#vEmpire

#Rudolf being Tod's little doll 😂

#just YEETING him around

#imagine Tod violently throwing him around only to fix his jacket during Rudolf's part

not to be [redacted] on main but i can't stop thinking about shanghai elisabeth and specifically lukas mayer's and dennis hupka's height difference. like,,, there's a good head+ difference there. and I know in 92 we kind of had the size difference of andy being tiny skinny breakable but a REAL todolf height difference is soooo fascinating to me. I wish more than anything for them to be in a real production because can you imagine lukas!tod manhandling his tiny little rudolf around?? I'd go crazy

Inspector Javert would like to have a word with you ^^

(I know the gif show JVJ, but I couldn't find a better one)

If a felon is president, every felon needs to be able to vote immediately from this moment forward

#rip European lyrics. We will honour you in our hearts

Europeans translating American musicals: So we worked closely with the original composer to make sure our translation is as faithful as possible while remaining a singable rhyming translation. If a literal translation is not possible, we use a localized replacement that works in the target language. Please don’t hate us, we tried our best!!!

Literally anyone translating European musicals: *splotches lyrics on a plate like spaghetti, spits in it, and shoves it in your general direction* Here’s your stupid Eurotrash pop slop in English, happy now???? Also, we turned your corny-ass fauxpera into a comedy and replaced half the score with useless reprises. As is PROPER.

#funny when most other people on this site are older than you 😂

#this is highschool all over again

On the parentage of Esmeralda

SO, we know that in the Notre Dame De Paris, Esmeralda isn't the kidnapped daughter of Paquette (La Chantfleurie), since Paquette isn't in the musical and also Esmeralda doesn't have her amulet with the baby shoe on her. Which begs the question; who are her parents supposed to be?

Esmeralda does not look like Clopin's gang, even if Phoebus calles her "mon ange noir" I still see Esmeralda as a white-ish girl (thank you casting committee). With that in mind I suggest that she is in fact NOT a gypsy, but got accepted into the gypsy tribe because they knew her mother. Well then, who was she?

Allow me to present my theory on that. For those who watched the musical Don Juan, they will remember the girl called "Belle Andalouse", the dancer at the tavern, with whom Don Juan spent the night and then left behind, even though she wanted him to stay.

(Proof ^^)

Now then, what does Esmeralda tell Phoebus about her parentage? Only that her mother (!) was a Spaniard (!!) who told her about Andalousia (!!!).

(Proof ^^)

So, here's my theory: after Don Juan seduced La Belle Andalouse, she became pregnant, and lost her job at the tavern, maybe because she had to stop dancing, maybe because they didn't have paid maternity leave, or maybe because they had the same policy as Monsieur Madeleine in his factory. Who knows.

So the Andalusian Fantine loses her job, and, in my theory, meets the gypsies. How, I do not now. Maybe she was seeking shelter and they took her in. Maybe she was kind to them earlier, and they remembered. Anyhow, Clopin decides to take her in, and they bond. Soon after, Baby Esmeralda is born, and Andalousian Fantine goes back to dancing. Gypsies are a tolerant folk, and they happily accept a good dancer. So, Belle Andalouse travels with them, as does Baby Esmeralda.

Somewhere among the road Belle Andalouse, sadly, dies, and so we are left with Esmeralda entrusted to the care of Belle Andalouse's good friend Clopin, as seen in "Esmeralda, tu Sais"

(Proof ^^)

Here again, Clopin confirms that the girl who bore Esmeralda was Andalousian.

