The Time For Talking Is Finally In The Past.

[rionaleonhart]

Ginger mentioned that they'd seen someone on the tube with a programme for Death Note: The Musical, and I couldn't resist checking out the songs on YouTube.

Somehow, I forgot that this would inevitably reignite my enormous and misplaced fondness for Light Yagami, absolutely classic bad decisions teenager. I just can't resist watching a fictional teen screw everything up!

Here are my two favourite songs on the soundtrack, both Light solos:

'Where Is the Justice?': Light's 'I Want' song before the plot actually kicks off. If you're familiar with Death Note, you'll be unsurprised to learn that what he wants is basically for all the criminals to fucking die. This kid is wildly intense and wildly misguided and I love him.

'Hurricane': Light going 'holy shit, this murder book actually works, TIME TO BECOME A GOD.'

My first thought when I learnt a Death Note musical existed was 'I hope Light and L have an intense duet of their internal monologues while playing tennis,' and I am delighted to report that Light and L do, in fact, have an intense duet of their internal monologues while playing tennis ('Playing His Game').

I went downstairs to have lunch with my housemates after listening to the musical soundtrack, and Ginger commented on the fact that I was smiling fondly. I had to explain that I was just thinking wistfully about how murderous Light Yagami is. He's the worst! (I just caught myself smiling fondly again while typing that. ♥)


I thought musical Light sounded familiar, so I looked up the singer, Jeremy Jordan. He played Varian in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, the Tangled animated series!

I don't think I've mentioned Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure here before, but I've seen about half of it and it's delightful. Rapunzel/Eugene remains my favourite Disney pairing of all time. They're both so genuinely fond of each other and it's really cute.

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure also contains absolute banger 'Ready As I'll Ever Be', which I have listened to an unreasonable number of times, so it's no wonder Light sounded familiar to me. (Varian is even singing about going to extreme lengths to serve justice!)

The characters in the Tangled series burst into song only occasionally, so it's always slightly disconcerting when it happens. Great! But disconcerting. If your characters sing in every episode, great, it's a musical show. If your characters sing maybe once in every ten episodes, it's harder to suspend your disbelief; it feels like they're actually breaking into a spontaneous musical number and then going about their lives like it never happened.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

There’s a musical? This is amazing! I am delighted!

Light is such a murderer! And it’s fun seeing him with L! More murderers need to be unusually intelligent people who develop an intense personal relationship with the person investigating them! It worked for Death Note and Hannibal!

[rionaleonhart]

'There's a Death Note musical?' and 'There's a Death Note musical and the songs are good?' was an incredible sequence of revelations. I'm glad I'm not the only person delighted by this!

More murderers need to be unusually intelligent people who develop an intense personal relationship with the person investigating them!

You are absolutely correct. It's such a fun dynamic!

[wolfy_writing]

I am impressed by the songs!

A high-stakes game of Fuck, Marry, Kill!

[necrophilia]

... well, I know what I'm listening to this weekend.

[rionaleonhart]

Enjoy it! There are a lot of great dramatic Light-L duets.

[i_wish_to_remain_nameless]

Death Note the Musical (English version) is actually the only version of Death Note I've consumed. I've heard that the Korean and Japanese versions are better but I like the English version because I can put it on in the background while doing something else and still understand the lyrics. The songs are surprisingly catchy and it does some interesting things with Misa. I like the sad unrequited crush that Misa's Shinigami has on her.

[rionaleonhart]

Poor Rem! Her love for Misa is so tragic.

I watched the Death Note anime in subtitled Japanese, but I think the musical's songs were written in English first, so it feels natural to me to listen to the original English version. I did see this Japanese performance of the tennis duet on Tumblr, though, and was struck by the fact that the Japanese version makes the already-fairly-homoerotic lyrics way more homoerotic, so I'm curious now about the other translation changes!

[i_wish_to_remain_nameless]

You weren't kidding. That Japanese tennis duet really can be more homoerotic.
I've only seen a few of the songs from the Japanese version so the most notable difference I can recall is that I think Rem's feelings towards Misa come across as more motherly in it.

[ryulynn]

I didn't know there was a Death Note musical! I'm glad it sounds like fun times. Maybe I'll reward myself after I resubmit this grant in 2 weeks with a listening party :D

[rionaleonhart]

Good luck with your grant submission, and, if you do have a listening party, I hope you enjoy it!

[halfcactus]

Omfg thank you for bringing this to everyone's attention, I completely forgot that the tennis thing was something that actually happened and is not just Prince of Tennis musical nostalgia.

I'm also surprised that this was a solid enough concept for them to hire established actors!? I know Jeremy Jordan from the movie version of The Last Five Years and... I think at some point he was in the CBS Supergirl TV series, lol.

(And you're right, that Tangled song is a banger.)

[rionaleonhart]

I linked this in another comment reply, so it's possible you've already spotted it, but a subtitled Japanese stage performance of the tennis song is actually available to watch on Tumblr, if you're curious! (The lyrics are very different from the original English version, and very homoerotic.)

As far as I know, Jordan hasn't technically played Light on stage; he just sang on the original concept album for the musical. Weirdly, although the songs were originally written in English, there hasn't actually been a full English-language performance! But they've just had a couple of concerts of the music here in London, which I'm hoping might mean they're testing the waters for a full stage production.

(And I'm delighted that you enjoyed the Tangled song!)

[halfcactus]

LOL ty!!!! Ryuk just... existing between them was a very nice touch. As were all the extras that they were both completely oblivious to, trapped in their own world. XD

[lokifan]

The lyrics are very different from the original English version, and very homoerotic.

NO LIE omg.

[rainbowsandrum]

I've thought about watching the Tangled animated series, because it's my favorite Disney film and the animation style looks quite pretty. But I've never really looked into it before. Now you tell me my boy Jack Kelly from Newsies is in it? I'm down.

If you ever need to get overly-invested in a musical about the New York newspaper strike and child labor laws of the early 1900s, I cannot recommend Newsies enough. It's so good. And so full of gratuitous flips.

ETA: I have now looked at the other comments, which are all about Death Note, and I'm the only one going OKAY BUT TANGLED WAS SO GOOD ALSO HERE ARE SOME NEWSIES DOING FLIPS. Oh well.

[rionaleonhart]

Tangled is my favourite Disney film as well! Love Rapunzel, love Flynn, absolutely adore their relationship. I hope you enjoy the series, if you do watch it; I'm having a good time with it.

I've heard of Newsies, mainly peripherally when I was really into The Book of Mormon and poked my head into musical Tumblr, but I never actually managed to glean anything about it. It's good to have a bit of context at last! And, wow, it looks absolutely exhausting to be part of.

[sawthefaeriequeen]

Wait, Jeremy Jordan as Light? That kind of delights me! He's always played sweet guys.

Need to check this out!

[rionaleonhart]

I really enjoy him as Light on the songs! He seems to be having a lot of fun playing a villain.

[lokifan]

OMG. I love Light singing about "the human stains and all their sins blown away". And "once you have begun you ride to the end/elegant solution". Yep, this musical appears to understand him very precisely lol. Like you said, TIME TO BECOME A GOD.

It's kinda funny to me that the singing style's very much one I associate with, idk, clean-cut American heroes of a certain type of musical. Kind of perfect for Light really.

[rionaleonhart]

I just started listening to the songs out of morbid 'what would a Death Note musical even be like?' curiosity; I was delighted to find that the writers had clearly given real thought to these characters!

the singing style's very much one I associate with, idk, clean-cut American heroes of a certain type of musical. Kind of perfect for Light really.

This is a great observation! And, yes, that's strangely fitting for Light.