You know it was a good show when you can’t decide whether your heart is so full from all the love and joy, or so empty because it's over.
Really do buckle up, because this is a long one.
So the show went a little like this. They played the Spies pro-shoot on a giant movie screen, but any time a song started, the audio changed to the instrumental track, the video typically faded to simple background graphics, and the cast came out to perform the number live in concert style. There were also a series of audience participation prompts up on the movie screen, such as standing to deliver a line in unison, giving Lauren a standing ovation for the Pay Attention! Reprise, enthusiastically booing Dr. Baron von Nazi and the still infuriatingly catchy Not So Bad (for anyone who’s curious, in addition to encouraging boos and yelled disagreements with von Nazi, they also cut the audience participation bit from the song).
The energy in the room was so electric and full of joy and warmth. People shouted out iconic lines, went wild for everyone’s entrances, and absolutely lost their damn minds over Curtwen at pretty much every opportunity. And the cast were clearly having just as much fun. Doing This has always been my favorite, and there was something so sweet about them singing it again all these years later. We finally got Joey performing Spies Are Forever (Evil Reprise) again and it was just as chilling and beautiful as you’d expect. And One Step Ahead was just on a whole new level. I don’t want to give anything away, but the details in that performance were INCREDIBLE.
It was simply so special seeing most of the original gang come back while also bringing some new friends along. Shout out to Mariah for coming out at the top of the show so ready to play, setting the tone for the whole evening. Shout out to James for putting his comedy chops on full display (LET JAMES BE FUNNY MORE) and dancing the hell out of One More Shot (another favorite number). And shoutout to Carlos Alazraqui (taking over the roles of Sergio and Vladimir Poopin) and Tommy Link for coming into this crazy part of our world with such enthusiasm and silliness. Brian deserves a medal for agreeing to once again play the most cringe-worthy character in all of Pulp-StarCanWrecked history, and for sounding so fucking good while doing it. Tessa was having a blast in full unhinged glory and I gladly worship at her altar. Lauren is maybe the funniest person alive and deserved her standing ovation, prompted or not. Seeing Joe Walker perform live has been Item Number One on my fandom bucket list since I moved to LA a couple of years ago, and I still can’t quite believe I managed it. I’d wondered if he’d be rusty, but honestly he sounded great; it was like no time had passed. Mary Kate still has one of my all-time favorite voices and her Tatiana remains forever engaging. Joey showed up dressed to slay as a gay evil genius Bond-movie supervillain and proceeded to thoroughly deliver on that promise. And Curt… every time I watch Spies I am increasingly blown away by what he does with this arrogant, broken mess of a character. He clearly loves Agent Mega as much as any of us, and to see a performance refined and powered by such clear and thoughtful passion is just a huge treat.
(And while he wasn’t in the cast, I can’t not mention Corey. Between his roles as director and co-writer, so much of what Spies is comes directly from him and we don’t appreciate that nearly enough. And shout out to Esther Fallick for her wonderful work as Susan and the Informant. She might not have been there in person, but her incredible performance was with us the whole time.)
I know this is preaching to the choir, but Spies Are Forever really is such a special show. It’s a story about recovery, and devastating as it can be, I think there’s also something deeply healing about it at its core. For one thing, I know it played a huge role in mending my relationship with my asexuality. I will forever be grateful to it for existing, to TCB, Talkfine, and the original cast for creating it, and to those same people for maintaining its legacy with the amount of love and care it deserves. It was a privilege to be in the room as so many people came to celebrate this miraculous little musical. There were a couple of minor tech glitches (I wonder if they’ll even include the “big one”—the projector jumping over most of the staircase scene before getting fixed—in the digital ticket version), but nothing that could even begin to damper the magic of the night.
We all know that spies never die (except for Owen and the Informant, oops). And at times like this concert, I think this special little show with its short run in 2016 will prove to be just as immortal.