Bonus: I think this theory also explains why Esmeralda was irresistible to every man in a 5-mile radius; her father was none other than the most charming Don Juan!! ;)

This is Empty Chairs at Empty Tables if Jean Valjean decided he didn't like the recovered Marius and left for England anyways

Brave little Frog, we love you 💚

“no more after me”, a mini comic about the now-extinct golden toad. featuring lyrics from deuteronomy 2:10 by the mountain goats

There was a...*looks at history book* vaguely German kingdom with Germanic Gods who are driven out by...*throws dice* a new religion that worships the son of the Sun God, Jeshua Crest The people were reigned by a Good King who had a most trusted advicer Y'veel (prounouned E-vHil) Schemerous Traytor. Somehow *cue dramatic gasps* the people were gradually more and more oppressed Until lo and behold, a promised hero came from the future. She was a splendid career woman with HEMA as a hobby and a PhD in pharmacology which helped her reform the medical practices in the land (which were totally backwards by the way) and defeat the armies sent by Y'veel Schemerous Traytor.

“Generically medieval”, by which we mean our peerage is French, our castles are German, our weapons are Italian, and everybody speaks English.

#what about giving Tod a sword instead of a fishing rod/whip like in the Hungarian production

#also I'm very curious what these two would do with the 2005 staging (the Matè staging 😂)

todolf is alive and well.gif

@fitzrove fair. I've seen the Dutch version and Rudolf keeps the same way of performing during the whole thing.

More outrageous moments (for everyone interested):

NO MAYERLING KISS :( what happened, Rudolf stood in the centre of the stage, Tod and the ensemble (not even dressed as Todsengelen) around him in a semi-circle. No interaction between Rudolf, Tod, and Ensemble whatsoever. Rudolf puts gun in mouth and falls dead. Tod turns on heels and walks away. The ensemble walks away save for 4 who carry Rudolf away.

DEEPLY DISTURBING THINGS:

"Der Tod" pushing a sigarette in Danique's mouth, while holding her throat. That was in my eyes when they went *too* far. -

"Der Tod" telling Baby Rudolf "I'll stay" when the child said "go away". I loved the German version precisely because Tod was able (for his goals) to "befriend" humans. Here, it looks like child abuse.

What the heck was that heroine needle-

About that ^^ at the end of "Wenn ich tanzen will", during which a music box was playing (brought by Tod), Pia broke the plate-scratching-needle out of the box and "stuck" it in her arm. My friend found from an interview it is meant to represent heroine.

What a weird way to stage the Mayerling -

Overall, I need to say, that "Der Tod" felt here like an abusive, creepy man, instead of a dangerous otherwordly being.

THINGS THAT WERE NOT DISTURBING, BUT DISAPPOINTING:

The Cardinal wasn't peer pressured enough in "Wir oder Sie" :( Usually Sophie (and sometimes the rest of the noblemen) stares him down until he agrees. Here he agreed on his own, and I didn't really like it, because, if it doesn't give any interaction, why have that line at all?

The choreography of "Mama wo bist du", and "Die Schatten". Just...no. There was SO MUCH critique about the Schönbrunn 'whip'-pulling, yet here they do the same with a rope, when suddenly, it's 'cool'. I don't know who's more at fault, the director or the actor, but there is a fine line between something being empathy-invoking and pathetic, and this guy uses this line as a tightrope. <- this is about Rudolf's excessive kneeling and whimpering

The amount of times Elisabeth is thrown on the ground and/or touches her throat. I mean, there is critique about the Elisabeth throw-and-grab during Der Letzte Tanz in the earlier productions. Here she was thrown around even more AND grabbed by the throat. Congratz, producing team.

Hi there! The Dutch Musical Awards were yesterday evening, and they always include some performances from the nominated shows and what else is in the theatre at the moment. And they did "Er valt een zwarte schaduw" (which is "Die Schatzen werden langer" in German?) From Elisabeth the musical! The performance is on YouTube, check it out:

https://youtu.be/Q8nhMQvxxNQ?si=2ujwn4F6NR1e8lpV

Thanks for the link!

Milan sure is doing something (tm) as Death (he's fine, there have been much worse ones in Germany - not sure about that falsetto opt up lmao but idk, he's decent) but wow, these people have zero chemistry😭😭 I don't think the guy that plays Rudolf is even acting or trying to show what the character is feeling in this scene, he's just kind of there???