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RNZ News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
‘That was rude': why the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her was ripe for TikTok memes
By Gregory Camp of Photo: AFP A few snippets of musicalised dialogue from the cast album of the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her - with music and lyrics by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, and a book by Marco Pennette - have recently become trending sonic memes on TikTok. In all sorts of situations, users are lip synching to audio clips of Broadway star Jennifer Simard, in the character of Helen Sharp (played by Goldie Hawn in the 1992 cult film on which the musical is based), saying things like "That was rude. That was pretty f**kin' rude" and "She stole my life. She made me cuckoo. She's why I spent four years locked in that health spa." Musical theatre fans love a good meme (scholar Trevor Boffone has written a whole book about the phenomenon) and Death Becomes Her is primed to create a lot of them: a show featuring two divas (played by Simard and Megan Hilty as Madeleine Ashton, Meryl Streep's role in the movie) based on a cult film about divas begs to be shaped and reshaped by fan culture. Helen and Madeleine are longtime rivals who both take a magic potion that makes them immortal. This leads them to find increasingly extravagant ways to try and do away with each other, with the help of Helen's put-upon husband Ernest (Christopher Sieber), a plastic surgeon who reluctantly falls into the role of restoring their bodies after each "accident". Some of Hilty's clips have also been TikTok-ified (notably Tell Me, Earnest) but Simard is winning the numbers game. Her "That was rude" clip alone has 321,000 videos and counting. There seem to be two main reasons for the attraction of these clips. First is Simard's delivery of the words. Simard is a longstanding Broadway star and an expert at musical comedy timing. Second is the rhythmic quality of the dialogue. Not fully sung, these bits are spoken in mostly strict rhythm over orchestral accompaniment. That they have become such earworms demonstrates it is not only melody that burrows into the brain, but also rhythmic contour. There is a long history of this style of speak-singing in musical theatre, notably popularised in the late 1950s by Robert Preston in The Music Man and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. Neither of those actors was a strong singer, but both had excellent timing and were able to deliver spoken lines above music with a strong sense of musicality. Simard is an excellent singer with a very wide range, but the comic role of Helen - ever the underdog to her rival famous actress Madeleine - lends itself to this style of heightened speech. Most effective rhythmically, and the most popular excerpt, is the "That was rude" meme, where Simard begins slowly without accompaniment; the bass comes in on "rude" and sets a groove for the rest of the short excerpt. This one has been used in every possible situation, from responses to nasty notes left on people's cars to complaints about incorrect drink orders. Some of the TikTokers refer to Simard in on-screen text, but this one seems to have become popular outside any specific reference to the show, in a truly viral moment. The lengthiest of the trending excerpts is the one that begins with "We talked about killing her before", which sets off a monologue about Helen's plan to do away with Madeline once and for all. This is a tour de force for Simard's comic timing, as it begins in free rhythm and then gradually takes on a more consistent beat. TikTokers are tending to use this one primarily as a demonstration of their lip-syncing skills, as opposed to the other shorter clips that are applied in different ironic situations. This trend also shows the continuing importance of the cast album in musical theatre culture. The majority of TikTokers probably have not seen the show, currently only playing on Broadway with high ticket prices. Yet the cast album (easily available on all the main streaming sites) gives access. The fact these clips come from a cast album also more easily allows fans to create their own visuals around it. Unless they actually saw the show they only have production photographs and short publicity clips (and the occasional shaky bootleg or slime tutorial) to go on in terms of what it looks like. Audio from a source like the soundtrack of the Wicked movie has not led to so many lip-sync videos because the visual track is so readily accessible; as a film, Wicked's visuals define its audio while a cast album can more easily work the other way round. I saw Death Becomes Her on Broadway in January and enjoyed it. It's a fun show full of special effects and comic bits. The score is serviceable (it's not Sondheim), but it is catchy - very important for its use in these TikTok trends - and well performed by Simard and the rest of the cast. This whole phenomenon demonstrates that the current cultural sphere of "Broadway" extends well beyond the street itself. This has been the case at least since the rise of the cast album in the 1950s (My Fair Lady's was the best-selling LP of 1956), but now the reach is intensified by social media spaces like TikTok; you don't have to have actually seen Death Becomes Her to experience it.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Death Becomes Her' team on exceeding the film fans' expectations and impressing original director Robert Zemeckis
'They'd be silly not to be skeptical, but luckily this movie just happens to have one of the best fan bases,' says Noel Carey, one-half of the Tony-nominated composing team responsible for bringing the cult-classic 1992 film Death Becomes Her to Broadway. Although screen-to-stage adaptations are always dicey propositions, he shares that diehard fans have embraced the musical: 'They are really excited about the changes and the nods to the film and instead of getting the movie twice, they're just getting another Death Becomes Her.' Carey and other creatives from the production sat down with Gold Derby and other journalists at the 2025 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees press event. Fellow lyricist and composer Julia Mattison believes the reason why this theatrical treatment of the material has been so well received is because she and Carey feel just as passionately about the original movie as decades-long fans do. She explains, 'We love it so much. You have to be a fan of the source material to wake up every day and want to spend all your time and years of your life pouring into it, and so it's made with so much love.' More from GoldDerby 'Every actor likes to play a villain': Ron Howard on playing himself in 'The Studio' Krysten Ritter is returning as Jessica Jones in 'Daredevil: Born Again' Season 2 The highest-rated Emmy contenders include 'Murderbot,' 'Poker Face,' 'Adolescence': Meet the 95-plus percent club Best known for his television work, librettist Marco Pennette knew he wanted his first Broadway musical to be 'a hard comedy.' His approach to the adaptation was not 'to put this movie up on stage.' Instead, he describes, 'I tried really hard to expand characters or invent some characters in this case. … I thought the movie was wonderful, and nothing against the movie at all, but I did think I could push it in new ways.' As Carey and Mattison describe, Pennette has heard nothing but compliments from fans of the film. 'I've fallen in love with Facebook because I get so many friends from high school and then just some fans who just send me a note who I don't know. … Everything has been so glowing. The public is so embracive.' SEE 'Death Becomes Her' writer Marco Pennette realized his Broadway dreams with the help of Hal Prince Creative producer Lowe Cunningham encouraged this approach to the adaptation. 'I think that we did what we set out to do, which is not to take a movie and put songs in it and stick it on stage, but actually evolve it into a new piece that is supposed to exist on stage in the theater but offer you those little Easter Eggs,' she says of the book and score. The most validating feedback she has received about the show so far came from two very important people: 'David Koepp, who wrote the movie, and Robert Zemeckis, who directed the movie, both came and were thrilled. They were the people I was most nervous, because we changed a lot, so I wanted them to feel like we really paid homage to it.' Death Becomes Her is the most Tony nominated production of the year with 10 nominations, tied with Buena Vista Social Club and Maybe Happy Ending. In Gold Derby's latest odds, the show ranks third in the top race for Best Musical, trailing Maybe Happy Ending and Dead Outlaw, which received fewer nominations overall but has bids in all the pivotal categories. Our users currently predict a victory for the show in Costume Design for Paul Tazewell, a past Tony champion for Hamilton who also just took home the Oscar for Wicked and is the first Black man to win that Costume Design prize. It appears very competitive in Scenic Design as well. It ranks fourth in the contests for Directing, Original Score for Mattison and Carey, Book for Pennette, Choreography, Lighting, and actress Jennifer Simard, and fifth for actress Megan Hilty. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' 'Death Becomes Her' star Jennifer Simard is ready to be a leading lady: 'I don't feel pressure, I feel joy' Click here to read the full article.
