Creator / The Cantata Pansophical

Spoilers for Critical Role content that these works adapt will be left unmarked.

The Cantata Pansophical is a group of Critical Role fans who create adaptations of the original Actual Play show using original lyrics set to music from various musicals.

Works by The Cantata Pansophical:

• Vox Machina: An Exandrian Musical: Adapts the Chroma Conclave arc, set to Hamilton, featuring lead cast members:
  • Scott Maitland as Grog Strongjaw, goliath barbarian.
  • Danita Gilbert as Keyleth of the Air Ashari, half-elf druid.
  • Joe Collins as Percival de Rolo, human gunslinger.
  • Jesse Theo as Pike Trickfoot, gnome cleric.
  • Will Crosswait as Scanlan Shorthalt, gnome bard.
  • John MacMillan as Vax’ildan, half-elf rogue.
  • Shannon Randolph Baker as Vex'ahlia, half-elf ranger.
  • James Coates as Matthew Mercer, the Dungeon Master.
• Doty, Take This Down: Adapts the Taryon Darrington arc, set to Dear Evan Hansen, featuring lead cast members:
  • Anthony Sampedro as Vax'ildan
  • Dylan McCollum as Taryon Darrington, human artificer.
  • Ian Capuyan as Scanlan
  • Julianna Belles as Keyleth
  • Megan Scharlau as Pike
  • Philip Koffman as Percy
  • Scott Maitland as Grog
  • Shannon Randolph Baker as Vex'ahlia
  • Taylor Maimone as The Narrator
• Demigod Vecna's Sing-Along Stream: Adapts the Vecna arc, set to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Most of the cast of Doty reprised their roles in Demigod, except Will Crosswait returning as Scanlan (as Ian Capuyan voices Other Scanlan) and John MacMillan returning as Vax.
• The Exandrian Mixtape: Adapts songs from The Hamilton Mixtape for extra material outside of the main musicals.

Their musical adaptations uses these tropes:

In general

• Mythology Gag: The musicals all quote extensively from the original Critical Role, especially for comedic effect.
• Running Gag: Curses keep getting cut short, particularly the f-bomb. "What the f-" is a recurring joke, usually from Vax.

