#beka burnham

friends, I got this show because of the straddle. I got it because I thought it would be gay.

INSTEAD I GOT SOMETHING MUCH MORE UNIQUE

as I've said before, MKM apparently decided that she'd spend her entire tenure as a standby doing something wildly different each night, just to see if she could

and on this night?

she decided to make her Elphaba so intensely, almost painfully autistic that the world abrades her like sandpaper. in some ways the performance is almost like book!Elphie, and in other ways it's very divergent, but it's incredibly memorable

like--

this is how she holds herself the whole show. a Creature™️, hunched and avoidant of eye contact

...until it's just her and the audience and she decides in fact that she's all ABOUT eye contact and she gets so intense she literally just stops blinking for thirty seconds:

[she goes longer without blinking but I cannot make gifs that long]

this Elphaba is incredibly blunt, but she's not rude or cold -- if anything, her affect makes her *tender,* because she's so unused to understanding and is so desperate for it

like. she is, in fact, TERRIFIED that Dillamond is going to make fun of her when she offers to share her lunch -- because he pauses after her offer, and goes "...oh." watch her: how she tenses with nerves, then makes a really? you mean it? face at "thank you" then LIGHTS UP when he finishes with "how kind:"

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING MORE HEARTBREAKING IN YOUR WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE

she also has incredible chemistry with Kimber, who serves as a FANTASTIC scene partner throughout, picking up what Mary Kate is putting down and giving her things to bounce off of instead of "giving her room to try" and leaving her isolated (as most of the cast did)

Look at how they play "We deserve each other, and Galinda helped it come true" --

the way Nessa baits Elphie with "just hold my hand I prommy I won't bite" only to go HAHA GOTCHA :) and yank her down joyfully once she gives in; the way Elphaba bristles, because she's Not Good At Touch, but then relaxes and grins because she loves her sister, even if it's sometimes despite herself and rubs her the wrong way

she delivers "do funerals count?" with this audible smile in her voice because Galinda's being nice to her and asking her questions and including her; she's HAPPY for her at "Fiyero and I are going to be married" because like. she so rarely is invited to participate in the joy of others! she wants to get this social interaction right! she wants to make friends!

she's obviously not COMFORTABLE with how touchy Galinda is, but she tries to bear it with grace because it's a route to the connections she's so desperate for. you can see her flinch away from Galinda's presence, how her happy grin grits into more of a pained grimace, but she is trying SO HARD:

but like. they really do try.

they try to learn from each other, and meet each other in the middle, and it results in this completely adorable moment after "Two good friends"/"Two best friends" where they both offer a hand at the exact same time:

which ultimately results in this utterly devastating "Well, are you coming?" where Elphaba's like I'M DOING THE REACHING YOU LIKE THE REACHING WHY AREN'T YOU RESPONDING TO THE REACHING:

and it all gets paid off in For Good when they're back on the same page and we instead get this slow, calm, incredibly deliberate touch:

with the way Glinda tries as hard as she can to smile through her tears as a wonderful little gay bonus: