jonathan is kind of an asshole who just wants to drag her back home. And i’ts not like Lucy didn’t keep in touch: she sent him texts and probably called, so i’ts not like he didn’t know she was here. He’s also a hunter for extra dick points as if he needed them.  Naturally when meeting his romantic rival he’s a dick.. but raises some valid questions: While Hidgens claim he shaved Konk due to lesions, there’s no mark of lesisons or the shaving. But his natural dickheadedness shines through and Jonathan talks about shooting Klonk before lucy takes his ring off and throws it and Jonathan goes after her.  Annnnd yeah turns out the disposable dickhead fiance for once is RIGHT. In a twist I did not remotley see coming but damn if it wasn’t clever, Klonk.. is Ted from TGWDLM and the plan was to seduce lucy with this con, marry her and then bump her off. It’s a hell of a twist and cleverly hidden since Joey’s such a starkid mainstay, it’s not a huge suprise he was Klonk and thus easily hid the fact he was also Ted. It’s clever stuff and pivots the story nicely. 

Ted is naturally a douchey as ever, going along with Hidgen’s plan to have him marry lucy then kill her and take her dough for themselves.. and unsuprisingly, so Hidgens can get Workin Boys off the ground. Granted there are easier ways to do this with the same scooby doo scheme: Just have HIdgens plan working boys casually, have Klonk really love it and being the sweetheart she is LUcy would fiance the thing just to make them both happy. I mean he can still marry her and ted can still have direct acess to her money if they want, it’s just an easier way that dosen’t shine supscion on the caveman who looks exactly like a local douchebag who everyone he’s met would testify against him. I mean would Paul and Bill REALLY be that suprised that Ted did this? 

Exactly. Then again neither of our “heroes’ Here is very bright, and this scheme only works because Lucy is clearly very sweet, very naive, and very much wants a romantic evening with an ape man after all this time and effort searching, so she wants to believe him. So the fact the best they could come up with is something out of Scooby Doo is unsuprisng but still great.  However things take a turn for the

Pretty quick as Hidgens takes disposable british douche fiance hunting.. then kills the guy after freely admiting he’s a fraud in what’s an INCREDIBLY chilling scene. Seriously it’s amazing how Robert takes a character as loveably redicilous, even his evil and murderous plan during TGWDLM was still hilariously rediclous, and makes him UTTERLY TERRIFYING. Even when dropping my fair lady refrences. Amazing stuff.  So the next day, after Konk “asks” what an engagment is and what not, we then get Lucy wondering just WHERE jonathan is and we get the second biggest laugh of the night as Hidgens gives us the iconic line of “Oh he left... said something about you being crazy and going back to london and basically to go fuck yourself. “. Naturally Lucy has followup questions and goes to find out while Ted, also naturally, isn’t exactly pleased when he finds out his partner in crime did a murder on someone. 

Ted may be a sleazy dickhead.. but even he sees maybe murdering a rich british person who just came here, went basically ONLY to this one location, and whose probably got many people who will misss him, one of whom is their primary target, is kinda dumb. Then again this is a plan that hinges on someone who could easily be identified, as he has or at least probably had an office job and three coworkers who know him, assuming a false identity to marry someone for their money. But again we’re dealing with a guy who thinks working boys is marketable to anyone who isn’t a starkid, and a moron who soon says he does his best thinking while erect. They only got this far because their target REALLY wants to fuck a sasquatch, is sweet but naive and well Ted IS still joey richter, and no longer has the porn stache so there you go.  Ted decides to cut Hidgens out of things.. partly because you know, he killed a person, and partly because instead of killing Lucy, Ted realized he honeslty has a LOT to gain by simply marrying her and staying married. He gains a hot rich wife (his word’s not mine, but angie is genuinely beautiful so fair point), a mansion, and while Hidgens points out the obvious, he has to stay Konk.. that’s actually appealing to Ted as he feels better as Konk, not just because he impresses an attractive woman for doing basic stuff, but because he feels better as Konk. This is.. an intresting turn for Ted i genuinely like. It shows that Ted may, as much as he presents with bluster and ego, actually LIKE the kind of shithead he knows he is. I mean looking at his life he has two workmates who calling them friends is a bit of a stretch, and one who he’s having an affair with but seems detemrined to make her doomed marriage to an even bigger asshole work. He really dosen’t have much as ted so it’s easy to see why being Konk is better: He’s a better person as him who actually has someone who cares about him.  Naturally Hidgens takes this as well as you’d expect and when Ted/Konk tries proposing he goes with the logical option for taking the fourtune for himself:

