The Official Adam Pascal Love Thread, part seven — Page 182

Oh, no, I totally meant that to be funny, Lexi.

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Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:23 PM

It makes me cringe too Lexi. I got very irritated when I saw the lyrics to Seasons of Love (and it's always Seasons of Love) in someone from my grade's profile right after the movie.

Uy, there's this girl in my grade who said "I know all the words to LVB, I'm such a renthead" I was like huh?!

Yeah, THAT kind of stuff really irks me. I definitely wasn't trying to implicitly tell certain people here whether they had my permission to call themselves Rentheads. From what I've gathered, there are definitely people in this thread that certainly have license to call themselves Rentheads (at least in my book). I just can't stand to see the girls at my high school saying that they are huge Rentheads because they can sing Out Tonight and La Vie Boheme. That kind of dilutes the term.

I feel weird calling myself a Renthead for that same reasons y'all have said. I can't even tell you how much it pissed me off to see all these people on IMDB or LJ or whatever talking about how they just got the movie soundtrack and now they're a Renthead. NO. You DON'T get it. You can like the music and even call yourself a Rent fan, but DON'T start calling yourself a "Renthead". There's a hell of a lot more to it than just that. Someone posted something on LJ today about a review of their first time seeing Rent onstage and it's one of the best posts I've seen in weeks:

"So I got to go see Rent for the first time ever on Broadway yesterday…wow. Before I post a review, let me just say that I get it now. I get why some people who have loved this show for years and years don't really like the movie. I get why some get super irritated by people who join and think they know everything just because they saw the movie. Because if I had been lucky enough to have seen Rent before the movie came out, I would have been just as protective of it. I mean, I've seen plays before. But the second the lights blasted on for 'Rent', I just…went somewhere else completely. I think I remembered to breathe again around Finale B. I've heard the recordings, the soundtracks, but this was just so…I don't even know how to describe it. I know we all know it, but seeing the play just reinforced how incredibly wonderful its message is, and made me a thousand times more grateful to Jonathan Larson."

I was just so glad that someone is finally recognizing that we're not trying to be elitist- it's just that the show does mean something to us, so we don't want it to be treated like a flavor of the month and are cautious of the influx of new fans. I mean, I WISH everyone that saw the movie could see the show and experience what it's like to watch the cast line up during ICY:R and see the empty space where Angel stood. There are so many aspects of the show that can *never* be recreated for the movie, so it just bothers me that people are treating the movie like it's a replacement for the show. Despite the OBC members or the stronger music or whatever, it will never mean as much to me as seeing it onstage.

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But it's a completely subjective term, isn't it? And I don't blame those kind of fans for calling themselves Rentheads. If they only got into Rent because they followed the movie, they've probably seen the blogs. The term "Renthead" was used ad nauseum there to apply to all of the viewers/readers/fans.

I know everyone says that the original Rentheads are so elitist about everything, but they probably feel the same way that we feel about the movie fans. They waited outside in the freezing cold for days to get tickets, and now people just walk up and put their name in for lottery and leave. They saw the original cast so many times, and we saw videos of them. And then a person sees it once, or sees the movie and says that they are a Renthead, which is a term they coined, and it probably just irritates them.

That post probably came across as rude, and seeing it once doesn't mean that you are less of a fan, considering that I just saw it for the second time last week. I'm just saying that's probably why many of them act like that.

Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:35 PM

But then again, are WE being a tad elitist for going on about some of the annoying movie fans?

Exactly. In big terms, anyway. I mean, a lot of them are JUST ANNOYING.

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Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:39 PM

But it's a completely subjective term, isn't it? And I don't blame those kind of fans for calling themselves Rentheads. If they only got into Rent because they followed the movie, they've probably seen the blogs. The term "Renthead" was used ad nauseum there to apply to all of the viewers/readers/fans.

Yes, it is, and I completely concede that this is just a personal belief of mine as opposed to some sort of universal truth or law as to who qualifes as a Renthead. Perhaps others here would beg to differ and feel that they're opinion is some sort of definitive truth, but I'm just speaking for what personally bothers me. Also, I don't necessarily blame them per se, I just don't like reading it. Like I said, I'd never come out and correct someone saying that they're not a TROO RENTHEAD or whatnot.

I've said this various times before and I'm not sure if people quietly don't respect me as much for it, but I'll be the first to say that Rent really DIDN'T change my life (other than forming friendships on here, which really is more incidental and not directly pertaining to the show itself). I liked musical theatre before I saw Rent, I had no problem with homosexuality before seeing Rent, and while it has a very good message, I don't find myself living each day as my last anymore so than before I saw the show. I enjoy its positive message for what it's worth and I love the music. However, if Rent really did have an impact on your life -- and I'm sure there are many who can say it did -- more power to you. I personally can't say that it really did other than giving me some wonderful music to listen to and some thoughts about its message.

Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:39 PM

I agree. RENT didn't really "change" my life. It just impacted my life. I find that lines from the show like "forget regret" and "my only goal is just to be", etc.. are things I think about when I'm upset and have problems.

Allie, I don't think so, because even as I slowly got into Rent, I didn't start proclaiming to the world that I was the biggest Renthead EVA! like some of these people do. I accepted that I was a new fan and didn't know as much about it and was still learning to love it. If you question these people, or mention that they're still a new fan or suggest that they learn more about the show, they automatically become defensive and start ranting about how you "don't get the TRUE message of RENT!" instead of admitting to themselves and everyone else that they don't know everything about it. I just hold these people to the same standards I would myself, but apparently, that's too high.

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Interesting discussion today - I also think it would be a mistake to believe that some of those original Rentheads weren't there to be part of a certain crowd, or because their best friend started going, or because they had a crush on one of the cast members. There's nothing sacred about being a fanatical fan, especially if you turn into a bitchy one, as some of them seemed to have.

Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:45 PM

Perhaps affected is a better word than changed?

My life didn't change because of Rent, but it was deeply affected (in how I think about things, what I think about things, etc etc etc).