YMMV / 35MM: A Musical Exhibition

• Alternative Character Interpretation: All over the goddamn place. So we gave it its own page.
• Catharsis Factor: The ending of "Leave, Luanne" is glorious. Just when it looks like the bastard will be a Karma Houdini, Luanne returns as a ghost and drags him to Hell personally, and it's implied she's doing this with God's full blessing. In one of the most depressing songs in a very dark show, it ends on a moment of bittersweet triumph for our heroine.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "Caralee" is a song that ends with the titular Bratty Half-Pint being sold to a drug dealer for only $50 just so her babysitter won't have to deal with her anymore. Despite this being a horrific act of child abuse, the event itself is conveyed in such a cheery tone that it's absolutely hysterical to listen to.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The dog from "Leave, Luanne" is frequently given a more prominent role in animatics and is popularly portrayed as a Heroic Dog trying to protect her from its master. This one ends with the ghosts of Luanne and the dog watching the house burn from afar, taking her husband with it.
• Epileptic Trees: One fan theory behind "Make Me Happy" is that the singing couple are actually a couple of Serial Killers who love the savagery and bloodshed they inflict on others when together.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Retelling "The Ballad of Sara Berry" with an Alpha Bitch character from a different series as Sara and the female protagonist of that series as Julie, with examples including Azula & Katara, Heather Chandler & Martha Dunnstock, and Lila Rossi & Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
• Fanon:
  • "Leave, Luanne" has no specified time period, but many listeners and artists assume it's in the past, often pre-1940, sometimes even as far back as Antebellum. This is partially because of the Southern Gothic aesthetic of the story lending itself well to bygone eras, and the line "Louisiana wants war" hinting that it might be from before the American Civil War. It also provides a concrete explanation for why Luanne has stayed as long as she has. Her situation still happens in the modern day, of course, and many victims have no viable means of escape, but if the story really is set in the past, it's very possible she would have no resources or legal protection, or ways to provide for herself if she left. And while the bastard would be considered monstrously abusive even by Antebellum standards, there was much more of an expectation for women to just put up with being hit by their husbands, because divorce was completely out of the question. (Not to mention, the idea that a man even could rape his wife hadn't exactly caught on yet.)
  • "The Ballad of Sara Berry":
    • Sara Berry is nigh-universally portrayed as blonde, even though the photograph accompanying her song implies she's a brunette. The photograph shows eight girls, presumably representing Sara, Julie, and the the six murder victims. One girl with dark hair is the only one with her face circled with six others having scribbles while the girl representing Julie has red scribbles on her left leg. It's never confirmed this is Sara, but it's the best guess.
    • Julie is Hollywood Homely or at least plain-looking when compared to Sara.
    • Sara's unseen mother is dead and her father is using her memory to manipulate her by saying how disappointed she would be if Sara failed to become prom queen.
    • In fanart, Sara's prom dress is almost always pink, or more rarely white.
• Friendly Fandoms: "The Ballad of Sara Berry" has attracted fans of Heathers and Carrie, since the title character can be seen as a twisted combination of Heather Chandler and Carrie White.
• Funny Moments:
  • "Caralee" ends with the eponymous Babysitter's Nightmare being sold to a drug dealer for $50. Somehow only made funnier by the Lyrical Dissonance.
  • Pretty much the entirety of "Make Me Happy", with Vulgar Humor not even beginning to cover how ridiculously profane the song is.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • "On Monday" is a song about what it means to take a relationship slowly. The lover tells the singer that they're cute (and juvenile), being patient over how the singer wants to jump into hugs and kisses and it's the journey that counts.
  • "The Seraph" is possibly the sweetest, happiest song in the whole show, the narrator literally singing praises to his lover, who he credits with saving him by making him want to be a better person. He has no idea why this angelic person chose him, but he's grateful that he did, and loves him more than anything. And the final verse reveals the narrator's lover feels the exact same way about him.
  • And speaking of romantic songs, putting aside the hilariously blatant and frequent swearing, "Make Me Happy" is actually incredibly sweet since it's all about a couple who have just started their relationship and are genuinely in love with each other. In fact, when looking at the lyrics, virtually every other line is talking about how happy they are with one another and how pleased they are about their new romantic partner respecting their boundaries.
  • The ending of "Leave, Luanne" where it specifically states that God loves Luanne and has given her the chance to enact vengeance on her bastard husband, and giving her the chance to enact vengeance on abusive boyfriends from now on.
• It Was His Sled: Sara Berry doesn't go on a killing spree until near the end of the song, but that's what most people know about it.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sara Berry is an Alpha Bitch who later graduates to murder, but the song makes it clear she's batshit insane, having an emotionally abusive father who told her all her worth is based on her winning. When her status was challenged, she couldn't handle it, and completely broke down. By the end, she's completely lost touch with reality, and will spend the rest of her days in a mental hospital, blissfully unaware of the gravity of what she's done, or how everyone views her now.
  God save the queen...
• Retroactive Recognition: One of the cast members for the official soundtrack was Alex Brightman, who almost a decade later would become well-known in the theatre world as the original Beetlejuice.
• Signature Scene: Everyone remembers the end of "The Ballad of Sara Berry" where the titular character goes off to murder six competitors.
• Signature Song: "The Ballad of Sara Berry", which is the last full song of the musical, is far and away the most popular and most-covered song of the show, to the point where it basically has its own fanbase. "Leave, Luanne" comes in second.
• Spoiled by the Format: Listening to "Leave, Luanne" in a digital format. Hooray, Luanne has finally escaped her abusive husband! ...Wait, why is there half of the song still left?
• Tear Jerker: Most of the songs ends on an incredibly depressing note, so this is basically a given. However, the Cruel Twist Endings to "Good Lady", "Cut You A Piece", and "The Ballad of Sara Berry" all deserve special mention.
• The Woobie:
  • Luanne from "Leave, Luanne" is trapped in a horrifically abusive marriage to a monstrous drunk, and when she finally plucks up the courage to flee, he murders her, and then proceeds to mock her again when she returns to him as a spirit. Luckily, the bastard gets his just deserts in the end.
  • Jules from "Cut Me A Piece" is specifically described as being "fucked up" and it's only by the intervention of his love Jessie that he stops "pissing his life away". They're then Happily Married... for only six months before she dies in a freak car accident. The song's description then notes that "Jules lives on with the everlasting torture of living without a piece of him".
  • Julie Jenkins from "The Ballad of Sara Berry" is seen as a Wheelchair Woobie In-Universe, but seriously, she had an awful couple of months, from having to have her leg amputated after she was in a car wreck (traumatic on its own), to one of her classmates going insane and murdering six people at prom, which should've been one of the happiest nights of her life, especially since she was slated to win prom queen. Even worse, given that Sara's motives were probably pretty obvious to everyone who witnessed the massacre, Julie will now have to live not only with Survivor's Guilt for the rest of her life, but probably with wondering, "Would this have happened if I hadn't run for prom queen?"