Yes really. Hidgens strips naked, and swings his arms around like an orangutan to try and convince Lucy he’s the real hatchetfield apeman. Sadly this dosen’t mean we get a shirtless robert manion as he needs to keep the turtleneck on for later, but the mental image.. I had to pause the video for a good minute to laugh over it. Just everything about it from it somehow being a dumber plan than his scheme this episode, to the orangutan swaying to just.. everything. It’s fucking genius.  But Higdens has more than a mighty penis to compete with Ted.. he reveals ted’s phone and Ted ends up revealing himsef by telling Hidgens to go fuck himself. Naturally Lucy is distraught and tries to leave and the professor pulls out his shotgun to threaten her into financing his musical because of course it’s about workin boys. Lucy tries to run, Hidgens tries to shoot.. and ted , doing the first good thing in his entire life, takes the bullet.  Lucy gets ted out of there then locks the door behind them, and we get the SCARIEST bit in this segment as Hidgens leans into the camera, simulating the peep hole of the vault door to the ape man inclosure and begs her to let him out. It’s some real Jack Nicholson in the Shining stuff and it’s utterly terrifying, but it’s also an amazing bit of acting. Nice job Rob.  So ted bleeds out, as much as Lucy wants to save him he knows he’s not going to make it and prefers to die as Konk, finally happy with himself. And I just realized everyone at Paul’s job is horribly miserable. I mean good god, Paul himself has serious depression issues judging by “Let it Out”, Ted clearly hates himself, Charlotte is in a horrible marriage and Bill just got out of one and has a strained realtionship with his daughter we’ll get into more in a bit. I mean honestly, Mr. Davidson is the only one of them who really dosen’t need therapy.. he just needs to tell his wife he wants her to choke him while he jerks off. For as ungodly hilarious as that line is he’s probably the most well adjusted person there. Go figure. 

Naturally being already insane, Hidgens breaks out, still naked mind, and chases after Lucy. Also noticable is apparently some people thought hidgens was manipulated by the blue shit hive mind in TGWDLM. Which.. no. I do love the guy dont’ get me wrong.. but it was very obvious both from the way his musical number was done compared to the rest of the ones in the musical, and his actions that was entirely him, and his playing the music was so he could join, especially since we don’t see the hive mind use any mind manupluation on anyone else. Regular manipulation sure as seen with you tied up my heart and not your seed, manipulating charoltte into freeing her asshole husband so he could infect her and torturing bill for funsies. Just something to get out of the way. Point is he was always crazy we just now have him chasing an innocentish woman with his dong hanging out to prove it.  He eventually catches her as Lucy catches herself in one of his bear traps when she hits the woods, because he had those for some reason.. and he has a resonable way out: Just give her the 30,000 dollars he needs for his musical. Thing is she dosen’t have the money.. or hardly any. She spent all of it trying to find the ape man and was marrying jonathan for his money and him for her title. And while it is a bit skeezy, it’s very clear both were using each other and likely knew it, and Lucy still comes out the most moral of our cast here.. granted it’s not a big stretch as hidgens is criminally insane, ted’s a skeeze and Jonathan.. well he’s just a diiiiiiccckkkk. It’s not hard is what i’m saying.. much like hidgen’s dick flopping around in the rain. But yeah he dosen’t take it well, Lucy goes up a tree, which is apparently something Becky did once. But before Lucy can die at the hands of a naked thespian, the REAL Ape-Man shows up and tears Hidgen’s arms off, taking lucy in his own arms afterwords and revealing he remembers her. The two hit it off instantly, it turns out his name is chumby in an excellent gag as that was what Hidgens wanted his fake ape man to be named but Ted froze, and go off into the night together. Awww.. what if a naked ape man played by my boy jeff blim and a british person can’t work who can? 

We then close out the segment with a cameo appearance by Jamie Lynn Beatty, who while not part of the cast for this double feature, does get a fun showtune about the ape man. Also fun fact that i found out here on tumblr: That costume is from something Jamie did in HIGH SCHOOL. As in well over a decade ago. Like holy shit, good for her. She looks great in it. But yeah it’s a fun song and a nice way to close it out.  Final Thoughts on the Hatchetfield Ape-Man: This was a great way to start things off. This one was more in line with starkids pre-hatchetfield work, a goofy story with some hidden depth inside. And like the guy who didn’t like musicals it was utterly terrifying in spots so yeah good stuff ,utterly hilarous and a great way to bring back some old faviorites while giving us a neat new protaganist. Good stuff. 

Watcher World:

Now from a mostly comedy with a horrifying ending to just.. pure unfiltered horror and depression! It’s Watcher World! Bill and Alice are back! And given I love Mariah Rose Faith and Corey Dorris, I was exastic to find this was what the second segment was about.. mostly because I had no idea Starkid had teasers for the episodes on their instagram, or I would’ve known Hidgens was coming. I wouldn’t of known he’d be stark naked for the last third of his story but still, pleasant surprise.

So Bill and Alice are spending the day at Watcher World, a run down amusement park on the edge of town. It’s Alice’s last weekend before College so Bill’s trying to reconnect with her by cramming a good old fashioned family vacation down her throat. Alice is less than enthused, both because she clearly resents her dad in general, and because Deb is throwing a huge rager on the same night. My honest interpretation of that is that Deb fully inteded for her girlfriend to come but Bill sprung this on Alice at the last minute and being pretty oblivious and hating Deb, either didn’t care about taking alice from one last night with her friends and girlfriend or didn’t generally think that through. I mean don’t get me wrong normally i’d side with a parent not wanting their daughter to attend a huge teen rager on their last weekend together.. but it’s also Alice’s last weekend in town for some time, and it’s likely a saturday.. so he has another day, and presumibly had friday before this and while things with his ex wife are tense, fighting for an extra day with her would be understandable and i’ts not like Alice, even if she hates Bill, would really fight him on getting an extra day in the town she didn’t want to leave. 

