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Aug. 7th, 2012 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo there were three of us last night at Bring It On, THE CHEERLEADING MUSICAL:
fahye, who had traveled around the world to see a Broadway show, and gotten up twice at 4:30 AM, and waited seven hours to get tickets, and been thwarted three times over by adverse schedules and surprise thunderstorms and dark theaters, and was ready to believe that New York had it personally in for her to prevent her from EVER SEEING A SHOW EVER;
littledust, who had managed to find THE ONLY musical playing on a Monday night in New York and gotten us there by sheer force of willpower;
andbookelfe, who had had her contact lens blown dramatically away by the wind an hour previous, and was therefore going to be squinting through one eye for the entire length of the show, but after everything else was willing to chalk this up as a sacrifice to the Theater Gods.
And we all walked out gleeful and delighted and singing, so that should tell you something, and that something is that Bring It On: The Musical is like a shot of sparkles right in the arm.
The short version: it's about LOVING WHO YOU ARE NO MATTER WHO THAT IS! and girls who are best friends or quite possibly in love! and flying through the air with the greatest of ease! and the TINIEST SPARKLIEST PSYCHOPATH OF ALL!
It's also kind of inherently about about a white girl who learns important life lessons from her ethnic friends, so, you know. On the other hand, the show-writers are super aware of this and do everything within their power to lampshade and deflate the problematic tropes that they're juggling. Also there is that moment when the geeky, awkward white cheerleader is lamenting how nobody can understand what it's like to feel like you never fit in, and the black trans cheerleader steps up and radiates ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING ME at her until she gets it, and it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on a New York stage. (THERE IS A TRANSGENDER CHEERLEADER! it's not a big deal! she's just great!) Bless you, Lin-Manuel Miranda. BLESS YOU.
That is the short version! SPARKLES. For the long version with detailed spoilers,
So the show begins with Our Heroine Campbell, most terrifyingly dedicated cheerleader of all, and her squad!
CAMPBELL, THE LEADER: ALL I DREAM ABOUT is winning cheerleading competitions! CHEERLEADING IS MY LIFE.
SKYLER, THE MEAN GIRL: I will admit that Campbell is the most terrifyingly dedicated cheerleader. I am just the QUEEN OF EVERYTHING ELSE.
KYLER, THE OTHER ONE: My name isn't really Kyler, but Skyler told me to change it and I do what Skyler says.
BRIDGET, THE LOSER: I'm the mascot who is too chubby, nerdy and awkward to be on the squad. Instead I am the butt of the jokes. :(
CAMPBELL'S BOYFRIEND, THE BOYFRIEND: I seem to be blandly stoned all the time. Huh!
At tryouts, they pick up a sophomore named Eva!
EVA, THE PLUCKY NEWCOMER: I grew up next door to Campbell and my dream is just to join the squad and be the best cheerleader ever and BE HER!
CAMPBELL: Awwww, you're so cute! Be our little mascot!
BECCA: OH NO CAMPBELL WATCH OUT.
Anyway, they're CHEERLEADERS and they're going to NATIONALS and it's SUPER EXCITING and occasionally Campbell's blandly stoned boyfriend will stop and sing "Happy kitties, sleepy puppies, tiny duckies, sparkly ponies" at her in order to cheer her up, and plucky cheerleading narrative . . . AND THEN.
CAMPBELL: Oh no, I've been redistricted! To an INNER CITY HIGH SCHOOL! My life IS OVER!
CAMPBELL'S FRIENDS: Sucks to be you.
CAMPBELL: Okay, I'm here! Where are the cool kids? Where are the cliques? Who can I follow around, I am happy to be somebody's minion!
EVERYONE AT SCHOOL: . . . we . . . don't care?
BRIDGET: Oh, hey, Campbell, I also am redistricted!
CAMPBELL: BRIDGET! You understand my pain! Let's find someone to glomm onto and copy everything they do in order to fit in in this school, quick!
BRIDGET: I . . . don't want to? I kind of like just doing whatever I think is awesome?
