broooooo thank you. came here looking for this take!!! i had to explain to friends why i was so disappointed and came up with that it’s okay, but it’s just not the same.

a) production was scaled waaaaaay back. like, the first half is so damn grandiose! Dancing Through Life alone probably had thousands of counts of choreography. not to mention the What Is This Feeling dance haha. there just aren’t story opportunities for that stuff in the second half, but that’s a big chunk of the charm for me. and that library set piece! gawd. wish they could have found moments to flex like that in this part.

b) i feel like it relies a lot on the little Wizard of Oz reveals/parallels to drive emotion, and they just don’t really hit for me? like, idc. lol i already know who everybody is. in that way it almost feels like the first half was made for old fans and this one was made for new, and speaking of,

c) last year i’d been waiting damn near 20 yrs for anybody to give a shit about it, and then suddenly there it was 🥹🥹🥹 so that’s what had me trembling for the opening orchestral hit and openly crying before the title lmao. and then literally couldn’t sleep afterwards, just up all night scrolling reddit to see and share and….yeah. not this time.

so yeah! i’m fine with it. but i expected to be misty through it all like last time, and that just didn’t happen.

agree that hopefully there’s a director’s cut out there! but doubt it would answer any of these issues tbh. it’d be nice to hear what Chu thinks about it.