But that’s what I really like about this one that it’s layered. While Alice is slightly more in the right, she’s still shutting her dad out, refusing to let him follow her on instagram (though he does agree with her keeping it private as he dosen’t want Ted perving on her, which tracks, or Ted’s brother doing it which.. wait what?), and being on her phone the whole time to very clearly spite him and rub how much she dosen’t want to be there in her dad’s face. She dosen’t WANT to be at watcher world but instead of trying to talk to her Dad just wants to complain and apparenlty has on all their vacations.. it’s easy to see why Bill is annoyed by his daughter at times and thinks he has to FORCE HER to have fun with him, because otherwise she’d gladly ignore him for their entire weekends together for Deb. She’s so determined to punish her dad for the divorce, that she refuses to see on some level he IS trying, and is just sad about her leaving, and possibly leaving him forever and alone with nothing else in his life but his buddy Paul, whose getting married next week so that’s probably not helping.  On the other hand the reason I say Alice is more in the right is that well.. Bill’s a grown ass men. And while, speaking for himself, grown ass men don’t always make the right decisions, and not speaking for myself neither do fathers... Alice’s acting out is understandable coming from an 18 year old whose been through hell over the last year, having her parents divorce being forced to move, loosing her friends. Bill however just kind of uses her age and angst as an excuse to undermine and belittle her feelings. Because he doesn’t like deb for the very stupid reasons of she does pot, instead of assuring her that Deb wouldn’t cheat on Alice with Deb’s former crush Zigg, starkid’s first non binary character in a nice show that Nick Lang wasn’t just covering his ass when he said there’d be more representation in starkid, which in his defense I didn’t doubt him on but it’s still nice he did so at the earliest opportunity and very clearly plans to use Zigg if he can find a nonbinary actor for them. 

But yeah instead of assuring his daughter, Bill is just like “well sometimes relationships don’t work out” which while true is clearly his self serving way of trying to get Alice to break up with someone he dosen’t like. INstead of supporting her in her dreams of writing plays, one of which was good enough to get her a scholarship, he tries to act like she has no plans for her future and get her to be a doctor for more security, even though having a secure job has done.. no one at his office including him favors. I mean again, the most stable and happy person at the office is the guy in charge, and even he can’t tell his wife he wants her to choke him out at night. He wants her to choke him, he wants her to choke him while he jerks off, he wants her to choookeeee himmm while heeeee jerrrkssss offfff. 

While part of this seems to be that Deb plans to be a starving artist who can mooch off her parents in a pinch, Alice GENUINELY seems to have a full plan for her life. I do get his worrying about her future.. but she’s a smart kid. A bit of a brat but she knows what she wants clealry and clearly has talent. He’s just projecting his own fears on her. He also refuses to accept any responsibility in the divorce.. his hating his ex wife IS valid, as she took his daughter away, uprooted her life a year before graduation and spends gobs of money on impressive outings, the latter two seemingly just to spite him when honestly, it’d of made more sense for Alice to stay with Bill for the year before she graduates and been better for her. However, Bill still doesn’t take responsibly that he too is shoving fun down her throat to try and win her over, hates her girlfriend and refuses to treat her with any respect, and really DOSEN’T know Alice all that well. As we learn during their fun day she has anxiety, and he never knew about it. And the divorce isn’t really an excuse when he had years before that.  It’s the real problem of their relationship: Bill feels ENTITLED to a good father daughter relationship, but isn’t working at it and blames his ex wife or Alice for it instead of himself. While Alice isn’t an innocent as i’ve made clear, putting up walls and not telling dad things, given bill ignores her when she DOES try to tell him about her life, it’s easy to see she’s just given up. If he won’t listen why bother. Which yeah i’ve found myself there with my own dad from time to time. Bill’s not a bad person, he genuinely loves Alice, as he says “to the moon and back”, but it’s very clear from this outing he still loves the little girl who loved him unconditionally and not the complicated and mopey adult sh’es become, and dosen’t WANT to adapt to that and fears once she leaves for college she’ll avoid him for good, which isn’t unfounded. It’s a good, complex rich dynamic.  Naturally with.. all this I covered up front instead of sprinkling it throughout, the day doesn’t go great, with Alice utterly miserable most of the time, and ending up in a goofy novelty t-shirt due to a log ride. She also has an unsettling encounter with park mascot Blinky, our newest adorable abomination, who not only shows up the moment she does something bad on camera but also stares at her ass, which.. Paul you mind coming back for a second?

Thank you. They end up at the Watch Party, a cheesy kids show musical because Bill apparently equates this with his daughter loving musicals. I mean granted cheesy kids stage shows can be rad just listen to this. 