SOME DUDE: HEY HEY BRIDGET BABY. Baby got back. >:D >:D >:D
BRIDGET: . . . . I really like this school. :D
And then we meet Danielle, the other main character, and her dance crew!
DANIELLE, THE LEADER: What you need to know about me is that I am so hot and so amazing and all the boys are in love with me and also some of the girls.
LA CIENEGA, THE AWESOME ONE: Ditto this for me! Also I am trans, but this is not going to be referenced at all for another hour, because my friends are excellent, and so am I.
NAUTICA, THE OTHER ONE: Well, I guess every group needs an other one.
DANIELLE'S BOYFRIEND: What you need to know about me is that I think Danielle is so hot and so amazing.
FUTURE LOVE INTEREST DUDE: I'm just mellow, man. I roll with the flow.
CAMPBELL: oh my god Danielle you are so hot and so amazing and I would like to propose to you that we form . . . a CHEERLEADING SQUAD!
DANIELLE: . . . why would we cheer for some sports dudes when we could just actually be dancers? Answer: NO.
CAMPBELL: maybe I could just be in your dance group then? :D :D :D And it could be sort of like cheerleading?
DANIELLE: I feel like you are missing the point. Hey, Bridget, you seem cool, were you a cheerleader also?
BRIDGET: No, they wouldn't let me be on the squad.
DANIELLE: That is because they are morons. Bridget, YOU are welcome to join our dance team. Cheerleader girl, before you ask: still no.
SOME DUDE: WHOO BRIDGET! HEY SEXY HEY SEXY HEY SEXY!
BRIDGET: I really really like this school.
But Campbell manages to recover a bit with Danielle by going to grovelingly apologize to her for a bad first start and then awkwardly attempting to defend her from assholes at the burger place.
DANIELLE: All right, fine. You have ONE CHANCE. We have found an old terrifying giant puppet leprechaun head! You are to turn up to our dance performance tomorrow night IN THE LEPRECHAUN HEAD. If you do well, padawan, you may join our dance team.
CAMPBELL: I will leprechaun THE HELL out of this dance performance.
FUTURE LOVE INTEREST DUDE: oh my god that is the sexiest giant dancing leprechaun head I have ever seen.
DANIELLE: oh my god that is the sexiest giant dancing leprechaun head I have ever seen.
CAMPBELL: So hey friends, I joined a dance group! How are things on the old homestead?
SKYLER: I flunked Home Ec.
KYLER: I got mono.
EVA: I am now captain! :D
BOYFRIEND: I am still stoned. Happy kitties?
CAMPBELL: Something . . . seems strange . . . .
BOYFRIEND: Stoned and shirtless in Eva's room! Sleepy puppies?
CAMPBELL OH MY GOD EVA IS STEALING MY LIFE.
BECCA: CALLED IT.
INTERMISSION!
BECCA: So I've never seen Bring It On, how different is this from the movie?
FAHYE AND KELSEY: So different there are not even words to express it.
BECCA: Is the movie this femmeslashy?
FAHYE AND KELSEY: Oh, the movie is way more femmeslashy than this, this show is definitely going to have to up its game.
BECCA: Hmmmmm . . . .
And back to the show!
CAMPBELL: So . . . Danielle . . . being a dance group is great but I was thinking . . . cheerleading? :D
DANIELLE: Have we not already had this discussion? Must we go over this again, my hot leprechaun friend?
CAMPBELL: But if we win nationals, we can get . . . a reality TV show! And scholarships! And . . . stuff!
DANIELLE: Your scholarships intrigue me. All right, fine, we'll all be temporary cheerleaders.
DANIELLE'S BOYFRIEND: NO WE WON'T.
DANIELLE AND CAMPBELL: Yes we will.
DANIELLE'S BOYFRIEND: . . . yes we will.
And they win Regionals! And it's great! And they sing some songs about self-esteem! And it's great! And La Cienega and Nautica and Bridget have a fantastic number about SCREW THE HATERS, WE DO WHAT WE WANT! And it's great! And Love Interest Dude asks Campbell to skip prom with him and go have a picnic instead! And it's great! BUT THEN . . .