Vox Machina: An Exandrian Musical

• Adaptational Context Change: Some Hamilton lines and song titles fitting the situation are kept in Vox Machina. "Non-Stop" has a name and final chorus nearly identical to the original.
• Advertising by Association: Lin-Manuel Miranda is in the crew list as Associate Music Director and "that guy who wrote Moana". While Hamilton is the piece that catapulted Miranda into public recognition (beyond the world of theatre nerds), Moana, being a successful Disney film, helped further his popularity.
• Alto Villainess: Doubling with Evil Sounds Deep. Raishan is a sultry low soprano-high alto, with a distorted deep voice beneath like all of the dragons. She is double-cast with the heroic Allura, who gets higher notes.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the sweet and melancholic "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story", Vox Machina defeats the Chroma Conclave and saves Emon, but Scanlan decides to leave the party and spend time with his daughter Kaylie.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • The party occasionally interacts directly with DM Matt Mercer and vice versa, and also mention their sponsor Loot Crate.
  • Vax complains that Earthbreaker Groon casting Quivering Palm "feels like a homebrew stat so Matt can have deniability," during the Trial Forge Commandments. ^note Quivering Palm is an official Way of the Open Palm Monk ability at level 17, not homebrew.
• Curse Cut Short: Two in quick succession at the end of "Pray, Revive".
  Vax: If you spare her life then you can take mine. Good. Now kill me, you Raven bi— (Vex gasps)
  Vax and Vex: What?
  Vex: What happened?
  Vax: You’re alive. And I’m alive. Whaaat the fuuu‐ (song ends)
• Creative Closing Credits: All the lead cast members are billed with an animation symbolic of their character. Grog gets a crashing axe, Vax gets three daggers, Vex gets a bramble shot arrow from Fenthras, Scanlan gets the Cube and purple smoke, Keyleth gets her antlers and a blast of fire, Percy gets a firing gun (The List).
• Credits Gag:
  • After "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" ends and a Beat, Taryon Darrington can be heard sobbing profusely and asking Doty to "take this down". Also doubles as a Sequel Hook, as the next musical adapts the Taryon arc.
  • "No Animals Were Harmed in the making of this musical. Several creatures were harmed in the making of this musical. But it's cool, they were imaginary. And probably evil."
  • The playbill credits is a "Non-Stop" Hurricane of Puns, jokes, Shoutouts, and Mythology Gags, with fictional characters working in the cast, pleas for either Matthew Mercer or Lin-Manuel Miranda not to sue, and panic about the fact that the show wasn't rehearsed.
• Evil Lawyer Joke: In "Party Battle #2", Keyleth snarks that Percy would make a fine lawyer with how he argues. Percy volleys back in Self-Deprecation that only demons would solicit his services - which is technically correct, given that he made a pact with Orthax (a shadow demon) and attempted to make good on a pact with Ipkesh (a cambion).
• Evil Sounds Deep: Hotis and the Chroma Conclave get demonic, distorted deep vocals beneath their actors' normal voices, with Vorugal’s original voice being the deepest pre-alteration. Averted with tenors Craven Edge and Saundor, whose Hamilton songs were written for mezzo soprano and tenor respectively ("Say No To This" and "You'll Be Back").
• Finish Him!: Matt Mercer gives Grog the "How do you want to do this?" Catchphrase at the end of "Stay Alive" as Grog gets the kill on Kevdak.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Vax protesting "Wait, what?" as Percy raps "Lock up your sisters and skyships," in "Matthew Mercer".
  • Vax complaining "You're a shithead, Stubby!" as Vex razzes him for finding a lover in "The Story of Our Fight".
  • Keyleth indignantly exclaiming "Bullshit!" as Raishan claims she has only deceived Vox Machina once in "The Battle of Draconia".
  • Grog informing the ensemble that he's "not so hot on the numbers" at the start of "Trial Forge Commandments", because he can't count along with the "Ten Duel Commandments". He sighs, defeated, when the ensemble resumes counting, starting at "Number one!"
• Fun with Subtitles:
  • The Chroma Conclave is referred to as "[FOUR FUCKING DRAGONS!]" at the end of "Emon's Fall" as they descend upon the city one by one.
  • "[Totally accurate gunshot noises]" during "Glintshore Stand".
• Hold Your Hippogriffs:
  • "The triceratop’s in the room" (instead of elephant) during "Glintshore Stand".
  • "Tiamat, this will be fun." (instead of "Jesus Christ") during "I Know Her".
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: As Percy raps "Lock up your skyships and sisters," in "Matthew Mercer", Vax blurts out "Wait, what?" in the background.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The group's name itself is a reference to the Arcana Pansophical, a semi-secretive circle of powerful arcane practitioners, of which Allura Vysoren is a member.
  • Scanlan's introduction verse in "The Party Called Vox Machina" is the same as Sam Riegel's self-inspiration in Uninviting Waters set to the tune of Hamilton's introduction verse in "Alexander Hamilton".
  Scanlan Shorthalt, I'm a gnome
  My name is Scanlan Shorthalt, I'm a gnome
  And there's a million chicks I haven't boned
  But just you wait, just you wait!
  • Pike appears in a Skype call at the beginning of "What'd I Miss". The "E-e-episode" repetition, from the original's "S-s-seventeen", is inspired by Ashley Johnson's Skype signal often freezing her and dropping the call.
  • "Matthew Mercer" does away with the fourth wall as Sam gets a whisper from Matt and Scanlan interacts directly with the Dungeon Master. Vax brings up LootCrate in the lyrics, and the YouTube video flashes other sponsors' logos. The cast of Critical Role does the same thing as a Running Gag when someone gets a whisper - usually it's Sam reading the ad, but since he's getting the whisper other people fill in.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Pike blurts out "Shit!" right before her Skype connection dies in "What'd I Miss?"
  • Percy exclaims "Oh shit" after Garmelie wants the party to help him in "Feywild Delight" and after Asum reveals himself as Raishan in "The Room Where It Happens".
• Killed Midsentence:
  • Percy is shot dead by Ripley as he's saying "I'm in dire need of assist-"
  • Scanlan was in the middle of a "lame joke" about Raishan when he got slashed across the ribs.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The characters sing about game mechanics such as rolls, rounds, and hit points.
• Parental Love Song: "Dear Kaylie", like the original "Dear Theodosia", is a Declaration of Protection from Scanlan towards his daughter Kaylie, as he promises to make up for not being in her life.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The musical plays fast and loose with Critical Role canon, adding alternative character interpretations and arcs that didn't exist in the original material but enriching the story.
  Will Crosswait: We were asked to make a musical. Here it is. It's not perfect. We didn't always get the golden take. Our microphones vary wildly in tone. We don't adhere to strict canon. Perhaps our meandering plot is simply an alternate universe: one where dragons sing along with their deadly breath weapons and inter‐party conflict is resolved with a flurry of fast‐paced phrases. Perhaps these inconsistencies can be attributed to Unreliable Narrators or the declining sanity of one particular member of Vox Machina. I leave that to you, the listener.
• Race-Name Basis: Class-Name Basis, rather. When Raishan is approached by Percy, Vex, and Keyleth in "We Know", she addresses the other two as "Lord De Rolo" and "Lady Vex'ahlia", but gives Keyleth a cold "(Beat) Druid." as both Vex and Keyleth are half-elves.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Uttered by Grog in disbelief that Scanlan is dead.
  Grog: No. No. No! Fix him! FIX HIM!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Keyleth unleashes a blistering one against Raishan the Diseased Deceiver in "Burn", castigating the ancient dragon for her callousness and evil actions in tricking and massacring the Fire Ashari, let alone participating in the destruction of Emon.
  • The two Party Battles sees Vox Machina having an inter-party fight in take-no-prisoners raps.
• Running Gag:
  • Grog struggling with letters, numbers, spelling, and complicated words.
  • Vax's swearing keeps getting cut off.
• Say My Name:
  • Vex cries out "Percy!" after he's fatally shot by Ripley at the end of "Glintshore Stand".
  • Vax shouts for Grog while cradling Scanlan’s dead body in “The World’s Not Wide Enough”.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • "Helpless" sets the Chroma Conclave's brutal attack on Emon to a cheerful tune as the dragons gloat.
• Voice of the Legion: The majority of antagonists speak and sing with a distorted, lower-pitched voice beneath a normal voice. "I Know Her" stands out for additionally having the ensemble serving as the Legion, symbolizing Thordak's descent into insanity and arrogance.