But I get Alice’s annoyance here. Thus we get the return of the sniggles, who apparently serve whatever eldrich deity is around this week and our first song of this segment, The Blinky Song. Which is catchy as hell as well as hilariously dark (”I’m so hungry”), and uses the stock footage well, as I could buy a cheap theme park ran by an eldtirch eye goblin using stock footage. But yeah it establishes Blinky as always watching and kinda fucked up.  Also the sniggles are now clearly the smurgs with Angie’s now being named Sniglette, Jeff being papa Sniggle and James being Snigglotts. However Sniglette considers leaving with another song with a long string of words. Then, things get.. dark as the rest of the sniggles don’t want her to leave and try and mob her, and then Papa Sniggle accidently wings her with a mallet and apparenlty injures the actual performer, before everyone’s ushered out and the usher pretends nothing happened. Good mind screw horror stuff. 

Alice and Bill then bicker a bit with my above point being made as Alice TRIES to get Bill to accept some respoinablity but he refuses and blames her mom. It’s now time for the Tear-Jerker, the reason they came. Bill’s buddy Paul says someone died. They also find three other people waiting in line and when one goes to the bathroom the other two start making out which.. yeah, dosen’t help Alice’s worry Deb’s going to cheat on her. So she takes the first single rider pass she can, with Bill worming his way in as to not let her get away.  The two naturally end up fighting on the Tear-Jerker before it stops up high, and ends up stalled, with the gloriously returning Nerdy Kid played by Joey from Black Friday being as helpful as usual. Seriously bless them for bringing him back. Man in a Hurry also showed up again, bless him too. Alice picks this time to reveal her fear of heights and anxiety, and an approaching storm isn’t helping. So Bill.. steps up. He helps ease Alice down taking her phone for her, if loosing it due tot he rain and helping her stay calm. It’s a REALLY nice portrayal of an anxiety attack, with Mariah herself apparently having them and thus portraying it really well. As someone who has them myself it really hits home and Bills calm attempts to help her are really heartwarming, getting her to describe her musical for him and the two bonding. It’s genuinely sweet.  But.. it can’t last, as Alice freaks out about her phone and Bill for once is in the right, as .. he was you know.. trying to save his daughter having a panic attack, and really stepped up given he was obnovious she had anxiety in the first place, and managed it well. He then gives the utterly heart stomping line “I love you to the moon and back, but sometime’s it’s really hard to like you. “

Just damn. So Alice runs off and both find their way to the fairway. Bill tries winning a doll for Alice, getting into a test of strength where he fails repedatly and is constantly mocked by the barker, played by James Tolbert who also played Blinky.. 

That should be Tolbert’s twitter handle. Anyway point is, Bill keeps trying even as he wracks up 400 dollars in credit card debt, for a 49.95 doll, before eventually the barker and hte crowd’s jeers get to be too much and he does smack it hard, thinking of all of his pent up rage towards alice.. just as the bell at the top takes the shape of alice’s head and explodes.  Bill is naturally horrified by this by the barker assures he loves him.. and that he should totally hobble his daughter misery style to make her not leave him and use the mallet for it.  Meanwhile Alice is at the shooting Gallery not wanting the blinky doll she wins, just blowing off steam when she runs into an old crone played by Lauren Lopez. But this Crone has her phone... which suspiciously has a ton of instagram photos of Deb and Zigg making out while sharing a toke. Granted Deb COULD’VE cheated, but given Alice is insecure, and her phone was given back to her by a witch working for an eye goblin.. yeah maybe just maybe Deb was loyal, and if she wasn’t wouldn’t be dumb enough to put it on instagram. But given Alice is already worked up it’s easy enough for her to beliive that her relationships in danger and if she gets there in time she can stop it and oh look her gun is now a real gun and can help her get the keys.  So yeah it’s time for a creepy as hell Shining-esque showdown, but if both sides were possesed instead of one. It’s.. a CHILLING as hell scene, not helped by Alice wielding a gun again as both fight. I was gripped the entire time and don’t have much to say utter than HOLY SHIT THIS WAS AS TERRIFYING AS IT WAS RIVITING. 

But a crowd gathers as the fight continues.. all with purple eyes which ave been seen on and off, watchers with a thousand eyes.. and with Blinky, now revealed NOT to be a costume probably, above them all. We also get one hell of a line.  “This is an amusement park but not for YOUR amusement.”

