Browncoats: The Musical

Zoe is pregnant, Mal relives his glory days, Kaylee and Simon want to take the next step in their relationship and Jayne… wants to become a preacher? Sounds like it could be the long desired second season of Firefly but it’s actually Browncoats: The Musical!

Browncoats Playbill

Produced by Tea Time for Mad Girls, this one-night-only event brought our favorite characters back to life in an immersive theatrical production at the Gemini Scorpio Loft in Brooklyn, NY. Complete with themed drinks and cookies (the latter provided by Simple Sweets by Melissa), the event was a mighty fine shindig!

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Part of the stage set up at Gemini Scorpio Loft

This production took place about 9 months after the events of Serenity, with Zoe preparing to give birth and the crew figuring out what that meant for them in the aftermath of the political climate surrounding the events on Miranda. The musical disregarded the canonical comic Serenity ‘Verse, and instead choose to feature Mal preoccupied with re-joining the war effort. This means different things for each of the members of the crew: though Mal thought he could count on Jayne and Zoe, Jayne wants to follow in Shepherd Book’s footsteps and Zoe wants to be with her baby, even if she isn’t sure how to be a mother yet. Mal wants Kaylee and Inara safe and planetside, and doesn’t really care much where Simon ends up as long as River is expertly piloting the ship (what with her psychic-ness, and all). Simon won’t leave River and Kaylee doesn’t want to leave Simon and, despite Mal’s wishes, Inara wants to fight.

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From left to right: Paul White as Simon, Dava White as Kaylee, Francesca Negron as Mal, Ann Patricia as Zoe, Jen Wu as Inara, Kati Kane as Jayne

It takes the near-death of every crew member and the surprise visit of a beyond-the-grave Wash to get everyone’s head in the right place and keep them together on Serenity where they belong.

Though the set was fairly minimal with small details here and there, it worked as a representation of Serenity where actors ran between stage areas as they would do on the ship herself. However, all the running coupled with a full audience crowding a 2nd floor loft meant the venue was very warm. What’s more, the stages were not set up in such a way that the audience could see all the action. I learned later that the actors had only been to the space for the first time earlier that day. Given that, I was especially impressed with their set-up.

Browncoats: The Musical is a brand new production and that showed. Certain characters were written incredibly well, while others were portrayed superbly. I was disappointed to hear the word “damn” so many times when there’s an in-Verse alternative (gorram!). More complex characters like River and Inara had weaker writing, and unfortunately the actors’ interpretations did not feel like the characters I love.

Inara (Jen Wu) and Mal (Francesca Negron) lacked any real chemistry.

Mal and Inara lacked chemistry, and Jayne felt a bit sassier than I was used to. However, Jayne’s acting choices were some of the strongest, especially because the actor committed to said choices. Kaylee’s writing and performance were spot-on, while Simon fumbling between his sister and the mechanic he loves brought me right back to the TV show. Zoe brought the whole production together, though I was disappointed that she was played by a white actress. At times, the singing was weak, but I do want to note the heartbreaking performance of ‘’Lullaby’’ by a back-from-the-dead Wash, which brought tears to many eyes.

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Laurel Detkin as a heartbreaking Wash

This musical weakness is understandable, since this is a brand new production with little to no budget featuring volunteer performers rather than professional actors. Like most shiny Browncoat productions, the musical was more a labor of love than of cashie-cashie moneys.

Because the singing was rough at times, it did not do justice to some of the more well-written songs, for example, Kaylee’s love song to Serenity. I did like River’s interpretive dance though!      

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At times, the writing for Aleks Kovacevic as River felt too “on-the-nose.”

The production needs to work out some kinks if they hope to perform it again, but I was thoroughly impressed by much of what was provided and performed in this show. Plus I’ve had “Here’s to the Browncoat Cause” stuck in my head goin’ on a few weeks now… I hope to see more done with Tea Time for Mad Girls’ Browncoats: The Musical!

ENDED: AKF + Entertainment Earth Firefly Slippers Giveaway!

I am pairing up with Entertainment Earth to give one of my fans a shiny pair of Firefly slippers! Entertainment Earth was lovely enough to send me a pair to review, which F*ckYeahFirefly helped me out with. Read the review below, and then enter to win your own pair! 

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Inara the cat has a fondness for the slippers

When Entertainment Earth says “oversized,” they MEAN “oversized”! These cozy slippers are roughly 21 inches long from tail to nose. Your foot slips nicely into the top of the ship down to the cargo bay. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sole of the slipper is nice and cushioned! Before I put the slippers on, I didn’t even see the full inch of padding on the bottom of the ship. The plush outer feels like a hug for my feet, with just the right amount of tightness around the middle of my foot so that I don’t live in fear of it falling off. Serenity is keeping my toes nice and cozy. My very picky feet are quite happy with the interior design of the slipper.

The structure of the ship-slipper is pretty much what you would expect: the middle holds your foot, the nose and cockpit extend from the tops of your toes, and from roughly the middle of your feet to the back of your ankle run the engine pods. They stick out of the side of the slippers, so they are the most difficult part of the ship to maneuver with your feet, but after a few steps, you get used to it. They bounce charmingly along with your steps and as long as you watch to make sure you don’t knock into anything breakable (which you should be doing regardless of misbehaving slippers), you’ll be fine.

15354074_10209226077463372_853139025_oThe bottoms of the sole features no-slip rubber grippy dots, which help in maneuvering the oversized slippers, and the rest of the fabric has great detail of our beloved Serenity printed on it. It’s a different design than the Serenity Plushie you might see over at ThinkGeek or Quantum Mechanix: for one thing, the cockpit window is merged and the shuttles printed onto the sides rather than being their own separate things. The print is symmetrical right and left, which means either slipper can go on either foot and you don’t need to worry about remembering which one is which. The fabric itself is a lighter color, too, which means you can see much of the line work better. As you may or may not know, the ship has two designs: one from the show Firefly and one from the Big Damn Movie Serenity. The slippers incorporate elements of both designs – the line work is the structure of the ship from Firefly and the logo that Inara painted in the Big Damn Movie is present on the neck of the ship.

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Kaylee the cat is a little confused about her ship bein’ all small and miniature-ized

The stabilizer (the achilles heel of most Serenity products) is a separate piece of stiff fabric ingeniously sewn on so it can’t catch anything or rip itself off. It is printed with a pattern that fits with the rest of the ship, but is clearly a separate piece in much the same way the engine pods are. When I saw the promotional images online, I have to say I was worried about the stabilizer, but the idea of sewing it on is so simply genius that seeing it in person makes me smack my forehead and say, “now why didn’t I think of that?”

Overall, these slippers are cozy, nerdy, and fun to walk around in. They are one-size-fits-most and large enough to cuddle if that’s your style. I certainly plan to wear mine at every sleepover from now on.

This giveaway has ended.

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