#illinoise

[cats-and-cacti]

#I’m so scared for him tbh #sufjan stevens #carrie and lowell #javelin #sufjan stevens javelin #age of adz #seven swans #come on feel the illinoise #sufjan stevens Illinois #illinoise #sufjan stevens meme

[skimblygifs]

I can't explain the state that I'm in//The state of my heart//He was my best friend

Ricky Ubeda and Ahmad Simmons in ILLINOISE

#ricky ubeda #ahmad simmons #sufjan stevens #illinoise #broadway #if you had told me my love of cats and sufjan stevens would meet like this. i wouldn't have believed you. #but here we are and i am in love

[fuckyeahsufjanstevens]

The Sufjan Stevens dance musical Illinoise will become a surprise last-minute addition to the current Broadway season. Currently running Off-Broadway at Park Avenue Armory, the work will transfer to Broadway's St. James Theatre beginning April 24 and will open the same night. The strictly limited engagement will continue through August 10.

#sufjan stevens #illinoise #illinois #justin peck

[knightofleo]

Sufjan Stevens | Casimir Pulaski Day

In the morning when you finally go And the nurse runs in with her head hung low And the cardinal hits the window In the morning in the winter shade On the first of March, on the holiday I thought I saw you breathing All the glory that the Lord has made And the complications when I see His face In the morning in the window All the glory when he took our place But he took my shoulders and he shook my face And he takes and he takes and he takes

#and he takes and he takes and he takes #casimir pulaski day #sufjan stevens #sufjan stevens illinois #illinois #illinoise #a classic

[matchboxcowboy]

#sufjan #sufjan stevens #javelin #illinoise #via: Theremightbetheropods on ig

[camestela]

It’s been a long time since I drew my favorite, Sufjan! I hope he is having a good day 

#sufjan #sufjan stevens #illinoise #illinois #my art

[bunniebusiness]

hi Illinoise has fundamentally changed me as a person and i’m not sure i’ll ever recover.

also Ben Cook is even more brilliant in person than he is through a screen and getting to watch him dance with my own two eyes has made my entire life

#illinoise #sufjan stevens #ben tyler cook #ben cook #gabby diaz #newsies #livesies #racetrack higgins #broadway #justin peck

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan and Lea at a performance of ‘Illinoise’ on Monday night, posted by Lea.

#jonathan groff #lea michele #illinoise #sufjan stevens

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Illinoise (the ballet/musical based on Sufjan Stevens' album Illinois) is eying a move to Broadway after its current NY run in Armory Park ends and im just imagining it taking off among the bway Fandom because 1 it's fucking amazing 2 it's gay and sad and will make you cry (but doesn't bury its gays) 3 the characters are broad enough that fanon can do literally whatever it wants with them

But then we'd have a whole Fandom obsessed with esoteric Illinois history which would be so fucking funny.

#If you're in NY and have a chance go fucking see it it's so good #When I say the characters are broad there's no dialogue in the show just the lyrics on the album #So we get the characters intense emotions and relationships but literally no facts about them #So everyone can just go “Carl is autistic” and there's no evidence to really support or contradict iy #I just want them to record a soundtrack of their arrangements and vocalists because they were gorgeous #Sufjan Stevens #Illinois #Illinoise #Come on feel the Illinoise #Broadway #Broadway Fandom #post o' mine

[bestmusicalworldcup]

Surprise! One more musical is joining the crowded spring season on Broadway: Illinoise, a dance musical by Sufjan Stevens, will forgo previews and open on Broadway directly on April 24th at the St. James Theatre to make the Tony eligibility cut.

Illinoise is set for a strictly limited engagement ending August 10th.

#musicals #broadway #illinoise #not a poll

[romanthroughthefield]

i just saw “illinoise: a new kind of musical” in chicago which features ben cook in it and i would absolutely recommend it if youre at all interested. ben cook was absolutely incredible as was everyone else. genuinely a life changing show.

#ben cook #racetrack higgins #illinoise #newsies

[cats-and-cacti]

Mitski - The Frost / Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!

#feeling fucking insane about this actually #me and that fucking wasp #mitski #the frost #sufjan stevens #illinoise #the land is inhospitable and so are we #sufjan stevens illinois #the frost mitski #predatory wasp #the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Illinoise

April 24, 2024 | Broadway | St. James Theatre | Matinee | Musical | Original | 1H 30M

We now live in a world where I just may be supporting a dance show for Best Musical. Illinoise is a last-minute Broadway transfer that succeeds far beyond the other quick transfers of the season. Told through movement (with a trio of vocalists adapting Sufjan Stevens 2005 album "Illinoise") this show has no dialogue. No book. And yet the story is clear. Other dance shows I've seen on Broadway seem to lose the plot and the purpose, devolving into dance for dance's sake, but Illinoise's strong grasp on its narrative keeps the audience rapt.