DANIELLE: . . . . so hey, it turns out there is no scholarship attached to winning the cheerleading Nationals.
CAMPBELL: Um . . . about that . . .
DANIELLE: You lied to us to get us to do what you want. And you lied about something really important THAT WE NEED. I am not sure there are words to express how heinous I think you are.
CAMPBELL: oh god I am heinous, aren't I D: D: D:
(I also am wondering at this point how Campbell is going to come back from this, because what she did really was incredibly heinous and I am hating her a little bit now too.)
CAMPBELL: And now Danielle hates me and will never love me and I deserve it all. ;______; Love interest dude, do you hate me too?
FUTURE LOVE INTEREST DUDE: I guess I would have to say, I hate what you did, but I don't hate you. You know, at one point, a wise janitor said to me, Grateful Dead! And I said, what? And he said, you know, in twenty years, none of this will matter, and I said, wow, that's deep. So basically just chill out and be yourself and follow your heart, I guess. Enjoy the TRIP that is LIFE, man.
BECCA, FAHYE AND KELSEY: . . . so apparently Campbell's type is 'dudes who are really stoned'?
CUT TO: Eva! Eva in her bedroom surrounded by pink and butterflies!
EVA: It is time for my character song, and my character song is BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
BACKGROUND: *SPARKLY BUTTERFLIES* *SPARKLY PONIES*
EVA: There are two kinds of people in this world. You can be an ant . . . or you can set the ants ON FIRE!
BECCA: Did a sparkly pegasus really just go by in the background while Eva was singing, or did I hallucinate it amidst all the other bedazzling?
FAHYE AND KELSEY: That was indeed a sparkly pegasus. *_____*
BECCA: This is the BEST VILLAIN SONG EVER.
But back to our heroines!
CAMPBELL: Danielle I am so sorry so so so sorry I grovel at your feet I beg your forgiveness even though I don't deserve it now I will never darken your door again but I just wanted to say I AM SO SO SORRY.
DANIELLE: Sorry doesn't cut it. What you did was unforgivable.
CAMPBELL: I KNOW.
And then Danielle opens her mouth and starts to sing a flat-out LOVE BALLAD about how hard it is to see her every day and feeling in her heart the connection between them and knowing that their story isn't over and WISHING SHE JUST KNEW HOW TO QUIT HER, and Campbell falls into her arms, and Kelsey and Fahye and I stare at each other and flail our hands in a way that means "THIS MUSICAL JUST UPPED THE FEMMESLASH TO THREE HUNDRED PERCENT."
So apparently 'how the show is going to come back from the heinous' is 'LESBIANS' and you know what, sometimes I am an easy sell.
Anyway from here on it's one big giant TRIP TO NATIONALS and BE YOURSELF and SCREW THE RULES AND JUST DANCE AMAZINGLY, and the final routine showcases everybody awesomely and thankfully does NOT focus on Campbell, and Eva is all "whatever, you all have friendship but I have a GIANT TROPHY and that's what counts" and scurries cacklingly off clinging to the trophy like Gollum with the One Ring, and Skyler is like "everyone else got an arc! I'm still a Mean Girl! . . . that's great, I love myself :D" and La Cienega makes out with Stoned Boyfriend #1, and Stoned Love Interest #2 comes over and vaguely congratulates Campbell while Danielle just stands by eyeballing him like "seriously, did you not get the femmeslash memo?"