So yeah I love this sequence.. and Blinky as a villain. While it’s vague if he and Blinky  are the same entity.. I’m going with not. It’s not a stretch that like Cthulu, Wiggly has brothers in the black and white, with their own motives, methods and ability to get into our world. Unlike Wiggly.. Blinky’s already here and has no real ambition other than to find people to mentally tear apart and set loose on one another for his own amusement. He doesn’t have grand plans of burning the world.. he just wants to be entertained. It’s an interesting and chilling motive and I hope we see him again eventually. I also believe those at the park are trapped there bound after their own day there and trapped doing whatever Wiggly needs. Except maybe squeaky voiced teen. He probably just complains about cleaning up so much blood.  But yeah Blinky is very happy as the fight escalates into the hall of mirrors and Alice looses her gun.. with Bill now poised to strike down his daughter as the mirror reflects the various workers at the park, all encouraging him to kill her... it’s utterly terrifying as Bill’s eyes take on a purple tint.. and we get a POWERFUL use of the score and the “why does it hurt to love you’ bit from TGWDLM.. as Bill sees himself and what he’s about to do, sees his daughter understandably having a panic attack.. and calms her, his eyes returning and the two reconciling.  Of course Blinky isn’t happy about this “sappy bullshit” and brings htem into his domain, charging at them. But kinda missing that giving a pissed off teenager a rifle she knows how to use when you have a giant target for a face isn’t a good idea and she shoots him, with him bleeding a flood of purple goo that sends them out. While I doubt Winky’s dead, he is done with them.  Our story concludes on a sweeet note as the two find their car, and they finally make as tep forward, Bill having seen almost too late how selfish and controlling he was being and accepting his daughter on her phone.. and Alice realizing her need to open up and after checking Instagram, likely finding out those photo’s weren’t real, she throws her phone in the back.. but not before accepting her dad’s request, letting him in. Sure the road ahead is rough.. but the two have made a good first step towards repairing things and loving one another again in a healthy manner. and all it took  was bill nearly murdering her and allice shooting an eye goblin int he face and getting covered in his blood. Cue the credits, a beautiful song called “One Thousand Eyes” with Jeff Blim fucking nailing it. A great way to send off this bit.  Final Thoughts: This was the best one of the two. While Ape Man is really good too, this one took the darker tone of black friday, but with a tighter narrative. By focusing on a smaller cast, the darker elements really played better and the conclusion felt more satisfying.. though it helped that BOTH of these tails ended without everyone dying, and while I doubt EVERY story will have a happy ending, it makes things more interesting knowing that the heroes can get a happy ending this time around instead of an apocalypse. 

Overall Thoughts: This double feature was great, I’ll be getting a ticket to the next one if I can afford it, and if not i’ll see it presumably in December or next year when it comes on YouTube. Really excellent stuff.  So this was a first for me but if you’d like to see more starkid stuff from me, let me know in the comments or my askbox, commission me to review one of the musicals via dm, and if you liked how I did this review follow this blog for weekly ducktales and loud house coverage, and amphibia coverage when that returns, among more fun reviews. And until next time.. don’t blink. Play us out Jeff. 

I really hope this is the ending theme for the series. 

#nightmare time #hatchetfield #the hatchetfield ape man #watcher world #ted #professor henry hidgens #Bill Woodward #Alice Woodward #Lucy Stockworth #halloween #halloween havoc #paul matthews #jeff blim #team starkid #starkid

[meredithstanien]

me and my thoughts ab homecoming

feel free to ignore i'm just rambling about how much i love everyone in starkid (please dont reblog this haha)

- jaAIME thank you maam for your service

- is jeff blim wearing eyeliner? thank you king

- sometimes i understand why all of you are simping for white boy manion and show stopping number is one of them. hips!

- personally i will simp for mariah though i hope you dont mind

- LAUREN WALKER I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU THAT SHIRT

- IM SO HYPED FOR FIREBRINGER I'M GONNA LOSE IT

- i want bhol's shirt. honestly i would wear his whole outfit

- brb simping for meredith.... leather jacket.....

- also lauren that fit is beautiful

- rachael soglin i love you also she has such a wonderful voice

- TOGETHER!!!!! i love everyone looking at meredith and lauren Like That

- "we are womankind" *meredith thumbs up and :)

- lowkey wish we had more lauren walker during this

- okay. tto songs slap so hard and i'm also bopping

- wISSSCONSSIIIIIINNNN i love corey

- wait how have i not said anything about jeff's outfit yet??? i love the vest so much

- okay they kept the audience participation for tto in this and i love it so much

- MS LOPEZ THE BOOTS???

- SPEEDRUN thank you for letting rachael bless us, i thought they were just gonna do tto and naked in a lake and i was gonna be so sad

-i'm crying over jeff's bowlegged step in place

- i love this four person crew for ani, i was wondering what they were gonna do for this since it was a traditional musical

- why dont people simp for clark? look at this man he's so fine

- HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT CHRIS ALLEN ALSO PLAYED DUDER IN LITTLE WHITE LIE? i never made that made that connection because i only watched lwl once

- jim povolo makes an appearance i love xem

- the cheers during no one remembers achmed... me too.

- denise and meredith sharing a mic and having the time of their lives doing it brings me joy

- lowkey was stoked for a meredith-dylan duet for 1001 nights but britney and carlos gave us so much more than we deserved

- okay as a meredith stan i am very sad about the lack of a meredith solo in the twisted medley i will not lie to you guys

- the hmb lighting.... thank you to the lightning designer i will have to check the credits.... AND THE SOUND DESIGNER the echoes are so cool

- gotta say i am so happy about the variety of funky outfits onstage today

- ROGUES jaime kills that one part. yall know the part

- literally any part with denise singing makes me so happy i cant wait for starship

- the audience clapping made me so nervous at the end of super friends bc for a second it sounded like it was throwing off the orchestra and making them speed up without realizing

- craving some commissioner gordon right about now

- STARSHIP I'M GONNA PEE

- ms donovan knows what she's talking about, thank you denise's mom we are dreamers

- i love that theyre giving solos to people who didn't get them in other medleys because i needed this. starkid women are so talented

- i feel so bad for not knowing everyone's names. theyre so amazing and i cant even name them

- JUNIOR STARSHIP i simp for bhol specifically as junior

- BRANT COX THE BUG MAN I LOVE YOU i love starship and i love him, i wish he had been in more shows

- joey your cue!!!!

