I'm sure everyone here has heard time and again that I can't stand Rent, and numerous times I've been asked to say why, so here it goes...
I can't understand why Rent is viewed as this huge piece of wonderful theater. I can understand that it was "new" style of theater at the time and everything but, and no I don't hate Jonathan Larson, I don't think it would have gotten so much attention had he not died. As a matter of fact, I enjoy
Tick, Tick...BOOM! and I think it is written much better than Rent. I can't figure out why his legacy is going to be based on something which is completely unoriginal. I felt as though all he did was take La Boheme and rewrite it in Sondheim style with a rock background. I don't see what the point of this was, and I think that TTB is a much better representation of his talent because all Rent makes me think is, what is the point of all of this? Did we need this updated version of a classic? Not really.
There were several times in the show when I was dying to get up and walk out, and if I believed in doing that sort of thing I would have done it. Musically, the only song I even found remotely interesting is
One Song Glory. As a matter of fact, when I went to see the show and that song was being sung I thought to myself, "Okay, maybe I was wrong and this show is going to actually be good." I didn't think it was. I thought it was making a lot of attacks at the establishment, whatever the establishment is defined as by the various characters. Okay, that's fine. You can attack whatever you want as long as you back it up with a solution. Nothing gets solved in this show, they say how they feel but nowhere do they talk about how they think it could be fixed.
Plum may not have talked about the ending, but I'm going to go into it. What was that about? What point was there to that and how can anyone say there is a good message to the ending? First of all, if they had let Mimi die, which they
should have because that's the way the story goes- their whole theme of "no day but today" would have been a lot more poignant because it would have shown she lived life how she wanted to live it. Second, by bringing her back they falsely make it look as though you can do whatever you want to your body (ie heroine) and it'll all be okay in the end, and that's hardly the case. Third, it just does not go along with the rest of the show. She's getting sick, she's getting sicker, and then all of a sudden she's completely okay as if nothing ever happened? For a show that is supposed to represent "real life" that is the farthest thing from it that I can possibly imagine.
And hang on, when did you win the discus?
