History Theatre / TheBurntPartBoys

* BigBrotherInstinct: Jake towards Pete.
* BloodBrothers: Pete and Dusty. According to Pete, they swore to be "everlasting eternal soul twins under the crab-apple tree by [Dusty's] house in 1955." For context, they both would have been ''seven years old'' during this.

* TomboyishName: Frances. Her traditionally masculine traits don't help this either- she has a short temper, she lives alone in the forest, she carries (and uses!) a rifle, she hunts for food, etc.
** This could possibly be a subtle MeaningfulName too- despite being a girl, she ''is'' technically part of the titular 'Burnt Part Boys', since her father died in the accident too. Therefore, her masculine name makes her have more common ground with the other boys in the show. This would probably be less likely to be true if there weren't only ''five main characters.''

* WhatTheHellHero: In order to find closure, Pete steals dynamite from his brother and lies to his friends in order to get to the Burnt Part in hopes of ''blowing it up.'' This is made even worse when they're at the Burnt Part; Pete disobeys Jake and [[spoiler: sets off the dynamite while they're inside, unintentionally trapping them all in the mine without light or oxygen for twelve hours, which almost kills them]].

* ThreeAmigos: Pete, Dusty and Frances.

* FiveManBand: Pete is TheLeader, Jake is TheLancer, Chet is TheBigGuy, Dusty is TheSmartGuy and Frances is TheChick.
** However, Frances is much more on the 'brave and adventurous' side of The Chick. Rather than being kind and caring, she encourages teamwork through force (breaking Pete's compass so he'll have no choice but to let her come with), fear (of what she could do to them, considering what happened during the 'scissor incident') and taking control.

The Burnt Part Boys is an Off-Broadway musical with music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and a book by Mariana Elder. Miller and Tysen are best known for their Broadway adaptation of ''Literature/TuckEverlasting'' and their song cycle, ''Fugitive Songs''.

The Burnt Part Boys is an Off-Broadway musical with music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and a book by Mariana Elder. Miller and Tysen are best known for their Broadway adaptation of ''Literature/TuckEverlasting''.

** Jake Twitchell not only suffers with grief over the accidental death of his father (see a pattern here?) but hates his career and wishes he could 'see something else'. As one of the two Twitchell children, his mother is depressed and bed-ridden, and it's Jake who has to take care of her. All of this has meant that Jake harbours a ''lot'' of anger and bitterness, but tries to suppress it because of the responsibility he has in raising Pete. Despite this, during the events of the musical, he ends up taking his anger out on Pete anyways.

** However, Frances is much more on the 'brave and adventurous' side of The Chick. Rather than being kind and caring, she encourages the initial teamwork of the ThreeAmigos through force (breaking Pete's compass so he'll have no choice but to let her come with), fear (of what she could do to them, considering what happened during 'The Incident') and taking control (leading them to the Burnt Part).

* FiveManBand: Pete is TheLeader, Jake is TheLancer, Chet is TheBigGuy, Dusty is TheSmartGuy and Frances is [[SixthRanger The Sixth Ranger]].
** It's true that she's the only girl, but she's definitely not TheChick- her sarcasm and anger issues put her as far from being 'the heart' of the group as possible. (If anyone is 'the heart', that title would most likely fall to Chet.) Also, like many other examples of SixthRanger characters, Frances went from a known enemy of the main characters to a trusted friend (trusted more by Pete than the others).

* FiveManBand: Pete is TheLeader, Jake is TheLancer, Chet is TheBigGuy, Dusty is TheSmartGuy and Frances is the [[SixthRanger The Sixth Ranger]].

* FiveManBand: Pete is TheLeader, Jake is TheLancer, Chet is TheBigGuy, Dusty is TheSmartGuy and Frances is the SixthRanger.

* FiveManBand: Pete is the Leader, Jake is the Lancer, Chet is the Big Guy, Dusty is the Smart Guy and Frances is the SixthRanger.