- where is the way i do? i pass away

- "please enjoy some songs from 'me and my- ...." goodbye brian

- mamd is highkey problematic but that doesnt stop ready to go from being a bop

- brian and meredith standing together 🥺

- i love brian and nick lang awkwardly asking if everyone is having fun

- nick is so wonderful i love him

- the strings sound SO cool with comin back to hogwarts i love cellos

- the screams over the glasses, i love this audience

- i love the audience singing along and saying the lines along with the music, i bet the energy in that theatre was fucking amazing

- joey and darren just going "whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa" over bonnie!

- ms. lopez... the BOOTS again. lauren lopez as draco malfoy does things to me

- DYLAN COMING FROM THE AUDIENCE that is my favorite gag

- the people in the audience as dylan is coming through look so excited

- HUFFLEPUFFS ARE PARTICULARLY GOOD FINDERS!!!!!!

- meredith dances like a cartoon character it's so cute i love her

- tbh the whole second act has me smiling constantly i dont have much to say bc it just makes me so happy

- IMAGINE BEING THAT SAX PLAYER thank you king

- not even gonna lie ive never been a huge fan of avps or avpsy but the energy here makes up for it

- darren where is your fit you are harry freakin potter all the other men here are showing you up, you are wearing a black t shirt

-[yeah at thsi point a bunch of my thoughts ab the second act got deleted bc tumblr sucks and didnt save this draft but whatever i loved it]

- i'm gonna cry, the way the orchestra the end of days of summer became a slow version of back to hogwarts

- this is so sad. this is so happy but so sad.

- darren this is the sweetest thing

- "enthusiastic, but sometimes questionable fan art" i'd like to formally apologize to starkid for whatever they may have seen.

- joey in the background making faces as darren talks about loving your friends

- yo i didnt expect to get so emo over this but them finishing out with back to hogwarts really did me in, plus everyone onstage wiping away tears

- ITS AN ENCORE THANK YOU BROSENTHAL AND SANGO

- what a stupidly wonderful way to finish this show

- joey carrying out walker and brosenthals jackets

- oh the classic disconnected and off timing theatre kid bow to end the show

- IM LOOKING AT THE CREDITS AND OFC THEY HAD COREY LUBOWICH, SARAH PETTY, JUNE SAITO, AND MARK SWIDERSKI DOING TECH WHO ELSE WOULD THEY POSSIBLY ASK TO DO IT?

#m speaks #dont rb

[holeinwallpoem]

Hey folks that for some reason follow this blog, today I’m going to be talking about a random topic and that topic will be my “analysis” of the songs in Twisted, though it’s pretty much just what songs I think they sound most similar to/what references there are. Source: me, a fan of Starkid, Disney movies, and Wicked, who only knows minimal music theory. 

(I had a video on this but I was scared Disney would sue me.)

Prologue: I don’t know if this song is actually called “Prologue” in Twisted (is it actually just considered part of the beginning of Dream A Little Harder?), but it sounds extremely similar to the Prologue of Beauty and the Beast. The scenes are also both setting up backstory for the events of the actual story, so they’re similar in that way. Plus the BatB parallels become more apparent in the next song...

Dream A Little Harder: I think most people realize that this song is mostly a parody of Belle from BatB, especially at the beginning. There are several quotes from the original song, such as “Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!” and “I need six eggs!”, plus Ja’far does everything Belle does in the original. The song also specifically references “Whistle While You Work” and “Spoonful of Sugar”.

I Steal Everything: This is Aladdin’s introduction song, and so it parodies Aladdin’s original introduction song, “One Jump Ahead”. Again, this is probably pretty obvious. The line leading into the song is “I steal only what I can’t afford, and that’s everything”, which is a line from “One Jump Ahead”. The sections of the song that go “Hippie! Fucker! Slacker! Sucker!” parallel “Riff raff! Street rat! Scoundrel! Take that!”.

Everything and More: This is a princess “I Want” song, so what better song to use as a reference than another princess “I Want” song? This parodies “Part Of Your World”. It is not quite as direct as some others, but it is especially obvious in the structure of the song and the lyrics at the beginning and the end: “Look at my life from the outside and sure, I've got servants and tigers and stuff. You're probably thinking, ‘She's got everything’. Well it's true 'cause I do, But so the fuck what, it's not enough” vs. “she's got everything. I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty, I've got whozits and whatzits galore. (You want thingamabobs? I got twenty) But who cares? No big deal. I want more,” and “What I wouldn't give to live in a new situation” vs. “What would I give, If I could live outta these waters?”.

Sands of Time: I can’t think of a particular song this one could be inspired by. It makes me sad though.

