MAKE THE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS. TAKE THE MOMENT AND TASTE IT. YOU'VE GOT NO REASON TO BE AFRAID. [insp]

You've talked before about a Taylor Swift jukebox musical you made, and now I'm wondering: if ttpd had been released at the time, which, if any, of the tracks might have made it in and why?

this is suuuuch an interesting ask i have been thinking about it non stop since i got it thank you so much

anyway i kind of have two different answers/approaches to this. the first is if i read this question as "which tracks would have made the specific jukebox musical i put together for my MA project", which was an adaptation of the teenage love triangle plotline from folklore, and the answer to that is honestly... probably none of them? there are certainly songs on ttpd that could fit plot beats in the show, but i don't think there's any that i would choose over the songs i chose at the time, whether in terms of suitability, how easy they'd be to sing & act in a musical theatre context, or from the commercial producer's perspective in terms of maintaining a strong "setlist" (as it were) balancing deeper cuts & fan favourite tracks with greatest hits that are likelier to put audience members' bums on seats if this were to be a full fledged production. with that said songs that would make the shortlist but probably not be included might be:

so high school - i could see this as an alternative to "our song", which i used as a setup for betty & james's relationship before everything famously goes to shit, or possibly in addition to "our song" in the context of an expanded show as a means for setting a broader scene with not just them but like, our theoretical B couple, supporting cast, etc. i think the repetitiveness of the lyrics (in terms of the same sections coming back over and over) could be a challenge to work around but it wouldn't be impossible

i can do it with a broken heart - in the actual show i had a mashup of "22" and "the moment i knew" setting the scene for the party james famously gatecrashes in "betty"; it was a whole thing of juxtaposing betty's friends trying to hype her up and mend her broken heart while she is quite clearly not feeling it whatsoever. so obviously this would fill a similar niche but quite frankly if i may stroke my own ego the 22/tmik mashup is one of my favourite pieces of arranging work i've ever done and you could not pay me to replace it or add another song in there

peter - natural choice with the "peter losing wendy" parallel from "cardigan" (which was not in my show due to time constraints but i've always imagined it as an opening number framing device type deal in a full expanded 2 act version). also an evil little part of me really would love to watch my actors fighting for their life trying to think of enough different ways to act the line "you said you were gonna grow up then you were gonna come find me" over and over and over 😭 with that said, however, i already gave betty more than enough heartbroken ballads in this show lmfao, there is just simply not room for another one

my second way of approaching this question would be "what songs from ttpd would work in just, any hypothetical taylor swift jukebox musical?" - honestly when i first got this ask i thought nah, this album is a bust for musical theatre-able (?) songs because it is so much more lyrically specific than a lot of her prior work, and a lot of the reason i chose taylor as the case study for my jukebox musical thesis is because in her earlier output she usually hits the perfect sweet spot between "too generic to act effectively" and "too specific to shape into another plot", which can be a difficult balance to find in a lot of chart pop & is a big reason jukebox musicals sometimes get a lot of flack both critically and in the discerning public eye.

but then i thought about it more and i think some of the songs go so far into specificity that they become theatrical (i've already made a semi-jokey post about how there's something almost company-esque about the line "chloe or sam or sophia or marcus" hahaha) in their own right. like i literally started going through this album and thought wait no. this is a really actable album for the most part. in fact, i think some of them go so far into depicting self contained narratives that i don't think they could work As A Song To Advance The Plot In A Traditional Book Musical but i do think they are insanely actable in the context of like, a song cycle. or as a standalone song to bring to an acting through song class lmfao

anyway a selection (a selection! that's how many options i have) that i think could work in the context of a traditional book musical:

who's afraid of little old me - come ONNN this would be so fucking fun to stage. it's giving no good deed

the smallest man who ever lived - i thought about orchestrating that bridge and nearly blacked out

the black dog, guilty as sin, and maybe even down bad (not going to get you any points for range in an audition but might be fun to act) are also options i could see working

finally i think "clara bow" is like, made to be the finale if you were specifically doing a taylor swift biomusical

a selection that i would love to see in a revue/song cycle/audition/i have been asked to bring a pop song to my acting through song masterclass type of situation

but daddy i love him - this is one of those songs that is too self contained to actually advance a plot but would be very fun to present as a standalone piece imo

the bolter - such a fun little storytelling option

thank you aimee - mate i won't lie to you i have actioned this song while singing along to it in my bedroom. i need this to become a sleeper hit from the album so i can start recommending it to actors when i do repertoire coaching that's how much i love it as a potential audition piece. hits musically AND lyrically

Hi sarah!!! I hope you had a great album release weekend! Now that we have all had time to sit with the album, and digest it all, what, if any impact do you think this will have on the eras tour setlist? Im so curious to hear your thoughts and musings!