EVERYONE DANCES, EVERYONE CHEERS, PEOPLE FLY TEN FEET IN THE AIR, ALL THE LADIES HUG, THE END. Bring it on, guys! BRING IT ON.
fahye, who had traveled around the world to see a Broadway show, and gotten up twice at 4:30 AM, and waited seven hours to get tickets, and been thwarted three times over by adverse schedules and surprise thunderstorms and dark theaters, and was ready to believe that New York had it personally in for her to prevent her from EVER SEEING A SHOW EVER;littledust, who had managed to find THE ONLY musical playing on a Monday night in New York and gotten us there by sheer force of willpower;and
bookelfe, who had had her contact lens blown dramatically away by the wind an hour previous, and was therefore going to be squinting through one eye for the entire length of the show, but after everything else was willing to chalk this up as a sacrifice to the Theater Gods.And we all walked out gleeful and delighted and singing, so that should tell you something, and that something is that Bring It On: The Musical is like a shot of sparkles right in the arm.
The short version: it's about LOVING WHO YOU ARE NO MATTER WHO THAT IS! and girls who are best friends or quite possibly in love! and flying through the air with the greatest of ease! and the TINIEST SPARKLIEST PSYCHOPATH OF ALL!
It's also kind of inherently about about a white girl who learns important life lessons from her ethnic friends, so, you know. On the other hand, the show-writers are super aware of this and do everything within their power to lampshade and deflate the problematic tropes that they're juggling. Also there is that moment when the geeky, awkward white cheerleader is lamenting how nobody can understand what it's like to feel like you never fit in, and the black trans cheerleader steps up and radiates ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING ME at her until she gets it, and it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on a New York stage. (THERE IS A TRANSGENDER CHEERLEADER! it's not a big deal! she's just great!) Bless you, Lin-Manuel Miranda. BLESS YOU.
That is the short version! SPARKLES. For the long version with detailed spoilers,
So the show begins with Our Heroine Campbell, most terrifyingly dedicated cheerleader of all, and her squad!
CAMPBELL, THE LEADER: ALL I DREAM ABOUT is winning cheerleading competitions! CHEERLEADING IS MY LIFE.
SKYLER, THE MEAN GIRL: I will admit that Campbell is the most terrifyingly dedicated cheerleader. I am just the QUEEN OF EVERYTHING ELSE.
KYLER, THE OTHER ONE: My name isn't really Kyler, but Skyler told me to change it and I do what Skyler says.
BRIDGET, THE LOSER: I'm the mascot who is too chubby, nerdy and awkward to be on the squad. Instead I am the butt of the jokes. :(
CAMPBELL'S BOYFRIEND, THE BOYFRIEND: I seem to be blandly stoned all the time. Huh!
At tryouts, they pick up a sophomore named Eva!
EVA, THE PLUCKY NEWCOMER: I grew up next door to Campbell and my dream is just to join the squad and be the best cheerleader ever and BE HER!
CAMPBELL: Awwww, you're so cute! Be our little mascot!
BECCA: OH NO CAMPBELL WATCH OUT.
Anyway, they're CHEERLEADERS and they're going to NATIONALS and it's SUPER EXCITING and occasionally Campbell's blandly stoned boyfriend will stop and sing "Happy kitties, sleepy puppies, tiny duckies, sparkly ponies" at her in order to cheer her up, and plucky cheerleading narrative . . . AND THEN.
CAMPBELL: Oh no, I've been redistricted! To an INNER CITY HIGH SCHOOL! My life IS OVER!
CAMPBELL'S FRIENDS: Sucks to be you.
CAMPBELL: Okay, I'm here! Where are the cool kids? Where are the cliques? Who can I follow around, I am happy to be somebody's minion!
EVERYONE AT SCHOOL: . . . we . . . don't care?
BRIDGET: Oh, hey, Campbell, I also am redistricted!
CAMPBELL: BRIDGET! You understand my pain! Let's find someone to glomm onto and copy everything they do in order to fit in in this school, quick!
BRIDGET: I . . . don't want to? I kind of like just doing whatever I think is awesome?
SOME DUDE: HEY HEY BRIDGET BABY. Baby got back. >:D >:D >:D
BRIDGET: . . . . I really like this school. :D
And then we meet Danielle, the other main character, and her dance crew!
DANIELLE, THE LEADER: What you need to know about me is that I am so hot and so amazing and all the boys are in love with me and also some of the girls.