Golden Rule (& Evil Reprise I guess): It could just be me but this song really reminds me of “The Bare Necessities”. Both songs are sharing a character’s philosophy of life, plus the lyrics “simple reciprocity is always my philosophy, I get back what I give” reminds me of “I mean the bare necessities, Old Mother Nature's recipes, that brings the bare necessities of life”. I think the jazzy instrumentals sound similar as well. I guess the Evil Reprise would just be the dark version?

A Thousand and One Nights: I don’t think this song parodies a specific other song, but it seems to be inspired by other Disney romantic duets. However, I think the guitar is reminiscent of a lot of Wicked songs, like “Dancing Through Life” and “As Long As You’re Mine”. The credits version is a parody of the cheesy pop/R&B versions of duets in Disney movies from the 90s and even early 2000s.

If I Believed: This song doesn’t really remind me of any others either. It also makes me sad though.

Orphaned at 33: This one parodies “Proud of Your Boy”, another Aladdin ballad. Even though the latter was only included as part of the musical, which was after Twisted, it was written for the movie and included as bonus features. The structures of the songs are the same, especially the bridge sections. I think both are in the same key as well. You can basically sing the lyrics to the bridge of one song to the melody of the other:

“They call me a jerkoff, a burnout, a punk But I can't let that junk in my head I could've been a contender If not for the fact that my parents are dead All things considered, I think I turned out pretty good Pulled myself up by my bootstraps and started Stealing all I could” vs.

“Tell me that I've been a louse and loafer You won't get a fight here, no ma'am Say I'm a goldbrick, a goof-off, no good But that couldn't be all that I am, Water flows under the bridge Let it pass, let it go There's no good reason that you should believe me Not yet, I know but“

Bonus: “I’m gonna live forever!” is reference to “Fame”.

Happy Ending: Ja’far’s lyrics to this song parody Elphaba in “The Wizard And I”. Both characters are fantasizing about a future where they will be celebrated, and there’s a bit of ironic foreshadowing. The instrumentals also sound similar, though kind of at different parts (“one day the genie will say to me...” lines up more with “unlimited, my future is unlimited” in terms of piano underscoring, though the lyrics better match “one day he’ll say to me...).

“They'll throw a parade in my honor...The people will cheer for the royal vizier...Not that I care for glory...And one day the genie will say to me: ‘Ja'far, you're a man of such virtue’...share an itty-bitty living space,”

“A celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with me!...When people see me, they will scream...But of course that's not important to me...And one day, he'll say to me, ‘Elphaba, A girl who is so superior’...I’d be so happy I could melt!”

No One Remembers Achmed: I don’t think this one parodies any specific songs. Or maybe I just don’t remember them?

Take Off Your Clothes: Again, pretty obvious, but this one parodies “A Whole New World”. The structure of the songs is the same, lyrics are similar (”shining, sparkling, metallic” and “shining, shimmering, splendid”), the rhythms are the same or similar, and the melodies are basically inverses of each other.

Twisted: The parts for the other villains parody their songs, ie. Ursula’s part sounds like “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and Scar’s part sounds like “Be Prepared”. Ja’far’s part I think sounds similar to “No Good Deed” in Wicked. Both characters have chosen to become the villain everyone thinks they are after believing they have lost everything (...even though neither one really becomes a villain even after this part). Lots of electric guitar. Genius also says the beginning music sounds like “Damned For All Time” from Jesus Christ, Superstar, but I’m not a big ALW fan so I can’t vouch for that. It probably does though. Ja’far also references Hamlet by using a phrase from the “To Be or Not To Be?” soliloquy, “’tis nobler in the mind”.

“But I had good intentions, I did it for a reason...I'll give them all the unsung antihero they deserve. I've nothing left to lose, so the only path to choose is twisted...Let my life be twisted, I'll be twisted, it's my turn!”

“Who cares if no one will ever mourn me?”

“My road of good intentions led where such roads always lead...Let all Oz be agreed, I'm wicked through and through...I promise no good deed will I attempt to do again, ever again! No good deed will I do again!”

“No one mourns the wicked.”

The Power In Me: In theme and location in the show, as well as some of the lyrics, this song parallels “For Good” from Wicked. The lyrics “I’ll carry you in my heart” are similar to “you’ll be with me, like a handprint on my heart.” Other than that I don’t think the music is that similar but the themes definitely are.

A Thousand And One Nights (Reprise): This one parodies Disney finales. It sounds kinda like the Aladdin finale, which is a reprise of “A Whole New World”.

Ok that’s it! Idk why I made this post, but here you go!

