The best way to celebrate Black History Month is listening to 3 nonblack people give their opinions on The Wiz. Was Diana Ross too old to play Dorothy? What is the deal with the peddler? What is the best song in this musical? Perhaps it’s RJ’s favorite: “I Am Certainly Not Interested in Engaging with Any News That Isn’t Positive At This Time”

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

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References

Other examples of all Black casts musicals from the 1970s

Family Guy “Brand New Day” Spoof

Martin, Alfred L. Jr. “Blackbusting Hollywood: Racialized Media Reception, Failure, and The Wiz

as Black Blockbuster.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 60, no. 2, Michigan Publishing, 2021, pp. 56–79. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2021.0003.

Does this film stack up against the many other productions and adaptations of one of the most beloved pieces in the American musical theater canon? Does West Side Story even deserve its venerated place within the canon? Who is the MVP of this movie? Can Rita Moreno be in every movie musical, please?

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

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Email us any thoughts and takes and we may read it on the next episode at [email protected]

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#MadeonZencastr

References

Recommended Reading: The Great West Side Story Debate

History of San Juan Hill

Anybodys’ gender identity

Negative review that discusses the film’s treatment of prison

Listen to us struggle to make sense of this movie for several hours. How is someone's rent deadline related to them dying tragically in a car accident? Where does Christine Baranski live? Are you allowed to sell a whole town? What is the angelic cosmology of this universe?

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

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References

Trixie and Katya react to Christmas on the Square

Behind the scenes video

Amanda Marcotte, “Hallmark Movies Are Fascist Propaganda” 

Ruth Kinane’s interview with Hallmark Christmas movie writers

Did you know that there is a whole movie that takes place before Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”? Time for some old Hollywood glamour, WWII nostalgia for the turn of the century, and a startling lack of tension or plot.

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

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References

More analysis of A Christmas Story: A Christmas Story: A Tale of Technological Nostalgia

Trolley Song at Disney World

Barbara Streisand Singing “The Boy Next Door”

Casaregola, Vincent. “Wartime and the Morbid Child Psychology of Meet Me in St. Louis.” Red Feather Journal, vol. 2, no. 2, Red Feather Journal, Fall 2011, pp. 34–46.

Knapp, Raymond, author. The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity. Princeton University Press, 2018.

The Ampliverse Bookshop Bookstore

Happy Thanksgiving season to Halloween People and Christmas People alike! Enjoy our boundless admiration for people who have the patience to make stop motion animation and poorly informed attempts to understand the connection between Nightmare Before Christmas and scene subculture.

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

Instagram / Twitter and share your thoughts with us about the movie!

Email [email protected] with any thoughts and takes and we may read it on the next episode!

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References

Making of Nightmare Before Christmas

Ben’s Claymation on Parks and Rec

Scene subculture Wikipedia page

SNL Mr. Chicken Legs Pageant

Betty Boop spooky animation

Fantasia Night on Bald Mountain sequence

McMahon, Jennifer L. “Death in Tim Burton’s Corpus.” The Philosophy of Tim Burton, The University Press of Kentucky, 2014, pp. 215–41.

Listen to Molly and RJ trying to convince Adam to like this movie for nearly 3 hours. Deep dive on the stage show versus the movie adaptation, our 30-year-old wisdom on how the world has changed since 2011, and the complexities of gay men’s relationships with their parents.

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

Instagram / Twitter and share your thoughts with us about the movie!

Email [email protected] with any thoughts and takes and we may read it on the next episode!

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References

Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 is available on Amazon Prime

YouTube upload of the stage show

Korean performance of You Don’t Even Know It

The Boy with an Arse as a Face

Interview with the real Jamie Campbell and his mom after the musical premiere

Lovelock, James. “‘What about Love?’: Claiming and Reclaiming LGBTQ+ Spaces in Twenty-First Century Musical Theatre.” Reframing the Musical: Race, Culture and Identity, edited by Sarah K. Whitfield, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.

It’s spooky season! Time to take on the beloved camp classic Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Frank Oz. Come for the catchy tunes and impeccable comedic choices, stick around for the white flight narrative.

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

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References

Sontag, “Notes on Camp”

Scooby Doo deep dive

Director’s cut ending of Little Shop

Musicals with Zack, The Complete(ish) History of the Original Ending of Little Shop of Horrors

How to make split pea soup

Cher playing all the parts in West Side Story

Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Liveright, 2017.

Redlining map of Saint Paul

Mandracchia, Christen. “‘Don’t Feed the Plants!’: Monstrous Normativity and Disidentification in Little Shop of Horrors.” Studies in Musical Theatre, vol. 13, no. 3, Dec. 2019, pp. 309–16.

Just like Broadway, Showgays is back, baby! To celebrate, we've decided to plus up the podcast - we've brought in a new host, we've got a higher production value, and we're doing the big shows!

Adam, RJ, and Molly discuss 2019’s Cats, directed (to our chagrin) by Tom Hooper. What went wrong? How would we fix it? Find out why Molly is beefing with Dame Judi Dench and who RJ & Adam think should have played Grizabella. Also, Molly did mix up Socrates and Aristotle during the name game and she is sorry about that.

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse.

Instagram / Twitter and share your thoughts with us about the movie!

Email [email protected] with any thoughts and takes and we may read it on the next episode!

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References

Elaine Page’s rendition of Memory

Betty Buckley’s rendition of Memory

Celine Dion’s rendition of Memory

Sideways’ video on the music of Cats

Lindsey Ellis’ video on the phenomenon of Cats

Peter C. Kunze article on the failed 1990s movie

More on megamusicals: William A. Everett and Paul Prece. “The Megamusical: The Creation, Internationalisation and Impact of a Genre.” The Cambridge Companion to the Musical.

Find out who the winner is on October 15th... 

"Best Revival of a Podcast: Showgays" is a podcast in The Ampliverse. 

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