As I sat here listening a musical selection from "Rent" that Pandora insisted I must like since I tend to have Patti Lupone on heavy rotation on my Musical Theater station, it occurred to me how utterly depressing Rent truly is. It also occurred to me that Pandora is a poor judge of character. Why else name the program after the source of all the evils of the world? I suppose it's questions of this sort that kept Robert Stack in kibble so for many years after his Untouchables days. I digress.
Back to the impossibly depressing Rent... Now, it's not that I dislike Rent. The melodies are modern, the hooks memorable, and the heavy handed "message" gives me that ABC After School Special vibe that is both familiar and disturbing:
"In The Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story"
I kid you not. Look it up. Omar Epps (of House fame) and Harvey Fierstein (if you don't know him by name, shame on you) are both in it.
Back to Rent.
Anyhow, I never gave this play more than a fleeting thought. It didn't speak to me, as I could never envision myself in the situations those characters found themselves in. Forget the disease, I'm talking about being 20 something, squatting in some flat, without electricity, and most probably having some kind of body lice from living in squalor and not bathing on a regular basis.
This is saying quite a bit, considering I grew up watching West Side Story, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Evita, Tommy, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Obviously I had enough imagination to be able to connect and envision myself being a Jazz dancing Puerto Rican Young-Tuff, marrying a bald King in Siam, running away from Nazis with my Austrian singing family and an ex-nun, while eating spoon fulls of sugar, becoming first lady of Argentina, beating Elton John at Pinball and starting my own religion... Heck, I even believed Judas was black! I've got imagination. I know all about letting go and letting the story take hold.
And like Maude... And then there's Rent.
I met a young girl, identity withheld by my choice, who had a seemingly sick obsession with Rent. She was in high school at the time, and was chin deep in the teenage drama muck that is adolescence. Her fangirl affair can be forgiven, as I'm sure I latched onto something equally depressing at the time (I recall a Grunge period.)
Fast forward this child's life to her 20s, and she's living the dream. Squatting and all ill manner of vices that come with that social status.
I came to the conclusion that it must be a some kind of generational gap.
All the musicals I grew up watching had happy endings. Even West Side Story. Tony is martyred and the gang war ends. If you are a Christian you'll also see JCS ending as happy too. Without his death, there is no way, right?
Rent doesn't end. Sure you get an onstage conclusion to their drama, but AIDS isn't cured. They're still gonna die. They're still homeless, unemployed, and battling drug addiction. (Addiction is never cured, it just controlled... The More You Know...)
I aspired to better myself as those I saw on the stage. I guess kids now don't aspire. They just accept.
Rent didn't create this atmosphere of "The is What Life Is, Sucks to Be You." It's just a byproduct.
I wonder what else Pandora thinks I like.
Back to the impossibly depressing Rent... Now, it's not that I dislike Rent. The melodies are modern, the hooks memorable, and the heavy handed "message" gives me that ABC After School Special vibe that is both familiar and disturbing:
"In The Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story"
I kid you not. Look it up. Omar Epps (of House fame) and Harvey Fierstein (if you don't know him by name, shame on you) are both in it.
Back to Rent.
Anyhow, I never gave this play more than a fleeting thought. It didn't speak to me, as I could never envision myself in the situations those characters found themselves in. Forget the disease, I'm talking about being 20 something, squatting in some flat, without electricity, and most probably having some kind of body lice from living in squalor and not bathing on a regular basis.
This is saying quite a bit, considering I grew up watching West Side Story, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Evita, Tommy, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Obviously I had enough imagination to be able to connect and envision myself being a Jazz dancing Puerto Rican Young-Tuff, marrying a bald King in Siam, running away from Nazis with my Austrian singing family and an ex-nun, while eating spoon fulls of sugar, becoming first lady of Argentina, beating Elton John at Pinball and starting my own religion... Heck, I even believed Judas was black! I've got imagination. I know all about letting go and letting the story take hold.
And like Maude... And then there's Rent.
I met a young girl, identity withheld by my choice, who had a seemingly sick obsession with Rent. She was in high school at the time, and was chin deep in the teenage drama muck that is adolescence. Her fangirl affair can be forgiven, as I'm sure I latched onto something equally depressing at the time (I recall a Grunge period.)
Fast forward this child's life to her 20s, and she's living the dream. Squatting and all ill manner of vices that come with that social status.
I came to the conclusion that it must be a some kind of generational gap.
All the musicals I grew up watching had happy endings. Even West Side Story. Tony is martyred and the gang war ends. If you are a Christian you'll also see JCS ending as happy too. Without his death, there is no way, right?
Rent doesn't end. Sure you get an onstage conclusion to their drama, but AIDS isn't cured. They're still gonna die. They're still homeless, unemployed, and battling drug addiction. (Addiction is never cured, it just controlled... The More You Know...)
I aspired to better myself as those I saw on the stage. I guess kids now don't aspire. They just accept.
Rent didn't create this atmosphere of "The is What Life Is, Sucks to Be You." It's just a byproduct.
I wonder what else Pandora thinks I like.