The dancers are, of course, phenomenal talents. I'm lying in bed with chronic knee pain flareups, and marveling at how the human body can do what they did. At the start of the show, I'll admit I wasn't seized by the show as it became apparent it would be dance-only. I expected to come away with an "Artistically Amazing; Personally No Thanks," rating. Then I made a conscious effort to listen to the harmonizing lyrics alongside the dance, and then the story came alive and I learned I cannot watch dance narratives without an active focus on the plot. I'm not a person who can just sit back and be dazzled by dance. With that out of the way, I was able to connect to the story and the lyrics and even the dance.

Verdict: Why I Love the Theatre

A Note on Ratings

#illinoise #broadway #musical theatre #welcome to the theatre: diary of a broadway baby

[fuckyeahsufjanstevens]

As was the case with what he did for “Carousel” and “West Side Story,” both of which I thought choreographically superb, Peck articulates yearning so very well. He knows how to create pictures and then explode them, to encapsulate what happens to our bodies when we feel tense or afraid or untrusting of our partners or friends. But he also loves manifesting joy and thus he leads Stevens naturally introverted work firmly by the hand in that direction. I imagine Stevens would be surprised by how fun his own self could be.

#illinoise #justin peck #sufjan stevens #illinois

[all-things-go-all-things-grow]

she sufjans on my steven until i come on and feel the illinoise

#sufjan stevens #illinoise #the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us!

[beauteousevil]

Recap, thoughts, summary of the show. Spoilers and opinions abound!

to literally set the stage

Billboard (can change depending on song)

Orchestra ____Train lines/scaffolding____Orchestra

● <Vocals on balconies, wearing insect wings> ●●

|small town nowhere\Chicago\NYC\Seears Tower|

^all written on a wall that moves to reveal the field

(I think) show opens with two figures on stage in a sleepy embrace, Henry and Douglas, who share a resemblance to Sufjan Stevens and Evans Richardson. Henry disengages and gets his shoes, jacket, and bag and prepares to leave the freshly awoken Douglas.

From there he journeys alone from NYC to Illinois, we see structures relating to the train lines give way to a field that he makes his way through. Here we see him write in his journal (one of many in the show with different colors and winged insects on them) and he is surrounded by three stars. As he writes the stars intermittently take the forms of:

Carl, Henry's childhood best friend and first love.

Shelby, Henry's childhood best friend and Carl's first love.

Douglas, Henry's first adult love whom he doesn't feel deserving of.

This is where my memory may be failing me because I'm not 100% sure it doesn't start with the stars>sleeping>journey and not sleeping>stars>journey but I forgot to write this down that night so here we are two weeks later and my brain is scrambled

From here we see Henry joined in the field by a community of friends as they make a campfire and share the night together. They try to get him to tell his story but he isn't ready. Instead they take their turns.

First up is Jacksonville. Absolute powerful number that got an applause break before the piece was even finished. Has the primary storyteller, Morgan, sharing the stage in a stunning give and take with a tap dancer. Such a high note for the show I felt bad that the other stories kind of had to pale in comparison. From this point on Morgan drew my attention during any other group piece, they were absolutely magnetic.

Next is Zombies! The best bits of this were the physicality of the dancers to portray the zombies or the running/fighting them off. The zombies are masked and costumed as politicians and business man, telling a really cool story. At one point they literally hold up signs with their names which felt a bit on the nose but can for sure be refined in future versions. The grief/horror/exhaustion of the story teller, Jo Daviess, was really amazing.

Next is John Wayne Gacy, Jr. told by Wayne, a murder balladeer, and as said in the program guide, is about "the damning cycle of exclusion borne of outcasts forced to sympathize with monsters". That I feel is the heart of the performance... and if I hadn't read it before hand I'm not sure it would have come through the dance alone. By the nature of the story there is a grotesque energy with the dancers wearing sailor collars to let us know they're his child victims, and JWG is wearing a clown mask and completely see through tulle (like you can see the seams in the underwear beneath it) vaguely in the shape of a clown costume. There is no sexual element to the movements, they start vaguely playful and become increasingly violent as he picks off his victims. At the end the storyteller is shaken clearly by the "and in my best behavior/ I am really just like him" and needs to be calmed by his friends at the fire.

