RENT: Why so much hate? — Page 4

Call me nuts, but I actually think it flows better!

"...saying we've got H. I. V., before slitting her wrists in the bathroom."

"AIDS" not only doesn't follow logically, it feels as if there needs to be an additional beat there that "H.I.V." provides! =)

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This misinformation (generally speaking, not necessarily because of Rent) is responsible for recent cases that involve discrimination against HIV positive individuals by institutions that should know better.

Okay, I'm calling you out on this and would like to see citations of these recent cases you mention. I'm not saying you're not right, I'm just saying it sounds like something you're making up to bolster your argument.

I can also assure you that drug injectors who lived on the streets back then, and even some now, often found out they had full-blown AIDS the first time they presented at the emergency rooms with symptoms they had been living with for a long time. Actually, my ex-lover got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital and found out he had AIDS then. It was 1996, and it was AIDS. He was an educated white homosexual who had never been a drug user and never tested for HIV. So I just don' think it's that egregious to have a single reference to getting AIDS.

It's interesting that you are angry that the gay couple and the straight addict couple are the ones who get HIV and then you go on and on about how much you were moved by Angel. It's not because you saw something special, it's because it was written that way.

What Larson was smart enough to do was to give the characters who are most at risk for acquiring HIV, HIV. I suppose there could have been a straight character who had NO IDEA how she got it or something, but that's false drama in a world of people living with real drama.

When the show first opened I was a little startled by what seemed to be Angel's sero-sorting in his choice of a partner. Once he knew Collins and he were seroconcordant he said they'd "get along fine." That was a VERY long time before gay men were discussing this as a tool they use in their HIV prevention arsenal.

I mean, if you're looking to dig deeper that the sin of saying they got AIDS.

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Updated On: 7/24/12 at 10:39 PM

I know when people kill themselves, the first thing I do is critique the language they used in their suicide note.

I concede that it's a recent case, but are you saying the notion that "got AIDS" implies a some kind of difference in the school's decision that "got HIV" would not have had?

HIV is transmittable and it is the virus that causes AIDS. I really don't think a show written in the early '90s has to "get it right" in the 20-10s. The way "The Normal Heart" realllllllllllllly got it wrong by 1995.

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"I know when people kill themselves, the first thing I do is critique the language they used in their suicide note."

I don't care if that note was written by my own mother, I'd have mentally corrected her upon reading it. XD

It doesn't make sense to denote mental distress by spreading misinformation on an often misunderstood condition, however innocently, especially when the distress is made abundantly clear by suicide. And I doubt Larson chose "AIDS" in a strategic effort to suggest April's distress.

And it's quite ambitious to suggest insensitivity towards those who off themselves when I'm clearly critiquing the writing of the show's creator.

Nice try.

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A Director - Excellent reply, agree 100%.

You could say similar things about Cats and Phantom, but I don't think either is good.

Popular /= Good.

Now, if you want to evaluate the show's quality with a qualitative argument (what you think is good about it), rather than using the capitalist argument, that's another thing entirely.

Updated On: 7/25/12 at 04:24 PM

My first experience with Rent was the movie, which I absolutely hate. A few years later I saw the Off-Broadway production and listened to the OBCR, which also left me cold. I guess it comes down to a matter of taste- I just don't care for the score or the plot or the characters.

HOWEVER, Rent is show that is very much at the mercy of its actors. I saw Emma Hunton as Maureen, and she made the show largely bearable for me. But Rent as an enterprise is getting very, very tired. I know the really great shows live forever, but this one just won't die. Call me unromantic, but I refuse to believe it's because of its timeless message of hope and community blah blah blah. Rent remained on Broadway for the sole purpose of making money. I recognize that that's the main reason any show opens on Broadway, but it long outstayed its welcome, becoming a tired old relic of a production. Then it was revived for the same reason, with nothing new to add to the show.

I think the producers of the revival hoped it would be like the Hair revival - an old show that was given new life and vibrance and urgency. Here's the thing: it's just never going to happen, at least not within the next decade. Give it twenty or thirty years and it could be revived as a semi-relevant museum piece. As for Rent and the AIDS epidemic, it is not even in the realm of plays of Angels in America or even The Normal Heart. When I saw those productions I felt energized and compelled to do something, sort of a "Why does nobody care?!" reaction. Rent stirred no such feelings in me, because it's simply not as good a show.

I respect the intentions of Larson and those involved with the original production, but have very different feelings who turned it into a tired old cash cow of a show. And of course I have nothing against most of the fans, but the ones who screech about how "revolutionary" and "amazing" Rent is are the ones I'd count as annoying.

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Wait, how is Roger a victim? He was a drug addict, too.

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"Wait, how is Roger a victim? He was a drug addict, too."


Oh, you're right. Then, yeah. There are no victims, and I feel for none of them.

^^^^My thought as well. I'm guessing HappyPhantom means they contributed to their own misfortune rather than morally deserving a potentially fatal condition, but I'm not sure.

Gaveston understood my post.