The Spy Another Day cast reacted to Torture Tango and the Staircase Scene so I cut it down to the best parts (mostly Tessa calling out how horny they are) and zoomed in on people
This is my Tinlightenment propaganda please sacrifice your soul to their higher power 👍👍
Happy Birthday, MK!!! I hope you feel particularly loved and appreciated and celebrated today and all year. Thank you for working so hard to bring wonderful stories to life, and for being the wonderful human you are <3
I haven't posted in a looong time! But hello! It's almost been a year since I went to New York for the first time and saw Spies in Concert! I made this pop-up card last minute because I just had to!
To those seeing Spy Another Day tonight I hope you have such a lovely time! I can’t wait to watch the digital ticket in a few days, as much as it would be an amazing experience to see live. To my fellow digital ticket people, we’re so close guys!!!
slowpez8: 🚨WEDDING DUMP PART 3 OF ????🚨
Happy 2024, these are from July 2023, which is actually perfect.
We’re moving on to the most important part of the night: DANCE. My question is: how many pics of our hot friends meeting God on the dance floor can you handle? Because I have about 500 more.
1) Dancers.
2) & 3) @mellowchihuahua & @thedeedsdonovan blessed us all this night. Joey and I wanted to make a version of the Cha Cha Slide that forced everyone to do a bunch of inane miming. We asked Nick to write it for us and he enlisted Denise to lead all the choreo/miming for everyone. They did the most incredible job! Having everyone on the dance floor committing so hard to this stupid dance was one of the best moments of my life!!! Thank you Deans!!!
4) - 9) Hot people meeting God!
10) The amazing DJ Dani from @dartcollective who kept the dance floor fuckin’ packed allll night and was a champ about the 3 million “must play” songs we gave her! Thank you Dani!!!
I’m panicking because I have so many more pics and everyone looked so good and I’ll never be able to post all of them, it kills me!!!!
Amazing 📸 by @annielesser !
The performances in the YouTube version of Spies Are Forever are incredible, but they happened like 8 years ago. If you haven't seen the 54 Below concert yet, you are not fucking prepared for how good the Spy Another Day concert screening is about to be.
You are not prepared for how good they have gotten at these songs. One Step Ahead is gonna hit you like a nuke.
The Spies are Forever brain rot is so major that I had to create and develop a country in class today and I "created" "New Democratic Republic of Old Socialist Prussian Sloviskia" In case you were wondering one of the lyrics in NDROSPS national anthem is "Once an Old Socialist Prussian Sloviskian, always an Old Socialist Prussian Sloviskian". This is a very long winded way of saying that I'm obsessed with saf and because of that I'm drawing every saf character daily until I've drawn all 55
Today's character is Tessa's fancy lady from the peace convention, Day 33/55
If the Tinlightenment kickstarter is funded you get to relive fan favourite show Spies Are Forever in a live concert screening!
The LA show on Friday 26th April will feature almost all of the members of the original cast (that’s right, including Joe Walker!) PLUS Mariah Rose Faith, James Tolbert (who have actually never been on stage together! it’s gotta happen!) and Tom Lenk as well as one more still to be announced. Mariah will be playing Mysterious Woman singing Spies Are Forever and Coldest Goodbye, James will be singing Susan and The Informant, and Tom will be Vanger Borschtit, plus they’ll all be in the ensemble
The London show in early September will feature Joey, Lauren and Brian
Most importantly, doing this event will continue to bring them closer to eventually doing another fully staged production of the show!
Head to the link below to help bring back these gay spies!
traumatising the @blinkysrewatchparty discord by bringing up the worst song glee ever did all bc joey richter and tessa netting were in it as extras (joey and tessa are literally credited as "apple #8" & "apple #9" respectively and have no speaking lines as far as i remember)
I hope we get to see Tessa Netting on TCB's Tuesgay. She brought so much chaotic gay energy to the spy livestream. I feel like she'd have a lot of fun with it.