Musical Theater Aesthetics: The Basics

thesubtextmachine:

Hamilton:
The mingling of dust and sweat, hefty textbooks, that one college sweatshirt, high school girlfriends, red pen on 12pt Times New Roman, Red Bull fueled all nighters, falling asleep on your term paper, bloody noses from fistfights, all consuming hunger, that poem you can’t name but cannot forget, hero worship

Dear Evan Hansen:
Crying silently, sleeping through alarms, the school nurse’s office, back row at the talent show, checking your phone for alarms that won’t come, looking through photo albums of your childhood, keeping safe distances, board games, the smell of clean linen, the yearning for the ocean

Heathers:
Fucking up your eyeliner, accidentally flipping off your mom, eating fruit while you do math homework, scanning lists for your name, scratchy jackets, sweaty handholding, kicking rocks, acne cream that doesn’t work, cherry popsicles on a spring afternoon, graffiti in the girl’s bathroom, curly pencil handwriting on loose leaf paper, the sound of music from someone else’s car as it passes by you on the road, shellshocked faces, faded red lipstick

Les Misérables:
Marble that is past its prime, thin white dresses, stepping on cracked cobblestone, petal-soft kisses, mother’s necklace, hearing screaming through your rickety walls, cold sweat clinging to your forehead, biting into a peach that’s a day too ripe, rain hitting the dirt, going to church despite the pain

Be More Chill:
Cracked phone screens, stealing bits of your friend’s lunch, playing truth or dare, incomprehensible inside jokes, weeds that look like flowers, sneaking out of the house, dancing to music coming from a phone speaker, platonic kissing, pink carnival tickets, dry-erase markers, cassettes, teachers that make weed jokes

Spring Awakening:
“Am I gay” quizzes at 3am, the tight air of a local drugstore, staring up at your bedroom ceiling, posters of celebrities, piercing your own ears, kisses under the bleachers, failing tests, pink shag carpets, singing into your hairbrush, starting books but never finishing them, awkward family dinners

Wicked:
Inscriptions on the inside of your yearbook, crying happy tears, slick black trench-coats, the screams of protest, staring at pictures in newspapers, eating lunches alone, laughter that drops off quickly, forgetting your own name, being willing to kill for your best friend, being willing to die for your best friend, dancing in celebration, refusing to show emotion

Phantom of the Opera:
Intricate lace, voices echoing in cavernous spaces, footprints in freshly fallen snow, blood soaking through black suits, winding cursive on parchment, biting the locket your father gave you, the feeling of being in an inescapable trance, smelling roses but not knowing where they are, candles that have burned out

Rent:
Screaming and not being heard, wearing clothes despite the holes, clutching the arms of the guy you think you might love, the feeling of weakness overtaking you, going to parties for the free food, reclining on a ratty couch and laughing until you cry, being able to speak three languages and barely using one, knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone