Everyone's a theater kid now

Yes, It’s Fine If You Sing At Wicked Screenings

—by Adam Bumas

Wicked is having a huge week at the box office. It’s also resulted in a massive amount of “theater kid energy” — the memes, the cosplay, the sing-alongs. All of which, seems to be causing quite a bit of drama. In fact, the sing-alongs have inspired so much discourse that even The Rock has weighed in on it. (The Rock says you can sing “Defying Gravity” if you want.)

Writer Emily St. James pointed out how gendered this debate is. No one, for instance, was upset about Marvel fans standing and cheering during Avengers: Endgame or going to full MCU screenings that lasted, sometimes, several full days. In fact, it’s likely that the current secondhand embarrassment America is feeling about Wicked is actually self-loathing. Because now everyone is realizing that participating in any modern fandom requires acting like, well, a theater kid. Let’s walk this through.

First, we need to define what “theater kid energy” is: Earnest obsession, a willingness to embrace amateur reenactments in lieu of the real thing, a splash of camp, a devotion to canon, and a firm understanding of lore — whether its fictional lore or industry lore.

And back when Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003, when the world was still governed by things like newspaper circulations, box office numbers, and album sales, being a “theater kid” wasn’t easy. Decades before the internet and what we think of as “fandom” emerged, musical fans were already a massive subculture defined by inaccessibility. Most people couldn’t go see their favorite production on Broadway, so they made do with things like cast recordings and illegal bootlegs. Which forced theater fans to be both participatory and personal. They had to create their own spaces and practices in the absence of just watching the shows. God help anyone who has ever stumbled into a “Broadway karaoke” night unprepared.

One of the bizarre side effects of our streaming- and platform-driven digital media environment is that, even though your favorite TV shows and movies have never been so accessible, audiences are also more likely to not actually experience them in full. Also, by being gobbled up by large franchises, many of them are now just as long-running as Broadway productions, in a sense. The result is a world of mass entertainment reduced to something you do or consume through short clips on your phone.

Algorithmic social platforms like Facebook and X have been suppressing outgoing links for years, prioritizing the conversation about a thing over actually going and seeing the thing. And more recently, TikTok has taken it to another level. The app’s autoplaying, algorithmic presentation is designed to make people feel like watching and making content are one and the same. You could sit and watch all eight episodes of Disney’s Star Wars spin-off, The Acolyte, but chances are you didn’t. Though, you may have seen the cool headbutt scene. TV shows, movies, gambling, dating apps — you are likely consuming all of that via vertical videos first, if not completely.

This doesn’t mean the actual source is abandoned entirely. Just look at all the overrun “hidden gems” and lines around the block for food caused by TikTok trends — which aren’t so dissimilar to the irl lines you’d see on Broadway. Viewers want to make the pilgrimage themselves, which is why those lines get so long and also why the Wicked musical has never closed.

So, yes, The Rock is right, singing in your chair at Wicked is fine. In fact, it’s the way everything works now. Dress up and yell at the screen (though, maybe don’t become an amateur camripper). The trend line is clear. Our entertainment is becoming more public and more performative. And if you’re reading this, it means you care about things enough that you’re probably not all that different. Like it or not, we’re all theater kids now.

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A Good Post

Here’s Some Weird Stuff Happening On X Right Now

Elon Musk went on quite the posting spree this weekend. The majority of his posts were about how fun it is to post on X, which I'm sure had nothing to do with the huge amount of buzz that Bluesky experiencing right now. If you’d like to sample the cringe from a safe distance, the screenshot above is indicative of the general vibe.

Musk did take a break from his posting mania to confirm that, yes, links are being algorithmically downgraded right now. So that little content hack where you link in the replies of your own post does seem to work.

What is still unclear, however, is why X seems to be removing followers from Palestinian reporter Younis Tirawi. (Well, let’s pretend the reason why is a mystery.) New York Times investigative reporter Aric Toler reported that your X account will automatically reverse any attempt to follow Tirawi. In the replies to Toler’s post, other users are saying similar “bugs” mysteriously have affected other prominent Palestinian accounts before, as well.

Some Weird Stuff Happening on Bluesky Right Now

Meanwhile, over on the other, better Twitter, things are escalating as you might expect. Resistance libs are starting to go very viral, much to the chagrin of Bluesky early adopters — Eternal September comes for us all eventually. And while right-wingers are having a tough time not immediately getting banned, radical centrists like Matt Yglesias are now just straight up admitting that they want to join Bluesky because arguing with leftists is more fun that staring at conservative slop on X.

You know who hasn’t moved over to Bluesky yet? Chinese state media and propaganda ministers. They’re actually currently on X begging Musk to meddle with the US military. But, as this interesting piece argues, it’s likely Chinese agents will migrate to Bluesky as they realize, like the rest of us, that no one that matters is on X anymore.

Lastly, here’s a Bluesky thing that is VERY cool: A developer named Daniel Mangum built a website inside of Bluesky. What does that mean? The simplest explanation is that the part of the Bluesky API that hosts images can also host code. It won’t show up in any app, but you can read how Mangum did it and also check out his website by clicking here.

A Redditor Has A Very Good Question About Washington, DC

According to the commenters, there are a few good places in DC to do this. The best one being a place called Tabard Inn. And according to the reviews of Tabard Inn on Google, it’s quaint and charming and has good grits.

Is Jack Antonoff Actually Good? Let’s Investigate.

Here’s a fascinating conundrum for you. Jack Antonoff has producing credits across the majority of the songs on Kendrick Lamar’s new album, GNX. It’s enough to have many people bravely ask, “if Jack Antonoff is good then why does Taylor Swift sound… like that?”

I wanted to revisit some things that I’ve written about Antonoff in the past. I’ve previously called him “the king of brand safe nothingness,” which, ok, a little brutal. But I have also argued that Antonoff is probably very fun to work with in the studio and that he’s “clearly more interested in what he can do by manipulating existing sounds and layering weird noises than with what he can get out of performers in the studio.” Which is much more suited for hip hop than pop actually. But, also, who knows maybe he just told Antonoff no more reverb.

A Quick Test Of How Online You Are

Some Stray Links

• “‘I’m Not Letting You Laugh at Me. I’m Perfect.’”

• “Republican Victory and the Ambience of Information”

• “TV Writers Found 139,000 of Their Scripts Trained AI. Hell Broke Loose”

P.S. here’s an incredible own.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***