* FiveManBand:
** The Leader: Pete.
** The Lancer: Jake.
** The Big Guy: Chet.
** The Smart Guy: Dusty.
** The SixthRanger: Frances.
*** It's true that she's the only girl, but she's definitely not TheChick- her sarcasm and anger issues put her as far from being 'the heart' of the group as possible. (If anyone is 'the heart', that title would most likely fall to Chet.) Also, like many other examples of SixthRanger characters, Frances went from a known enemy of the main characters to a trusted friend (trusted more by Pete than the others).

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Pete and Jake, with Pete being the foolish sibling and Jake being the responsible one. Despite this, Jake being responsible (journeying to the Burnt Part to catch Pete before he does anything dangerous) is perceived more negatively than Pete being foolish (journeying to the Burnt Part to [[WhatTheHellHero blow it up]]), possibly because it doesn't have the 'I'm trying to honor my father' excuse attached to it.

*** It's true that she's the only girl, but she's definitely not TheChick- her sarcasm and anger issues put her as far from being 'the heart' of the group as possible. (If anyone is 'the heart' of the group, that title would most likely fall to Chet.) Also, like many other examples of SixthRanger characters, Frances went from a known enemy of the main characters to a trusted friend (trusted more by Pete than the others).

** The SixthRanger: Frances- she's the only girl, but she's definitely not TheChick. Also, like many other examples of SixthRanger characters, she went from a known enemy of the main characters to a trusted friend (trusted, at least, by Pete).

** The SixthRanger: Frances.

** Jake Twitchell not only suffers with grief over the accidental death of his father (see a pattern here?) but hates that he has to work down the mines to provide for his family. He's Pete's brother, so his mother is depressed and bed-ridden, and Jake is the one who has to take care of her. Like Frances, he finds it very hard to control his anger, in his case because he tries to suppress it because of the responsibility he has in raising Pete. Despite this, he often ends up taking everything out on Pete as a form of catharsis.
** Dusty Rivers is plagued with guilt because he's one of the very few people in his town who ''hasn't'' lost one of his parents, and therefore is unable to understand or emphasise with the grief his best friend Pete is going through. Because of this, he is constantly self-deprecating and struggles with self-esteem. He is incredibly loyal towards Pete, becoming very jealous when someone else stands between their friendship, and it's possible that some of this loyalty may be because of Dusty's guilt.

** Pete Twitchell suffers with grief over the accidental death of his father. His mother is depressed and bed-ridden and hasn't spoken to him in years. To cope with this, he latches onto movies such as 'The Alamo' and idolises strong male heroes like Davy Crockett in place of his dad. He also frequently acts like he's the protagonist of a movie to cope, speaking dramatically and treating everything like one big adventure. As well as this, he often imagines the characters he idolises giving him advice when he's stressed and/or upset. These daydreams are very intrusive and he has little control over them.
** Frances Boggs not only suffers with grief over the accidental death of her father, but has run away from home because of her alcoholic mother and the bullies at her school. She clearly has some form of anger issues and finds it hard to control herself when she's worked up, lashing out in cruel and sometimes even violent ways. To cope with her grief and other life issues, she tries to take control of every situation she can to convince herself that she's strong and important.
** Jake Twitchell not only suffers with grief over the accidental death of his father (see a pattern here?) but hates that he has to work down the mines to provide for his family. As well as Pete, his mother is depressed and bed-ridden and hasn't spoken to him in years. Like Frances, he finds it very hard to control his anger, in his case because he tries to suppress it because of the responsibility he has in raising Pete. Despite this, he often ends up taking everything out on Pete as a form of catharsis.

* DysfunctionJunction: The musical is a perfect example of this. Let's take a look at our main characters:

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Pete and Dusty, Jake and Chet. Thanks to this, it's not hard to interpret some of the boys' behaviour as possible homoerotic subtext. Since they make up four of the five main characters, their ''extremely'' close platonic relationships are prevalent enough in the musical to provide examples of.
** For Jake and Chet:
*** Chet is ''very'' loyal, suppressing his own grief from being a homeless orphan in order to be a good friend to Jake. He never seems to realise his potential as a miner because he's constantly reassuring Jake that ''he'' deserves to be the foreman, even though Jake doesn't want to work down the mines at all.
*** While Jake doesn't show much significant emotion towards most people anyways, he does seem to open up about his feelings to Chet and is able to enjoy himself when they're together, something he rarely does with anyone else.
** For Dusty and Pete:
*** Dusty is just as loyal to Pete as Chet is to Jake. Dusty struggles with a lot of guilt because he's unable to understand what Pete is going through, and has 'prayed a hundred prayers' for Pete to have the happy family life that he's got. He's intensely jealous when Frances joins the team and because of this is actually quite cruel to her during their eventual fight. He accompanies Pete to the Burnt Part despite a) the fact that he doesn't really want to go there, and b) his own self-esteem issues that make him think he can't do it. When he eventually gets himself lost in the forest, he makes his way up to the Burnt Part ''by himself'' despite being 'completely undone by the woods' according to stage directions. When they eventually [[spoiler: get trapped in the mine]], Dusty continues to defend Pete.
*** While Pete seems to sideline Dusty a little when Frances is around, he's definitely very close to him. Pete describes them both as 'hero and sidekick, no matter the outcome'. He opens up to Dusty about his mom, something he only otherwise does with Jake, and that's during an argument. He calls Dusty his 'bestest friend' when introducing him to [[spoiler: his dad]] and frequently mentions their blood oath (see the BloodBrothers trope above for more details). Pete gets quite upset when Dusty argues with him and threatens to leave. Perhaps most interesting though is that in a previous version of the show, Pete said to Dusty: "I wouldn't exist without you."

The Burnt Part Boys is an Off-Broadway musical with music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and a book by Mariana Elder. Miller and Tysen are most known for their Broadway adaptation of ''Literature/TuckEverlasting''.

* OnlySaneMan: Chet. He's definitely the most well-adjusted to life without his parents, possibly because he's the only one of them who's an orphan (that being said, Pete and Jake's mom is so depressed and bed-ridden that she might as well be dead, and Frances' mom is an alcoholic who doesn't care about her). He's calm and logical during Jake's emotional outbursts, and also later on in the show when they're all [[spoiler: trapped in the mine and freaking out]]. As well as this, everyone else's unhealthy coping mechanisms are much worse (see the DysfunctionJunction trope above for more details) and Chet's could be seen as him just being a good friend.

* TheDragAlong: Dusty, as evidenced by:
--> '''Pete:''' Dusty Rivers, we are going to the Burnt Part today!
--> '''Dusty:''' Petey. I didn't get to have my full breakfast today but I could've sworn I just heard the words 'Burnt Part', 'go to', and 'we'.
--> '''Pete:''' Dusty. Do you remember when we swore with our blood to be everlasting eternal soul twins in 1955?
--> '''Dusty:''' Some folks say the Burnt Part is still smoking! My gramps says not even a soul has been up there. That place puts the 'poo' in 'spooky'. Oh, and I am ''very'' mad at you.
* TheLoad: Dusty for most of the show, but near the end he [[{{TookALevelInBadass}} takes a level in badass]] and [[spoiler: musters all his strength to push fallen rocks away to get them out of the mine]]. This is significant because Dusty ''knows'' he's TheLoad and hardly stops talking about it thanks to his nonexistent self-esteem.
--> '''Dusty:''' ''Just a softie on a rocky road / a marshmallow on a mountain / the bad gene in a chromosome / best equipped to stay at home.''

* OnlySaneMan: Chet. He's definitely the most well-adjusted to life without his parents, possibly because he's the only one of them who's an orphan (that being said, Pete and Jake's mom is so depressed and bed-ridden that she might as well be dead, and Frances' mom is an alcoholic who doesn't care about her). He's calm and logical during Jake's emotional outbursts, and also later on in the show when they're all [[spoiler: trapped in the mine and freaking out]]. As well as this, everyone else's unhealthy coping mechanisms are much worse (see the DysfunctionJunction trope for more details) and Chet's could be seen as him just being a good friend.

* BloodBrothers: Pete and Dusty. According to Pete, they swore to be 'everlasting eternal soul twins under the crab-apple tree by [Dusty's] house in 1955'. For context, they both would have been ''seven years old'' during this.

** The SixthRanger: Frances. She's the only girl, but she certainly isn't The Chick as described.