Doty, Take This Down

• Adaptational Context Change: "Requiem" in the original had the characters singing about a boy who committed suicide, and how they will not grieve for him. The same melody is set to Keyleth, Grog, and Vex trying to revive Vax (who was killed) and refusing to let him die.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Near the end of "In the Future", Tary sings about feeling the touch of fate. The script notes that "[Sam rolls the fate dice from the Battle Royale episode]", and the sound of a dice rolling can be heard.
• Dull Surprise: Percy's response upon seeing Vex and a very bloodied Keyleth approach the rest of the party is a resigned/annoyed "Oh, sweet Pelor." instead of Taliesin Jaffe's surprised yelling in the original.
• Mythology Gag:
  • An instrumental of AWOLNATION's "Sail" plays in the background of "Cliff Diving" because Travis Willingham and Marisha Ray jokingly sang "Sail!" as Keyleth dove off the cliff.
• Truer to the Text: The spoken scenes for "Doty" quote extensively from the original show, more so than "Vox Machina" or "Demigod Vecna". This is partially because Dear Evan Hansen is not sung-through and includes dialogue scenes. The scriptwriters have more room to work with, and do not have to contort the plot to fit the songs as much as they did with the nearly sung-through Hamilton.

Demigod Vecna's Sing-Along Stream

• Mythology Gag: Percy and Cassandra's overly long middle names are written in tiny font on the cast list in the program.
• Villain Protagonist: Sylas and Delilah Briarwood and their bid to assist Vecna in ascension to godhood is the main focus of the plot, and they're listed as lead characters on the program.