The Hodge Podge of January

This new year feels like it has been as eventful in the first three weeks as all of the latter half of 2020. It’s almost frightening to watch the news, as the COVID-19 case numbers and deaths have been increasing exponentially since the clock struck midnight on January 1.

In an effort to, at least momentarily, think about something else, it was a joy to learn about the efforts by TikTok artists Abigail Barlow (@abigailbarloww) and Emily Bear (@mlebear) to create #BridgertonMusical.

What is that you ask?

Bridgerton, as many of our readers are probably aware, is the Shonda Rhimes period piece drama over at Netflix that is based on the Julia Quinn novels. Bridgerton debuted on Christmas Day on the streaming service and has become the platform’s 5th most watched original series.

Barlow and Bear have teamed up to create songs on TikTok that imagine Bridgerton as a musical. The songs range from internal monologues to sweeping duets and declarations of love.

Thanks to the folks over at Daily Dot, “the first song from Barlow and Bear is “Ocean Away,” a song that begins from the perspective of Bridgerton season 1 heroine Daphne Bridgerton.”

NOTE: Make sure to check out the TikTok videos over at Daily Dot to see for yourself!!

Soon enough, the talented ladies, “added more lyrics and…introduced a second verse of the song for Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, turning the song into a duet between the ton’s premier couple, whose love story began as an exercise in fake dating.”

That article goes on to say, “A second song, titled “Burn for You,” is another duet between Daphne and Simon on their wedding night at the end of episode 5 that echoes much of the dialogue and sentiment shared between the couple, each of whom fears that the other was trapped into a marriage they didn’t want.”

Barlow performed the vocals for Daphne and Simon in the original recording, she invited other TikTok users to make a duet with her. Enter Nick Daly (@nick_t_daly) whose version went viral; so much so that the duet got a shout-out from Netflix’s official account, the series creator Chris Van Dusen, and one of the show’s stars.

They didn’t stop there. Another song from the perspective of Penelope Featherington was soon posted, and it seems these talented ladies just might have a full-length project on their hands. In fact, Bear recently posted this online: “Both me and Abigail haven’t been this inspired to write something in a LONG time. It’ll probably end up being a concept album that maybe possibly for pitch when theaters open back up? Who knows, I’m writing something new every day.”

You can listen to other shows by Abigail Barlow online here.

There is also this year’s Paley Fest to look forward to; albeit that it will be virtual just like it had to be last year. The two-week event will kick off starting on March 29. The first 3 panels were recently announced.

They are as follows:

A spotlight on the new ABC drama Big Sky
A conversation with The Late Late Show’s James Corden
A 20th Anniversary Celebration of Six Feet Under with the cast and series creator Alan Ball

Additional panels for the festival’s line-up will be announced on February 9. You can learn more about Paley Fest 2021 here.

[Photo Credit: Courtesy of Abigail Barlow/Instagram; Courtesy of Netflix]