LA CIENEGA, THE AWESOME ONE: Ditto this for me! Also I am trans, but this is not going to be referenced at all for another hour, because my friends are excellent, and so am I.
NAUTICA, THE OTHER ONE: Well, I guess every group needs an other one.
DANIELLE'S BOYFRIEND: What you need to know about me is that I think Danielle is so hot and so amazing.
FUTURE LOVE INTEREST DUDE: I'm just mellow, man. I roll with the flow.
CAMPBELL: oh my god Danielle you are so hot and so amazing and I would like to propose to you that we form . . . a CHEERLEADING SQUAD!
DANIELLE: . . . why would we cheer for some sports dudes when we could just actually be dancers? Answer: NO.
CAMPBELL: maybe I could just be in your dance group then? :D :D :D And it could be sort of like cheerleading?
DANIELLE: I feel like you are missing the point. Hey, Bridget, you seem cool, were you a cheerleader also?
BRIDGET: No, they wouldn't let me be on the squad.
DANIELLE: That is because they are morons. Bridget, YOU are welcome to join our dance team. Cheerleader girl, before you ask: still no.
SOME DUDE: WHOO BRIDGET! HEY SEXY HEY SEXY HEY SEXY!
BRIDGET: I really really like this school.
But Campbell manages to recover a bit with Danielle by going to grovelingly apologize to her for a bad first start and then awkwardly attempting to defend her from assholes at the burger place.
DANIELLE: All right, fine. You have ONE CHANCE. We have found an old terrifying giant puppet leprechaun head! You are to turn up to our dance performance tomorrow night IN THE LEPRECHAUN HEAD. If you do well, padawan, you may join our dance team.
CAMPBELL: I will leprechaun THE HELL out of this dance performance.
FUTURE LOVE INTEREST DUDE: oh my god that is the sexiest giant dancing leprechaun head I have ever seen.
DANIELLE: oh my god that is the sexiest giant dancing leprechaun head I have ever seen.
CAMPBELL: So hey friends, I joined a dance group! How are things on the old homestead?
SKYLER: I flunked Home Ec.
KYLER: I got mono.
EVA: I am now captain! :D
BOYFRIEND: I am still stoned. Happy kitties?
CAMPBELL: Something . . . seems strange . . . .
BOYFRIEND: Stoned and shirtless in Eva's room! Sleepy puppies?
CAMPBELL OH MY GOD EVA IS STEALING MY LIFE.
BECCA: CALLED IT.
INTERMISSION!
BECCA: So I've never seen Bring It On, how different is this from the movie?
FAHYE AND KELSEY: So different there are not even words to express it.
BECCA: Is the movie this femmeslashy?
FAHYE AND KELSEY: Oh, the movie is way more femmeslashy than this, this show is definitely going to have to up its game.
BECCA: Hmmmmm . . . .
And back to the show!
CAMPBELL: So . . . Danielle . . . being a dance group is great but I was thinking . . . cheerleading? :D
DANIELLE: Have we not already had this discussion? Must we go over this again, my hot leprechaun friend?
CAMPBELL: But if we win nationals, we can get . . . a reality TV show! And scholarships! And . . . stuff!
DANIELLE: Your scholarships intrigue me. All right, fine, we'll all be temporary cheerleaders.
DANIELLE'S BOYFRIEND: NO WE WON'T.
DANIELLE AND CAMPBELL: Yes we will.
DANIELLE'S BOYFRIEND: . . . yes we will.
And they win Regionals! And it's great! And they sing some songs about self-esteem! And it's great! And La Cienega and Nautica and Bridget have a fantastic number about SCREW THE HATERS, WE DO WHAT WE WANT! And it's great! And Love Interest Dude asks Campbell to skip prom with him and go have a picnic instead! And it's great! BUT THEN . . .
DANIELLE: . . . . so hey, it turns out there is no scholarship attached to winning the cheerleading Nationals.
CAMPBELL: Um . . . about that . . .