#long post #twisted #starkid #disney #wicked #idk

[screechingkingdomhottub]

Starkid BF video idea thing

So basically I can’t figure out how to gain video footage to make a video I want to so here’s just the basic idea and we can all enjoy it in book form...someone can make it if they want i support that pls credit me tho SPOILERS FOR LIKE EVERYTHING AHEAD(Twisted, Black Friday, Annie?Spies are forever, Beetlejuice(it’s the second song but like still)  Anyway so first point I wanted to do was Ethan’s death next to Abdul(from Twisted..remember the “did we get the loaf of bread back?” oh of course you remember starkid fandom remembers everything) dying.  When Man in a hurry says “Fuuuck you” in a sing song tone I wanted to like edit that into the Dream A Little Harder, you can assume which part.  Continuing the Twisted references, have a little “Take me back to highschool take me back before it all went wrong when life was but a song” morph together hehehe.  Made In America’s “In a valley of silicon” line always reminds me of spies are forever, silicon. SILICON.  When Ethan’s bad double is talking to Hannah, I just wanna edit a sample of “The Whole “Being Dead” Thing” from Beetlejuice the musical there. It was most of what I thought about during that scene I’m so sorry.  Maybe, if we’re feeling adventurous here, try to stay with me, overlaying “What if Tomorrow Comes” with the Tomorrow song from Annie.  I think this would be fun parallels, or incredibly sad for a lot of them.  Optional Mention: “The past’s a virus babe” or “we survived the crisis” once this pandemic is over, and COVID19 is a virus of the past. Stay hopeful, fellow starkids.  Optional Mention 2: Hannah’s vibing in CaliforMIA but instead just having it over Deck The Halls Feel free to add more!

#starkid #team starkid #black friday #twisted #im so sorry if i gave spoilers #pls interact with me im so lonely #im not as edgy as i try to be #im sure none of these were intentional but i like them #:) <3

[monicareyes]

While im here these are my unpopular starkid opnions that are honestly? Correct

Ani was a great musical with a very good cast and music and story

Denise is the funniest starkid

Also she doesnt get enough credit for doing the choreo for firebringer and for all her dancing in general? Wheres the densie being the best dancer videos?

Also firebringer doesnt deserve the shit it gets and jemilla and zazzalils getting together was yes fast but also not unexpected

People are quick to say that we got work to do is annoying and overrated but think show stoppin number is gods gift to earth

ssn is honestly? borin

June saito is the most underrated member of starkid

I know your not supposed to like aladdin but honestly he ruins twisted a bit for me... i would have rather seen more princess/jafar interactions

#thank u for coming to my ted talk #ill add as they come to me

[gone-to-oregone]

So I think I’m gonna do something else

In addition to the Musicals To The Best of Our Recollection videos, I’ve decided to do another project!

So if any of you have seen Critical Role, a dungeons and dragons livestream, they do a sort of “art gallery” slideshow thing of sorts at the beginning of the stream, after the break before the show picks back up, and at the end of the stream. I’d really like to do that for the Starkid shows for the Starkid Rewind! I’ll follow the same schedule as the calendar, so TGWDLM will be first! If you have any art from any show you’d like to be a part of these videos, you can send them to me in my dm’s!

I’ve always wanted to do an “art gallery” sort of thing, so I’m super excited to see how this turns out, especially how the SK10 video went!

Here’s the calendar if you need a refresher:

(photo cred to not_delaney_ on Instagram)

There WILL BE A DEADLINE!! I’ll take pieces from each show until the WEDNESDAY of their corresponding week! I will be talking TGWDLM pieces as well as Firebringer pieces until Wednesday, June 5th, TTO/Ani pieces until June 12th, Twisted pieces until June 19th, SY pieces until June 26th, B@man pieces until July 3rd, MAMD/PS pieces until June 17th, and PM pieces until July 24th (all Eastern Standard Time) I am also including Black Friday pieces in with TGWDLM

ALSO: When you send in your pieces, please let me know what name/url combo you’d like me to put with your photo to ensure you get credit! You can choose no name, or no url, but not neither, to ensure proper credit is given

I’m also considering cosplays, with a limit of two photos per show! These will also need a name/url combo, and the same rules apply as the art pieces

Can’t wait to hear from y’all, this is gonna be totally awesome 🤙

#starkid #starkid rewind #tgwdlm #the guy who didn't like musicals #firebringer #tto #trail to oregpn #ani #ani: a musical parody #twisted #a very potter senior year #avpsy #hmb #holy musical b@tman #holy musical b@man! #starship #avps #a very potter sequel #avpm #a very potter musical #black friday #black friday musical #starkid art gallery

[paradise-bi-the-dashboard-lightt]

HEY

LIFE STORY:Opening Credits: Dancing Through Life - WickedWaking Up: No Good Deed - WickedFirst Day At School: I Go to the Zoo - Crazy Ex-GirlfriendFalling In Love: Who Needs the Young -  Bat out of Hell (the musical) Fight Song: Colours of the Wind - PocahontasBreaking Up: I’d Do Anything for Love -  Bat out of Hell (the musical) Life’s OK: Guys like Potter - Team StartkidGetting Back Together: Making Love -  Bat out of Hell (the musical)  Wedding: For Good - WickedBirth of Child: Twisted - Team StarkidFinal Battle: Comic Book Kinda Love (solo) - EugeniusDeath Scene: Paradise By the Dashboard Light - Bat out of Hell (the musical) Funeral Song: Bohemian Rhapsody - We Will Rock You (the musical)End Credits: You Stupid Bitch - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Leave a “HEY” in my ask box and i’ll put my music on shuffle and tell you your life soundtrack.

#ask #strat-out-of-hell