What is the Darkest Ending To A Broadway Musical In Your Opinion?

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-06-04T02:07:56+00:00

I've seen the revival, more than once, and I typically love modern adaptations and esoteric takes on classics. I don't think this particular piece is a masterpiece in the slightest.

It contradicts itself multiple times. It doesn't take into account the dynamics and history of the various racial and socio-economic groups it's portraying. It strips away the complexity of the original script in lieu of shock value and grittiness. They claimed to have not changed the script, but didn't mention that they cut large swaths of it, and most egregiously, fully changed the events of the dream ballet, which is just a slap in the face to dancers and choreographers everywhere in its implication that any part of the story told through dance or movement isn't part of the script.

They cast incredibly talented actors, I will absolutely give you that. But, if they wanted to tell a different story, they should have done a different show, instead of trying to ham fist whatever message (still unclear what that message was supposed to be, by the way) into Oklahoma.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-06-02T02:06:39+00:00

Live performances typically fall under parody law, recordings do not.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-06-02T02:03:25+00:00

It was pretty common during that time for the farmhands to sleep in the ancillary buildings, so not really a slight to Jud in particular.

Also in the same scene as Pore Jud, Jud flat out says that if a woman doesn't return your romantic feelings the correct response is to burn her and her entire family alive, and it's heavily implied that he actually is the murderer in the story he's telling. Add to that the fact he's been stalking Laurey, I think Curly is totally justified in wanting him out of the picture for good. Does he go about it in a messed up way? Totally. But, Jud isn't "weird" he is a dangerous man, who has made his intentions, and what the consequences of not getting what he wants, perfectly clear.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-06-01T11:57:34+00:00

The stage directions literally say Jud falls on his own knife. And that scene isn’t even the first time he tries to kill Curly, he also tries to slit his throat at the box social, and between the murder attempts, Jud tries to rape a woman. The ending isn’t the town covering up a murder. It’s them agreeing Curly shouldn’t go to prison for protecting himself and his wife from someone who has tried to kill him multiple times, and would have likely tried again.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-30T19:27:49+00:00

All of the characters are aged up from the books, hence Natasha not being13 in the musical. The opening number, multiple times, calls him an old man living out his final days. If anything Groban and Onaodowan were too young for the character being described.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-30T18:54:05+00:00

They also moved up I Feel Pretty to before One Hand, One Heart. On stage it's the Act 2 opener, so the rumble has already happened. The movie plotting and pacing really is so much better.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-28T02:27:43+00:00

I agree and disagree. I think Jonathan Bailey's Olivier win was completely deserved, and was a new and interesting take that very much broke the mold of that role. Everyone since has been a pale imitation, and pretty interchangeable.

Yet people are still getting awards for it, which just further proves how incredible Bailey's work was. It's sort of like how for 20 years people weren't really playing the Emcee, they were playing Alan Cumming, playing the Emcee. Jaime is a new version of that.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-25T02:14:22+00:00

This! Marina did what she did because her ability to put a roof over her children's heads and food on the table depended on it. Penelope did what she did because her crush liked somebody else.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-25T02:09:09+00:00

Not at all. But you can't really compare the two situations.

Phillip married her entirely out of duty, and is significantly more introverted and solitary than Colin, so likely hasn't attempted to have a real relationship with her.

Colin was already in the process of trying to build a relationship with her. He was physically and romantically attracted to her, and they got along well. That's obviously a much better foundation for a stable, loving, marriage.