DANIELLE: You lied to us to get us to do what you want. And you lied about something really important THAT WE NEED. I am not sure there are words to express how heinous I think you are.
CAMPBELL: oh god I am heinous, aren't I D: D: D:
(I also am wondering at this point how Campbell is going to come back from this, because what she did really was incredibly heinous and I am hating her a little bit now too.)
CAMPBELL: And now Danielle hates me and will never love me and I deserve it all. ;______; Love interest dude, do you hate me too?
FUTURE LOVE INTEREST DUDE: I guess I would have to say, I hate what you did, but I don't hate you. You know, at one point, a wise janitor said to me, Grateful Dead! And I said, what? And he said, you know, in twenty years, none of this will matter, and I said, wow, that's deep. So basically just chill out and be yourself and follow your heart, I guess. Enjoy the TRIP that is LIFE, man.
BECCA, FAHYE AND KELSEY: . . . so apparently Campbell's type is 'dudes who are really stoned'?
CUT TO: Eva! Eva in her bedroom surrounded by pink and butterflies!
EVA: It is time for my character song, and my character song is BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
BACKGROUND: *SPARKLY BUTTERFLIES* *SPARKLY PONIES*
EVA: There are two kinds of people in this world. You can be an ant . . . or you can set the ants ON FIRE!
BECCA: Did a sparkly pegasus really just go by in the background while Eva was singing, or did I hallucinate it amidst all the other bedazzling?
FAHYE AND KELSEY: That was indeed a sparkly pegasus. *_____*
BECCA: This is the BEST VILLAIN SONG EVER.
But back to our heroines!
CAMPBELL: Danielle I am so sorry so so so sorry I grovel at your feet I beg your forgiveness even though I don't deserve it now I will never darken your door again but I just wanted to say I AM SO SO SORRY.
DANIELLE: Sorry doesn't cut it. What you did was unforgivable.
CAMPBELL: I KNOW.
And then Danielle opens her mouth and starts to sing a flat-out LOVE BALLAD about how hard it is to see her every day and feeling in her heart the connection between them and knowing that their story isn't over and WISHING SHE JUST KNEW HOW TO QUIT HER, and Campbell falls into her arms, and Kelsey and Fahye and I stare at each other and flail our hands in a way that means "THIS MUSICAL JUST UPPED THE FEMMESLASH TO THREE HUNDRED PERCENT."
So apparently 'how the show is going to come back from the heinous' is 'LESBIANS' and you know what, sometimes I am an easy sell.
Anyway from here on it's one big giant TRIP TO NATIONALS and BE YOURSELF and SCREW THE RULES AND JUST DANCE AMAZINGLY, and the final routine showcases everybody awesomely and thankfully does NOT focus on Campbell, and Eva is all "whatever, you all have friendship but I have a GIANT TROPHY and that's what counts" and scurries cacklingly off clinging to the trophy like Gollum with the One Ring, and Skyler is like "everyone else got an arc! I'm still a Mean Girl! . . . that's great, I love myself :D" and La Cienega makes out with Stoned Boyfriend #1, and Stoned Love Interest #2 comes over and vaguely congratulates Campbell while Danielle just stands by eyeballing him like "seriously, did you not get the femmeslash memo?"
EVERYONE DANCES, EVERYONE CHEERS, PEOPLE FLY TEN FEET IN THE AIR, ALL THE LADIES HUG, THE END. Bring it on, guys! BRING IT ON.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 10:23 pm (UTC)What is the name of the sparkly villain song? I sense I will buy this soundtrack! Must support positive female musical ideas!!!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:09 pm (UTC)And even as I think this I kind of want to see it. D:
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:24 pm (UTC)(I have seen no Bring It Ons and was therefore way, way less confused than my companions.)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 01:28 am (UTC)... I may have to icon that and keep it forever.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 02:31 pm (UTC)Also: LOLOLOLOLOL. Now I totally want to see this musical.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 03:18 pm (UTC)Also you should totally see this musical, because HILARITY.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 01:14 am (UTC)