My Two Favorite Things In The Whole World, Steinbeck & Newsies.

my two favorite things in the whole world, steinbeck & newsies.

newsies (london production, 2023) / east of eden by john steinbeck

Jeremy Freaking Jordan, everyone.

psa:

the hunchback of notre dame was not and never should have been intended for children. it’s a complex story about love, lust, power dynamics and racism, and by watering it down into a G-RATED kids’ cartoon (with cute singing gargoyles!) we lost out on all the richness of it. esmeralda is just a pretty dancing girl. phoebus is a nice soldier. against this backdrop, “hellfire” is startlingly frightening and creepy. (because it’s adult!) quasimodo sees esmeralda as an angel, frollo sees her as the Devil incarnate, and there’s little else to bring us to a correct conclusion of her character. victor hugo would’ve been mortified. (also, the hypersexualization of a woman of color…)

that doesn’t apply as much to the disney stage musical. here, disney actually meant this for adults. here, you get sweeping orchestral music, a plethora of lyrically complex songs, a richly textured frollo, and even an emotional glimpse of jehan. it’s not without its faults: despite a little more character development, esmeralda is still a very adult sex symbol (hey! she was supposed to be 16!), and phoebus is rewritten as a heroic little himbo. and gringoire is still Not in the picture. but at least you get a better representation of what victor hugo actually intended.

the thing is, two-hour adaptations of massive novels are probably always going to fall short. but victor hugo chose to write SO in depth about lust, sin, misogyny, hypocrisy, death, racism, unrequited love, etc etc etc! there is so much in this book! and the thing is that i believe children are capable of understanding complex themes, and i believe that they should be exposed to rich media. age-appropriate, of course, and i don’t think that this is a story appropriate for young children — but even if disney was planning to cut out the frollo lust plotline (which they didn’t), at least represent women? and romani people? and racism? and unrequited love? in a way that’s both palatable and well-written. we don’t need to water things down for children to understand them. take mr. roger’s neighborhood! take star trek! take bluey! these are all shows that tackle hard themes in a kid-friendly way. more of this please!!!

and if it comes to a story like hunchback, where the big storyline is that a catholic priest is lusting after a young girl? do us a favor and don’t make it into a kid’s cartoon.

i wish jack kelly was on the ballot for 2024. i would vote for him.

@efstitt this is so sacrifice omg (barring the five year gap in the timeline)

Javid c. 1894

The babies <3

Just a couple notes from the Hard Promises script:

originally, Jack carries Les home not because he falls asleep but because he's "sick to his stomach" from the sweets

Esther is 38 years old, meaning she was born in 1861

also she has a Polish accent

Mayer is 43 years old, born 1856

"During the excitement JACK just looks around at the apartment. A home. To him the Taj Mahal. Food on the stove, sheets on the bed. Home. It hits him hard." ouch :(

Jack and David made 95 cents selling papers

Mayer reads from a book by Eugene Debs, a prominent American socialist

according to this script, Mayer worked as a tailor before his accident, the Newsies novel says that Mayer worked in a piano factory which is probably the unspoken canon of the movie as well considering David explicitly says his father got hurt in a factory accident. In Hard Promises, Mayer's arm was "busted for him" because he'd been striking.

Jack is impressed by Sarah's declaration of "my father and I are socialists" only for us to cut to Jack asking David what a socialist is. Boy is smitten.

"Yeah, it sounds good, but it doesn't put food on the table. (Jack looks at him) And it causes my mother a lot of grief. JACK sees DAVID'S worry mask. A look passes between them." Esther and David are worried about Mayer and Sarah :(

"JACK nods. DAVID slips inside and closes the window. JACK starts down, stops and looks back, remembering what he's missed." kill me now

That's all. For now.