When Does the Stage-Musical "Death Becomes Her" (2024) Take Place?
"Death Becomes Her" is a comedy horror stage-musical written by Marco Pennette with Julia Mattison and Noel Carey [adapting "Death Becomes Her" (1992) by Martin Donovan with David Koepp and Robert Zemeckis] that released April 30th, 2024. So when is "Death Becomes Her" set?
It takes place roughly in the years:
We know this because during "Siempre Viva", the twelfth song, Madeline Ashton changes her tune with Viola van Horn suddenly and says, "Oh, I'm getting out of— woah. Venmo okay?" Venmo is an internet-based service facilitating quick payments and it launched in 2009 AD. So it must be during or after 2009 AD.
early 2000s AD
We know this because during "Siempre Viva", the twelfth song, Madeline Ashton changes her tune with Viola van Horn suddenly and says, "Oh, I'm getting out of— woah. Venmo okay?" Venmo is an internet-based service facilitating quick payments and it launched in 2009 AD. So it must be during or after 2009 AD.
Additionally, there is an extended prologue and in the fifth song, "Tell Me, Ernest", Madeline asks Ernest Menville, "So, tell me, Ernest, how much have you seen of me, cinematically? The roms, the coms, the rom-coms, the dramas, the dramedies...?" and Helen Sharp interrupts, "...the straight-to-DVDs?" referring to Digital Versatile Discs or DVDs, a home video technology invented in 1995 AD and introduced to North America on March 24th, 1997 AD in the real world. DVDs are still produced but "straight-to-DVD" movies are exceedingly rare as that content would be released directly to a streaming service ever since they became the de facto mode of home video viewing in the mid-2010s. So it must be after March of 1997 AD but most likely before 2015 AD at this point.
More specifically, much later in the main action Helen sings to Ernest, "The only thing that’s insane is we haven’t spent the last 10 years wrapped in each other’s arms because of her." during "Let's Run Away Together", the thirteenth song. This strongly implies it has been 10 years since Helen and Earnest last saw each other during the prologue. So the prologue must be during or after 1999 AD.
~2009 - 10 = ~1999.
Finally, there is an epilogue during the second-to-last song "Fifty Years Later" and the last song "The End" that must be around "50 years later". So it must be during or after 2059 AD.
~2009 + 50 = ~2059.