On the lightest note is the story of The Man of Metropolis by the story teller Clark (of course haha). A fun number with some amazing physicality by Clark who, at least on the opening night, was played by a dancer that was very tall but exuded a lightness and joyous energy in his performance. A bit gimmicky but cute. First he reveals a Superman shirt, then the rest of the dancers do, and they use a picnic blanket to make a cape for him. It felt like the dancing lagged a bit with the singing taking center stage as it went on, which I'm not mad about, the music and vocals were fucking amazing. I'm hoping against hope for a cast recording 🥲

This begins Act II, Henry's story! We see the field drop away to Small Town Middle of Nowhere where the young Henry, Carl, and Shelby play around and dance together. There's a fun bit where they're like balancing on things and jumping around. Henry is drawn to Carl but Carl can't look away from Shelby when she appears. The guys plan a road trip to NYC (Carl spray paints it on to the stage settings board in real time) but Shelby stays behind.

Henry has a run in with Douglas, and kudos to the dancers for portraying that immediate connection, as Carl is on the phone back home. He needs to go back for Shelby but Henry stays to see through his potential with Douglas. It's clear this is the last time Henry ever saw Carl.

Carl goes back and him and Shelby dance to Casimir Pulaski Day. As the song goes on her illness weakens her so Carl supports her more, but in doing so she pushes him away, until eventually she is being pulled into the afterlife. Very moving, the dancer for Shelby was phenomenal in portraying the grief and anger of being betrayed by your own body.

As Carl struggles with the loss we see Henry struggling with his decision to stay. This leads into Palisades where we see his relationship with Douglas flourishing. The beauty of it and the inspiration being pulled from Sufjans love for his own partner brought a lot of the audience to tears, sniffles heard all through the quiet moments. We see Henry getting ghostly glimpses of Carl (memory? spiritual?) as he falls into a depression and self harm. Douglas joins him and they sway and breathe together in a way that has me choking up just thinking of it. Their love was potent as was Henry's doubt that he deserved to be loved.

The spectre of Carl makes himself clear to Henry and passes right by through him at several points. The play by play of this bit is slightly lost to me as to when Henry knows what happens, if he knows before the audience, etc. This brings us to The Seer's Tower. Carl is distraught and is led by a whim, portrayed as a dancer in all black, up to the scaffolding above the stage. One by one, with decreasing time between them, we see dancers in all black go up to Carl, float their hand above his as if connected by an invisible tether, and then fall off the edge of the tower to the back of the stage. There is something so curious and questioning about the way Carl plays the suicidal ideation that felt very real to me and makes the bodies falling chilling. Carl takes his own leap, the stars reappear, and we're back to the beginning of the play

Henry wakes up cradled with Douglas and slips away to his journey. We see his travel again, the campfire, and his friends reacting to the vulnerability of the story he has lived. This time though we also see Douglas has made the trip as well and makes his way through the field to the campfire. The community rejoices in their connection and we get fantastic final dance numbers as a group as well as with Henry and Douglas, with Henry made lighter by having told his story. The final shot is Henry handing a book to the audience.

Opinions! Notes! Things I might forget if I don't make this list!

● Went to the opening night of the Park Ave Armory show, March 7th 2024. Pretty good mix of Sufjan fans and Very Fancy NYC theater people that had come to support the show.

● To match the journals in the show the show program covers are bold covers with a moth or butterfly split by the seam of the book (half on each cover). Different colors/insect versions were laid out on the seats. I got a red one with (I think) a tiger moth.

● The program contains journal entries by Henry written by Jackie Sibblies Drury with some Sufjan lyrics mixed in. The end of the program is blank lined pages.

● The vocalists were above and beyond. Absolutely killed it. Made the songs their own in a way I didn't think possible. I really hope there is an album recording for the show now that it's going to Broadway.

● I can not overstate how amazing the energy of the show is, completely contagious in the room. I know a filmed version is unlikely beyond a bootleg but PLEASE it is so inspiring and I'm not at a place where I can draw a dance from memory. I was itching to sketch the entire time.

● The only bits that took me out of the show even a little were the cheesy kind of heavy handed bits that dragged on. The "now YOU write your story" ending is a bit much but the show earns it so 🤷 I won't say it works for me but I don't mind it.

● I would love to see some different costume choices in the story bits. Either more ramshackle costumes pulled together with the camping equipment or fully realized costumes. Having the founding father zombies both have the full face masks but also just be wearing suit jackets they pulled over their head like Beavis and Butthead is a choice that I don't agree with. I was hoping the move to Broadway might net more attention to costuming, but the turnaround is so quick that I'm doubtful. Not enough to ruin the stories but definitely the weakest aspect in a way that lessened the less powerful stories.

● I really can't overstate how electric and magical the Jacksonville performance was. Much smarter people have captured the vibe and explanation of the original song in regards to the exploration of history and ancestry. I can not put it into words but the feeling was communicated so cleanly.

#Illinoise #Illinoise the Musical