Hindsight: an Ashe Jukebox Musical Script

READ THIS FIRST!

Before you begin to read, I just want to explain how this works.

This is a jukebox musical using the songs that Ashe has released or been featured on. A jukebox musical is when a story is crafted around pre-existing songs, like what Mamma Mia! is with ABBA's music.

When reading along with the playlist, the run time is the same length as the playlist. There are no pauses between songs, so let them flow into one another naturally. If you need to, you can stop to read stage directions, but I tried to keep them short enough that you generally shouldn't have to. Also be sure that you don't have fade on between the songs. While some of the fades are cool for casual listening, while reading along, I have timed stage directions to the breaks between songs.

You can find the playlist of the soundtrack on my Spotify (@ab_costi) or on my YouTube account (Abigail Costi). Both are under the same title as this book, just without the word script. It is important that you can listen to the songs in the proper order. Feel free to translate the order of the songs into any streaming service you use, just be sure to cite me as the original creator!

When you're reading, if you see italicized words within [] or (), those are stage directions or actors notes. They would not be read aloud. On the right margin, you will periodically see Screen Legend: etc. which denotes lyrics that I want to have projected on the walls. There are definitely other lyrics that could be added based on production, but those lyrics specifically are important and tell a story of their own.

At the beginning of each song, you will see an italicized note within quotes and signed off with "–ab." This is a note from me as the playwright and would also not be read aloud. It exists as a stand-in for what I imagine could be going through the Young Woman's head based on my experience as a young woman. I went through my journals and pulled out quotes from my personal experiences that I felt resonated with the songs. These tell my story, albeit in a slightly different order than my personal events actually occurred. This was an important element to me writing this story because I couldn't separate it from my own experience. I think that's something very special about Ashe's music—everyone can find themselves in it. It's very much a shared experience, but a shared experience we all pretend that we didn't have. It's not healthy to pretend it didn't happen or that it didn't matter. This is my way of saying "me too", I guess.

Please be kind. I've never quite opened my heart like this and I'm terrified.

Some lyrics are mildly changed. Mostly a verb tense or noun change to help the story make more sense, but occasionally I have changed a word or two. If I changed words, it is after much debate and I have many reasons behind the change, which I can discuss if anyone is curious lol

Keeping that in mind, I found most of the lyrics on the internet. While I tried to double check that they were accurate, there might be some points where I missed something. If you are confused as to whether a lyric change is on purpose or not, feel free to leave a comment!

I don't own the rights to these songs, and as much as I want to be in a production of this, I'm not sure that it would be possible without the consent of those who do own the rights to the songs.

If you want to know more, I've been promoting this project on my TikTok (@ab_costi). Feel free to head over there and watch my other videos about the concept either before or after you listen!

If you want to talk to me about the musical, please do! I love chatting with everyone! The best ways to reach me are Insta (@abigail_costi) and Twitter (@abigail_costi).

Finally, thank you so much for reading/listening! I've been working on this for several months, and I'm really proud and happy with how it shaped up. If you like it, it would help me out tons if you shared it with your friends. Also I love seeing your comments and reactions as you read this script, it's the best part of my day.

Thank you and enjoy the show!