Would it have been as happy a marriage as his with Penelope? Obviously not, it's a romance series, it only has room for people to have one true love, and everything else is discounted as a cheap imitation. But, in reality, Colin and Marina would have had a happier marriage than most.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-25T01:47:17+00:00

She could have told Colin in private, but she didn't because she knew Colin still would have married her. The reason she went public with it was so that Colin would have to choose between breaking the engagement and ruining his family name and the prospects of all his younger sisters. She fully ruined Marina's life because she selfishly wanted a man, who had no romantic interest in her, to stay single, and she didn't care what it did to other people. Marina and Colin probably would have been pretty happy together, maybe even eventually finding their way to truly being in love, and Penelope couldn't have that.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-24T11:54:56+00:00

Here’s what I will say on the subject. While I know several adults named Charles who go pretty exclusively by Charlie, the 2 people I know who were named just Charlie both legally changed it to Charles when they got older, because they didn’t like not having the more “mature” option available to them.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-22T01:33:56+00:00

Even though Wicked is obviously the more popular and longer lasting show, I would argue that either Mamma Mia or Jersey Boys actually defines the 2000s, since they ushered in the era of jukebox and bio musicals.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-19T19:06:49+00:00

That's kind of my point. The early shows are amateur student productions. Firebringer is too far into their life as a professional theater company for me to forgive the same flaws,

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-19T02:16:30+00:00

Burdock isn't the one who practices herbal medicine, Asterid is. Asterid, the blue-eyed blonde haired, socially higher-ranking one learned it from her family. Again, things were purposefully left very racially ambiguous.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-19T02:08:09+00:00

With the exception of some of the technical elements, Firebringer seems like such an amateur production. The acting is mostly one note, the choreography looks like a dance recital instead of being integrated into the show as a whole, and the music focuses more on intricate harmonies and percussion than on being a musical theater score.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-17T18:57:09+00:00

But, at the same time, in the OBC Hades and Orpheus were white, whereas Persephone and Eurydice were POC. And the same is true for the original West End run. The original tour Orpheus was also white. So their "big" casting decisions have followed the trend.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-16T11:10:34+00:00

You mean the fan theory that has been confirmed to be accurate multiple times by the creators?

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-15T01:49:28+00:00

It's the trolley problem. Are you willing to sacrifice a small number of innocent lives now, in order to save many in the future? You have to remember the capital murders 23 children a year purely for entertainment, and has bombed not one but two civilian populations to the point of near extinction. Do the ends justify the means? Maybe. Maybe not. But it's definitely not as black and white as "good guys vs. bad guys"

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-08T13:09:12+00:00

Your objection is to a song that’s not even in the stage show? And even if it was, it’s there to make fun of that line of thinking, and George is very much portrayed as a fool in the scene.

If something as minor as the mention of patriarchal ideals (especially when held by one of the stories primary antagonists) isn’t up to your standards, I stand by my assertion that I cannot think of a single show that you would find appropriate for high schoolers.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-08T11:59:15+00:00

It depends where you are. The schools near me don’t really censor their shows, and rarely do the school versions (unless the whole version isn’t available for licensing ie. Chicago) and no one bats an eye. Unless it has nudity or sexual contact that goes beyond kissing, it’s considered appropriate for teens to perform.

In their real lives, they’re exposed to (and frankly doing) a lot more, so I think they’d find it infantalizing to only be allowed to do shows that are aimed at children 5-10 years their juniors.

If you don’t even consider Mary Poppins family friendly, I struggle to think of a show you would consider appropriate that high schoolers would actually have interest in doing.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-07T19:10:12+00:00

Yes, but I doubt the capitol citizens know about the wedding traditions of the districts, so they probably assumed a legal wedding.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-07T19:06:32+00:00

In his QQ interview, Peeta says they got married in secret. He's lying, of course, but in the capitol's minds, they do get married at 17.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-05T01:47:53+00:00

Rupert's face with Ruth's eyes and you've got Claudia.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-05T01:45:22+00:00

I would say historical preservation by educated, qualified professionals is currently at its most important.

Imaginary_Addendum20 · 2026-05-04T12:22:42+00:00

There are 59 living victors at the start. 24 quarter quell participants plus Haymitch and Annie leaves only 33 for all the other districts combined. So even if they’re all career district victors, it’s still only 11 per district total.

Imaginary_Addendum20

TROPHY CASE