The Hunger Games: The Musical – “Whatever Happened to My Part?”

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Note: This post contains stuff that wasn’t in the movies. So if you haven’t read the books, you shouldn’t be viewing this.Because those who only saw the movies really wouldn’t understand.

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When adapting books into movies, screenwriters have to find ways to compress a several hundred page novel into a 2 hour film. This isn’t an easy task. But as with most movie adaptations, things tend to get left out while stuff tends to get changed around. The Hunger Games movies are no exception to that. Yet, one of the major parts that got left out of the movies was the story surrounding Madge Undersee. In the books, she’s the daughter of District 12’s mayor as well as Katniss’s friend at school since both of them found themselves in rather isolated positions due to their place on the socioeconomic ladder. Also, both of them have mothers whose experience with tragedy doesn’t really help their parenting skills. But unlike Katniss, this doesn’t change Madge’s situation too much. Nevertheless, in the books, she’s the person who gives Katniss a Mockingjay pin for luck after she volunteers to be a tribute in her sister’s place. In Catching Fire, it’s revealed that the Mockingjay pin in question was once owned by Madge’s aunt Maysilee Donner who was also a tribute in the Hunger Games (as well as best friends with Katniss’s mother). In fact, she was in it the same year as Haymitch. Yet, unlike Katniss and Peeta, Maysilee didn’t make it. Still, Madge’s story ends when she and her family are killed when District 12 gets bombed at the end. Those who only saw the movies wouldn’t know anything about this girl because Madge isn’t even in it.

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When it came to doing a song parody for her, I couldn’t think of a better one than “Diva’s Lament (Whatever Happened to My Part?)” from Spamalot, itself a musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The original version has the Lady of the Lake angrily complaining on not making a single appearance in the show since Act II despite being the leading lady. And if she’s the leading lady, then she should more time on stage than most of the other characters. Never mind that she wasn’t even in the original movie at all. In the Hunger Games version, I have Madge Undersee complain how she got adapted out of the movies despite being a rather important character. And in some ways, she kind of has a point.

 

“Whatever Happened to My Part?”

Sung by Madge Undersee

 

What ever happened to my part?

I was important at the start.

I am Katniss’s childhood friend

And gave her my dead aunt’s pin.

 

Nobody knows just who I am

And that the mayor is my dad.

I was in the books you see here

But they cut me from the feature.

Cause my storyline would complicate the plot.

Whatever happened to my part?

 

Do they know about this pin?

Its backstory thick and thin

It was once owned by my late Aunt Maysilee.

She was reaped but didn’t win,

And unpleasantly done in,

Now Kat receives her pin from Greasy Sae

 

Whatever happened to my tale?

I’m in the books but not the film.

Now the viewers are all confused,

Not knowing how the pin was used.

 

I might as well go to the pub

Why do I even try to give a fuck?

I play a role in the first two books

Well they can kiss my tush

It seems to me they’ve really lost the plot

 

Whatever happened to my

Where’s Suzanne Collins, dammit

Whatever happened to my

Not yours, not yours,

But my,

Part!

The Hunger Games: The Musical – “One Day More”

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Note: This post contains spoilers. So if you haven’t read the books or seen the movies up to Mockingjay Part 2, you shouldn’t be viewing this.

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For some great beauty is a major asset. For others it’s a curse. And in the Hunger Games, this can’t be better illustrated both ways with Finnick Odair. His charm and irresistible good looks made him very popular in the Capitol and helped him gain the sponsors he needed to win his Hunger Games at the tender age of 14. However, after the victory celebrations were over, he developed a reputation as a womanizer who’s left a string of broken hearts at the Capitol. But in reality, President Snow was prostituting him to the highest bidder as well as threatened to kill someone he loved if he refused. So basically for him, “saving it till marriage,” was out of the question.Still, just when you think things can’t get any worse for him, he falls in love with a victor in from his home District 4 named Annie Cresta, who’s seen as mentally unstable but actually has PTSD. But in any case, they’re not supposed to be together as far as the Capitol is concerned. Yet, their love endured despite all odds.And it’s clear that Snow knew about their relationship since the two were reaped for the third Quarter Quell, yet Mags volunteers in Annie’s place in order to die on her own terms. Also, Snow had her arrested when he escaped from the arena with Katniss and Beetee during the Quarter Quell which leaves him devastated and a nervous wreck who could barely hold it together. And yes, Snow uses that as leverage against him. That is, until she’s rescued along with Peeta and Johanna from the Capitol. Once in District 13 together, they proceed to get married. But it’s not long until Finnick is called to serve on the “Star Squad” in the fight at the Capitol. Some guys just can’t get a break.

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For an appropriate song parody here, I went with “One Day More” from Les Miserables. In the original, Marius and his buddies are about to start what is known as The June Rebellion which was a clash between middle class young men and the authorities during the 1830s. However, he also just got together with Cosette which puts him in a bind between sticking it to the man with his friends or spending more time with his girlfriend. Let’s just say he should’ve chosen the latter since the Rebellion in that musical was a disaster that resulted in all his friends getting killed. And if Jean Valjean weren’t there to save his ass on Cosette’s behalf, he would’ve joined them. In the Hunger Games version, I have Finnick conflicted between staying with his new wife or going to the Capitol. Yet, I have other characters singing parts in preparation for the Capitol invasion.

 

“One Day More” (Hunger Games Edition)

 

[Katniss]

One day more!

Another day, another destiny.

This never-ending road in agony;

As I agreed to be the Mockingjay

I’ll kill Snow with my bow one day.

One day more!

 

[Finnick]

I did not live until today.

How can I live when we are parted?

 

[Katniss]

One day more.

 

[Finnick & Annie]

Tomorrow you’ll be worlds away

And yet with you, my world has started!

 

[Johanna]

One more day all on my own.

 

[Finnick & Annie]

Will we ever meet again?

 

[Johanna]

One more day with no one caring.

 

[Finnick & Annie]

I was born to be with you.

 

[Johanna]

What a life I might have known.

 

[Finnick & Annie]

And I swear I will be true!

 

[Johanna]

But my fighting isn’t there!

 

[Gale]

One more day before the storm!

 

[Finnick]

Do I follow where she goes?

 

[Gale]

At the barricades of freedom.

 

[Finnick]

Shall I join my brothers there?

 

[Gale]

When our ranks begin to form

 

[Finnick]

Do I stay; and do I dare?

 

[Gale]

Will you take your place with me?

 

[ALL]

The time is now, the day is here

 

[Katniss]

One day more!

 

[Coin]

One day more to revolution,

We will nip Snow in the bud!

And I’ll bomb kids in the Capitol,

So their hands will soak with blood!

 

[Katniss]

One day more!

 

[Beetee & Plutarch]

Drop these dirty bombs,

See them as they fall,

Rescuers will blow up

Down there in the Capitol,

Give a little blast

Nail them in the ass

Most of them are goners

So they won’t miss much!

 

[District 13 (2 Groups)]

[1:] One day to a new beginning

 

[2:] Raise the flag of freedom high!

 

[1:] Every man will be a king

 

[2:] Every man will be a king

 

[1:] There’s a new world for the winning

 

[2:] There’s a new world to be won

 

[ALL]

Do you hear the people sing?

 

[Finnick]

My place is here, I fight with you!

 

[Katniss]

One day more!

 

[Finnick & Annie]

I did not live until today.

 

[Johanna]

One more day all on my own!

 

[Finnick & Annie]

How can I live when we are parted?

 

[Coin(overlapping)]

I will send Katniss’s Peeta

He will follow where she goes

Once he’s close to her he’ll surely

Grip his hands around her throat.

 

[Katniss]

One day more!

 

[Finnick & Annie]

Tomorrow you’ll be worlds away

 

[Johanna]

What a life I might have known!

 

[Finnick & Annie]

And yet with you my world has started

 

[Coin (overlapping)]

One more day to revolution

We will nip Snow in the bud

We’ll be ready for these rich snobs

 

[Betee and Plutarch (overlapping)]

Watch ’em run amok

Blow ’em as they fall

Never know your luck

When there’s a free-for-all!

 

[Katniss]

Tomorrow we’ll be far away,

Tomorrow is the judgement day

 

[ALL]

Tomorrow we’ll discover

What the great Capitol has in store!

One more dawn

One more day

One day more!

The Hunger Games: The Musical – “The Capitol Invasion Song”

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Note: This post may contain spoilers for those who haven’t read the books or haven’t seen the movies up to Mockingjay Part 2.

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As many movies and books have a major epic battle in them, the Hunger Games is no exception. In Mockingjay, District 13 plans and stages an invasion of the Capitol in order to overthrow President Snow who by this point has a long list of terrible deeds in his wake. I’m not sure with all the details on this but I’ll try to set the scene. So President Alma Coin deploys  Katniss and her propo team and a unit called, “The Star Squad” to a seemingly trivial propaganda assignment in the Capitol. However, she has Peeta go along with them despite that he’s still dangerous, unpredictable, and not quite recovered from his hijacking. This leads Katniss to think that Coin wants her dead. Meanwhile, they think that the real invasion is underway and commanded by Paylor which is kind of true. But when it comes to modern warfare, sometimes you might never know where the war is coming to. Which is exactly what happens when Katniss an the Star Squad find themselves up against mutt beasts, armed peacekeepers, and booby trapped pods. Let’s just say it’s a scene of all out urban warfare on the Capitol streets. And it looks like Peeta might attack someone…

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For a song to parody this, I have “The Mob Song” in mind from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The original has Gaston and the villagers assemble with their torches and pitchforks as well as head to the castle in order to kill the beast. Oh, and Gaston has Belle and Maurice put into a wagon headed for a loony bin but they manage to get out. Still, seeing the scene in the movie makes you understand why the Beast was being such a controlling jerk to Belle in the beginning. Because when it comes to getting a girlfriend in order to break a spell in his neck of the woods, he doesn’t really have a lot of options. For the Hunger Games version, I have Coin sending the Star Squad to the Capitol as the invasion is underway. But I have it end before people start getting killed.

 

“The Capitol Invasion Song”

 

[Coin:] The Capitol will make off with your children.

[Crowd:] {gasp}

[Coin:] And will force them to fight it to the death.

[Crowd:] Yes!

[Coin:] We’re not safe till his head is mounted on my wall! I say we kill Snow!

[Crowd] Kill him!

 

[Man I:] We’re not safe until he’s dead

[Man II:] He’ll come stalking us at night

[Woman:] Set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite

[Man III:] He’ll wreak havoc on our districts if we let him rule Panem

[Crowd:] So it’s time to take some action, boys

Coin: It’s time to follow me

 

Old Man Snow

In his city

Through the darkness and the shadows

It’s a nightmare but it’s one exciting ride

Say a prayer

Then we’re there

At the entrance of the Capitol

And there’s something truly terrible inside

He’s a beast

He’s insane

He’s a bastard

He’s sadistic

With a psychopathic streak

Smell his rose

See him roam

But we’re not coming home

‘Til he’s dead

Good and dead

Kill the Beast!

 

[Katniss:] Okay, but I want to kill Snow personally.

[Coin:] Fine, but go to the Capitol with the propo team and the Star Squad 451. And Peeta’s coming with you, too.

[Katniss:] How’s Peeta?

[Coin:] Well, they say he’s too unstable for combat but I can’t see how he’d be much trouble on a trivial assignment.

[Katniss:] Uhhh….okay.

[Coin:] We’ll rid the country of Snow. Who’s with me?

[Crowd:] I am! I am! I am!

 

Grab your guns

Get your weapons

[Katniss:] Get up aboard the hoverplane.

[Star Squad:] We’re counting on Boggs to lead the way

Through the streets

Through city

Where within a classy mansion

Something’s lurking that you don’t see ev’ry day

It’s Snow

Smells of blood and white roses

We won’t rest

‘Til he’s good and deceased

Sally forth

Tally ho

Grab your trident

Grab your bow

Praise the Lord and here we go!

 

[Boggs:] I have this Holo map that will help us avoid known booby trapped, “pods” on the Capitol’s streets.

[Katniss:] Oh, shit, Peeta’s getting out of control. What am I going to do?

[Gale:] Think of something and if that doesn’t work, I’ll kill him.

 

[Star Squad:] We don’t like

What we’ve understood

That he sure scares us

And this bastard is psychopathic at least

Bring your guns

Bring your knives

Save your children and your wives

We’ll save our country and our lives

We’ll kill the beast!

 

[Finnick:] I knew it! I knew it was foolish to bring Peeta along.

[Katniss:] Maybe it would have been better if he had never come at all. And I think he’s here because Coin wants me dead because she can’t control me anymore. But we need to help him.

[Peeta:] Can you please kill me now before I start seeing Katniss as mutt again?

[Katniss:] That’s not gonna happen. Besides, this seems like a safe neighborhood.

[Gale:] Encroachers!

[Finnick:] And they have mutts! No!

[Boggs:] Warn everyone! If it’s a fight they want, we’ll be ready for them! Who’s with me?

[Katniss:] Take whatever booty you can find. But remember, Snow is mine!

 

[Star Squad:] Hearts ablaze

Banners high

We go marching into battle

Unafraid although the danger just increased

Raise the flag

Sing the song

Here we come, we’re fifty strong

And fifty soldiers can’t be wrong

Let’s kill the beast!

The Hunger Games: The Musical – “This Katniss Must Die”

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Katniss and Peeta’s win at the Hunger Games made them instant celebrities as star-crossed lovers who’d rather die than be forced to kill each other. However, not everyone is happy about it, particularly Panem’s resident dictator President Coriolanus Snow. Unlike many people in the Capitol, Snow knows that Katniss was faking her romance for Peeta for the cameras and saw her idea of a nightlock suicide pact as an act of rebellion against the Capitol. And it doesn’t help that her actions inspired rebellions in several of the districts which leads Snow to determine that Katniss is trouble. So how does he deal with it? Well, for one, he has Seneca Crane put to death for letting both Katniss and Peeta win. Next, in the beginning of Catching Fire, he pays a visit to Katniss’s house in the Victor Village, tells her of the situation, and threatens to harm her loved ones if she doesn’t help defuse the arrest by agreeing to keep up her fake romance with Peeta. She agrees and so does Peeta when she tells him about it so they keep up the ruse. However, as public wedding plans and the Victory Tour are underway, Katniss inadvertently fuels the rebellion in every district she goes with her mockingjay pin becoming its symbol. You can surmise that the growing rebellion is now out of Katniss’s control and that her efforts to defuse it are doomed to fail. Now Snow also has a problem on his hands with Katniss because he can’t just have her executed because her Hunger Games victor status would make her a martyr. Nor could he really have her alive. Fortunately, for him, the the third Quarter Quell is around the corner and Katniss is District 12’s only female victor so….

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For a good parody on Snow’s deciding that Katniss must be eliminated, I went with the song, “This Jesus Must Die” from Jesus Christ Superstar. In the original version, the Jewish chief priests at the Temple of Jerusalem are worried about Jesus’s popularity among his followers in the city. To them, Jesus was a rabble rouser who needed to be stopped who not only hurts their influence but if he or his followers lead or inspire some insurrection. And historically, they had reason to worry about Jewish insurrections because the chief priests only existed at the mercy of the Roman Empire and they knew it. One major Jewish insurrection and the Sadducees would be history. This was exactly what happened in 70 A.D. when the Temple was destroyed, but Jesus was already risen by then so he had very little to do with it. In the Hunger Games version, I have Snow and his advisers discussing what to do with Katniss Everdeen who’s inspiring rebellions all over Panem. And yes, Snow knows she must be eliminated, but he doesn’t know how to do so at this point.

“This Katniss Must Die”

Peacekeeper: Good President, the city waits for you
The Capitol and Peacekeepers are here for you

Snow: Ah, all of you, you know why we are here
We’ve not much time and quite a problem here

Crowd on screen: Hosanna! Mockingjay!

Antonius: Listen to that howling mob of blockheads in the street!
A signal with her fingers and District 11’s on its feet

All: She is dangerous

Crowd on screen: Mockingjay Superstar
Tell us that you’re who we say you are

All: She is dangerous

Egeria: The victors are in on tour right now to whip us some support

Lucia: A rabble rousing mission that I think we must abort

All: She is dangerous

Crowd on screen: Mockingjay Superstar!

All: She is dangerous

Egeria: Look President, they’re out in District 2.

Lucia: Quick, President, go take her off at once

Snow: No, wait – we need a more permanent solution to our problem

Antonius: What then to do about Katniss Everdeen
Girl’s who’s on fire, hero of fools?

Lucia: More riots, more dresses, more fighting and Peeta

Snow: One thing I’ll say for her: Katniss is cool

Antonius: We dare not leave her to her own devices

Her half-witted fans will get out of control

Lucia: But how can we stop her? Her glamour increases
By leaps every minute; she’s top of the poll

Snow: I see bad things arising: they’ll start to rebel
And overthrow me at hand
I see blood and destruction, our elimination
Because of one girl
Blood and destruction because of one girl

All: Because, because, because of one girl

Snow: Our elimination because of one girl

All: Because, because, because of one
Cause of one, cause of one girl

Lucia: What then to do about this Katnissmania?

Antonius: How do we deal with the coal miner’s kid?

Lucia: Where do we start with a girl who’s on fire
Or her star-crossed lover the boy with the bread?

Snow: Fools! You have no perception!
The stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high!
We must crush her completely
So like Crane before her, this Katniss must die
For the sake of the nation, this Katniss must die

All: Must die, must die, this Katniss must die

Snow: So like Crane before her, this Katniss must die

All: Must die, must die, this Katniss must
Katniss must, Katniss must die