Hi hi! Tysm! My thoughts tbh are the same pre-release: I really don't know how / if she's going to fit it into Eras.

I can absolutely see certain songs fitting in insanely well as if by design into the stadium setting ("My Boy ...", "Who's Afraid ...?", "Broken Heart"). But whether she's going to rework the entire show in order to accommodate them (and I feel like people should not be underestimating the amount of work this would take - not that it's impossible, but that it's a lot of work!) or any songs off TTPD is very beyond me.

In order to do so, I imagine she would have to cut songs from each of the existing sets in order to make room if she's creating a new set from scratch (lighting, choreo, instruments, staging, effects, etc). The only other place I can imagine is the surprise song set. Whether that's expanding it to three to include one dedicated TTPD slot or making one of the two for TTPD. There's also of course the mashup potential of it all which feels very key to the TTPD DNA of repurposing her existing catalogue to service the new messages she's sending.

about your series dear reader, will we ever get to see Nico having a collab or featured song in the future... heehe... love your work btw

thank u for the ask!! and thank u for reading i’m so glad you like it <3 i’ve actually thought abt this quite a bit!! the thing with collabs, is that either i could use an irl celebrity, or i could make a character a celebrity and make them work with nico—so here are my thoughts on both options:

1) a real celebrity - i try to stay away from involving real life people in the fic, as in interactions, because i don’t know any of those people irl and i would hate to, like, mischaracterize someone or write positively abt someone who eventually gets revealed to be like a shitty person, yk? the most i’ve ever done, i think, is that one time i mentioned nico taking a picture with lorde - but even then, it wasn’t him talking abt her, it was just a picture that was posted. that, and the absurd amount of taylor swift name drops that i have, which i will never stop😭

basically, though i have considered it (my mind is literally CONSTANTLY imagine collabs of nico and other celebs/other songs), i literally have a playlist of them, i don’t think i would ever include it in the fic. simply bc of the concerns mentioned above :/

(however, i would like everyone to know that ive been imagining nico as a surprise guest on the rep tour, and having him featured on rep tv, for like- literally as long as ive had this au in my head. ill never write him collating with taylor (bc again idk i just feel strange writing abt real ppl) but in my head, it’s canon)

2) creating a new celeb - this one is hard, pretty much bc i’m… out of characters.

like, i still HAVE characters to use, but i already have plans for most of them and a majority of them aren’t actually part of the music industry. i could justify a collab between alex and nico bc she’s like the only music person i have written, but i also don’t wanna force that

if i ever do, which i doubt, bc i don’t have any plans to at the moment, it’ll be a pjo character, i just don’t have any idea of who that would be :/

oh and! last reason why i’m hesitant to add a collab - i feel like nico writing music is so engrained with him working with apollo as a producer, and their studio dynamic. obviously, it’s good to step out of your comfort zone, but i think that it’s also some sense of caution and comfort between them, that they’re the same people who will work on every nico di angelo song and album.

either way, i have seven albums outlined in total. the time span of greatest of luxuries goes from 2018-2024. that may be subject to change, but im feeling pretty confident abt it (it used to be 2028 btw😭) and anything PAST that time range is completely up to the reader!! i have lots of ideas of what could happen beyond that seventh album, and i have an idea (and a playlist) of the eighth album, but i can definitely imagine a lot of features in the future as he branches out. (and also him on rep tv. or ttpd. will update when ttpd comes out if i think there’s a specific song he’d slay as a feature on)

and lastly, for features. yes. he is on the hunger games tbosas soundtrack bc i say so‼️

(i imagine yellow flicker beat by lorde, even tho that was written for mockingjay, i just feel like it fits his vibe, but also, can’t catch me now works perfectly too)

on my tswift bullshit again but i think we need to expect less of the vault tracks.. theres a reason they werent included on the main album and like. yes some of them are lowkey BAD. the speak now vaults hurt me they did not give hayley and patrick JUSTICE. hayley had ONE LINE

and the 1989 vaults were GOOD but they were just songs on the original album with different lyrics i suppose?? i mean i live for the harry styles slander and some of those lyrics hurt hurt hurt (i think about jumping. off of very tall somethings. just to see you come running. and say the one thing, ive been wanting, but no) but STILL!!!! like i hate rep as an album i cant even begin to imagine the songs she DIDNT like on that album (can u tell i want debut tv and not reptv)

yeah thats it sorry ive been thinking about her. lately. NOT EXCITED FOR TTPD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU