What’s up, Everyone?
I hope you are all doing well. My summer has officially come to a close this week, as I start back at college today. If you are still in school, when do you go back? Or did you start this week like I did? Even though the thought of going back to school isn't quite as fun as the idea of having a summer full of free time to read, I thought something that would be fun to do this week would be a tag. As you all know, I adore musical theatre, and theatre in general. It is one of the things that makes me that happiest in life. You better believe that when I have to get up early for class today, that I will be blasting some show tunes in my car. So today I will be doing the Musical Theatre Book Tag. This tag was originally created by Somethinglikelydia on Youtube. You can check out her video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORkQs… Let’s get on with my answers!
Question Number 1-Wicked-What is your favorite fictional friendship?
(So I couldn't find the photo of fetus Jaime when she won the lottery and saw Wicked for the first time, but I did manage to find the picture of the Act 1 and Act 2 Elphaba themed cupcakes that I made for my 16th birthday.
Wicked was the first musical that I fell absolutely head over heals for and it has held a special place in my heart ever since I heard the downbeat of the overture for the very first time.)
I found it so difficult to pick just one friendship for this question. I prefer to have strong friendships in my books rather than romances. However, I decided to answer this question with a friendship I have loved from the time I was a child (from a novel I don’t think many people have read or heard of). That friendship is between Cornelia and Virginia Somerset in Cordelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters. Virginia Somerset is an older lady who moves in next door to Cornelia, who is very lonely because her mom is a world renowned pianist that doesn’t have that much time to spend with her. They become very close over the course of the novel and Virginia tells Cornelia all about her travels with her sisters to various places around the world. It is an incredibly heartwarming book, and it is one of the first ones that I can remember making me cry at the end. I highly recommend it.
Question Number 2-Sweeney Todd-Who is your favorite Villain?
For this one I had to go with Queen Levana from the Lunar Chronicles. She is straight up evil, but she also has a really awful backstory that makes her more than the standard, static villain. I thought that she was an actual threat for all four of the books, but she is especially BA and evil in Winter.
Question Number 3-Phantom of the Opera-What is your favorite love triangle?
As many of you know, I am not a really big fan of love triangles in literature. I usually find that they aren’t convincing (because one of the people in the triangle is obviously not going to be chosen by the person they are pining over), or they are just an annoying, overused trope. However, I think that a play that actually has a fantastic love triangle in it is A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. In the play, the love triangle is between the main female protagonist, Nora, her husband, Torvald, and Dr. Rank, their close family friend. This triangle is a little less pronounced, and Torvald doesn’t know that Dr. Rank is in love with Nora in the way that most guys know about the other guy in their love triangle. Although it isn’t exactly a love triangle, it is the closest example I could find that I actually enjoyed. (Other than Phantom because I actually enjoy the love triangle in Phantom of the Opera).
Question Number 4-The Lion King-Who is your favorite sidekick?
My favorite official sidekick is Nimona from Nimona. She is much more enthusiastic than the actual villain of the story, while also having the random but awesome ability to shapeshift. She is also plus sized, which I thought was cool because it is rare to see plus sized characters in graphic novels (or in literature in general). However, when I first thought about this question, Chubs from the Darkest Minds Trilogy popped into mind for some reason. I think it is because he sort of acts like a sidekick. He is witty, like all good sidekicks are, while also being sensible and having a good idea of how to approach each mission and help out the team. He also has a soft spot deep down and loves the family dynamic of everyone inside Black Betty. I would love to hang out with Chubs in general, but I would also love it if he was my sidekick.
Question Number 5-Grease-What is your least favorite ending?
I think that I am committing a musical theatre sin by admitting that I have never, nor do I have any interest in, watching Grease. It has never been my cup of tea. I guess it has something to do with the girl changing for the guy in the end that has never really sat well with me. Anywho, for this question I chose the endings of Thirteen Reasons Why and Everything, Everything. When I read Thirteen Reasons Why back in the fall of my sophomore year of high school, I thought that it was an incredibly powerful book. I also understood the point that Jay Asher was trying to make by having Clay reach out to Sky in the end. At the time, I remember thinking that the relationship between Sky and Clay was underdeveloped, even though I understood the reasoning behind his actions. I also thought that this part of the plot seemed a little disjointed from the rest of the story, which made the ending not feel as strong as the rest of the book for me. I appreciate how they tried to fix this particular problem in the TV show, although I don’t know if I was 100% satisfied with the “riding of into the sunset” ending that we got from the show either. In addition, I recently read Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon and thought that the ending was probably the weakest part of the whole novel. More like the last 50 pages of the novel were the weakest section. I write more about this point in my review for Everything, Everything, so if you want to hear more of my thoughts, you can check them out over there.
Question Number 6-Matilda: The Musical-What is your favorite adaptation of a book?
Again, I have two answers for this question. Firstly, my favorite recent adaptation of a book is the movie version of the Martian by Andy Weir. I thought that Matt Damon and the rest of the cast were perfect for their roles and I thought that it was a very faithful adaptation of the book, which was hysterical and a personal favorite of mine. I also thought that the movie did a good job of making the sections on Earth more interesting because sometimes they dragged in the book and you just wanted to get back to Watney on Mars. Secondly, my favorite adaptation of a book from my childhood is the original Anne of Green Gables movie that came out in 1985. I can not express how much I love Anne of Green Gables. I never read Harry Potter growing up, so I feel like Anne was my Hermione. She was smart, witty, unapologetic, compassionate, romantic and I related to her on so many levels. The original Anne of Green Gables movie translated the source material perfectly and the cast looked exactly the way you thought they would when reading the book. I don’t understand why Netflix decided to do a reboot of the series when the original movie was already fantastic. But whatever, tangent over, moving on...
Question Number 7-Les Miserables-What is your favorite death in a book?
I don’t think that I could ever have a “favorite death” in a book, because usually deaths in books reach into your soul, tear your heart out and smash it into a million tiny pieces on the floor. An exception to this rule for me is Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare. Shakespeare is good at many things, but one thing he is best at is writing some seriously awesome character deaths. I recently read Hamlet for my Theatre Appreciation class and I will have to say that the deaths at the end of Hamlet have to be my favorite. They are just so excessive and Shakespearean and I love them.
So that is it! That is the Musical Theatre Book Tag. I have scene a couple of other tags for specific shows, like Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton. If you have any interest in having me answer those tags, let me know.
I hope that you all have a great first day of school (if you are going back) or that you continue to enjoy your last days of summer.
-Jaime