RENT Movie, set in 1985?- Page 3

[grownupgroupie]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 7:16pm

Points taken Marquise, but keep in mind that it finally made it to Broadway in 1996....Larson didn't write it in 1996.

I agree about the sort of amalgamation of time frames, but there are still certain elements from the 90s which are ONLY 90s, even though the tone of the neighborhood wasn't really that way anymore by the time the show came out.

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 7:40pm

Grownup,

Larson wrote RENT in 1992-3. The NYTW workshop was in January 96

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 7:42pm

grownupgroupie, you have just opened my eyes. that's so true! i completely forgot that Larson started writing this years before it was even workshopped!

[grownupgroupie]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 7:43pm

Ga, I know--that's kind of what I was just saying in the above post!


eta: Marquise, it's so hard to discern tone from a computer screen, so I can't tell if your post is sarcastic or sincere? Hope I wasn't seeming like a wiseass or anything.
I guess we'll never know exactly when it's set, only when/what it was inspired by, since we can't ask Larson! Updated On: 12/2/04 at 07:43 PM

[magelet21]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 7:47pm

Please PM me with a link to the script?

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 7:55pm

no grownupgroupie i wasn't being sarcastic at all. and you didn't come off as a wiseass to me.

[grownupgroupie]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 8:00pm

Good

There's so much acrimony on this board and I don't want to make it any worse!....just wanted to be sure!

I agree though--it's hard to think of RENT outside of the mid-90s b/c it's SO much of that time....but when you think about Larson's time in writing it (92-3) it frames the setting in such a different way.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 8:47pm

Evelyn, the Life Cafe is where the song "La Vie Boheme" takes place. They used to be a place that really supported artists. They used to feed artists in exchange for their artwork. They often had poetry readings there.

Marquise, I remember the street theater scene of the '80's. It was really cool. There was one "event" where you had to climb down through a manhole to get to it. But by the time Guiliani became mayor, all of those artists could no longer afford to live in Manhattan. Additionally, you had to have a permit to do anything like what Maureen does in the show.

Updated On: 12/2/04 at 08:47 PM

[Whiteboy Spice]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:03pm

Hi all --

Just to address something that's often talked about quite a bit around these parts, by people who did not know the man and who were not around when we was alive and working on this piece: you do *not* know what Jonathan intended, and to claim that you do is a little bit disingenuous.

To put something straight: Julie Larson (Jonathan's sister) has talked to Tim Weil and Chris about the timeframe of the story of the show, based on notes Jonathan had taken, conversations he'd had, etc, and the consensus is that the film will be taking place from 1987-1989, at least as it stands now. That, as with everything else involved in the film, *MAY CHANGE.* A film is not finished until it is shot and edited and put in front of an audience, and sometimes even then it changes when it's released on dvd. Jonathan started writing this piece years before it was ever onstage, as someone else here pointed out, and believe me, AIDS was already becoming a very big issue in NYC by the mid-to-late-80's.

For whatever it's worth...

Anthony

[OneBlazeOfGlory]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:13pm

'Just to address something that's often talked about quite a bit around these parts, by people who did not know the man and who were not around when we was alive and working on this piece: you do *not* know what Jonathan intended, and to claim that you do is a little bit disingenuous.'

^AGREED^


And thanks for clarifying about the time frame. I'm guessing you probably don't have a moment to post about how rehersals are going... man more power to ya doing little shop AND rent rehersals...

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:15pm

Thanks for the update and the input, Anthony!

[OneBlazeOfGlory]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:17pm

Tiff... is your paper finished yet? And who the heck is that in your avatar?

(Everyone else, I apologize for the threadjack... )

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:19pm

Er, no I haven't even started doing the research. And I haven't started prepping for the LSAT yet. Please don't hit me.

And that's the lovely, groomed Nick Nolte in my avatar.

[OneBlazeOfGlory]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:26pm

Tiff. A ton of people are IGNORING your posts except for me. I thought maybe you had finished it and thats why you were posting... But no. So I guess I'll be bocking you now... sorry!

You gotta go work on that paper! BWW isn't going anywhere I promise...

(and I apologize again for the threadjacking... I'll shut up now I promise)

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:26pm

Could someone please send the script to me? I really want to read it! Please!

[grownupgroupie]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 9:50pm

Thank you so much for the input Anthony.

As much as I kvetched, I do agree with that--I said above "I guess we'll never know exactly when it's set, only when/what it was inspired by, since we can't ask Larson!"

I'm not sure why, but 87-89 hits completely differently for me than '85, and I can deal with that. In '85 (for me anyway) AIDS was a theoretical in the news and by '87 I'd already lost 3 people--and this is out in the burbs in California, so of course the impact in NYC was far more dire.

I know it's only a difference of 2-4 years, but it makes a HUGE difference to me. The computer stuff won't resonate the same way that it did to the audience in '96, but that's secondary.