Rent Clarification Question

[SahDu]

Rent Clarification Question#0

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:23pm

Ok, this has always bothered me. During Goodbye Love, when Roger says "I'll call. I hate the fall." what is he referring to in the word "fall"? I wasnt sure if it meant like a fall from grace or the season of fall (seeing as how the preceding song is Halloween...so it is fall)...maybe something else? Just curious. Thanks :).


Updated On: 2/15/14 at 01:23 PM

[gavrochegirl]

re: Rent Clarification Question#1

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:24pm

I've always thought it was the season of fall.

What the puck?!

[yodamarie78]

re: Rent Clarification Question#2

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:26pm

I've also always thought he was refering to the season, but for a long time I thought the lines was "I'll call / I hate the phone," which I kind of like better

[YouWantitWhen????]

re: Rent Clarification Question#3

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:26pm

I thought the same thing. The fall season.

[BWLVER34]

re: Rent Clarification Question#4

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:26pm

Yea I think he meant the season.

[timote316]

re: Rent Clarification Question#5

Posted: 10/29/05 at 2:03pm

I always thought it was the fall from grace or something like that.

[forget regret <3]

re: Rent Clarification Question#6

Posted: 10/29/05 at 2:38pm

Haha yoda, I thought it was "I hate the phone" for almost a year.

"forget regret <3, I love your post.....you give me hope for the next generation!" -Elphaba

[Patronus]

re: Rent Clarification Question#7

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:30pm

For me, it's never been anything other than a "fall from grace" or more specifically "hitting bottom" within his relationships.

He feels like he has been betrayed by Mimi and she has left him alone. In a much different way, April also betrayed him and left him alone.

In addition, I think he feels like he has damaged his relationship with his best friend (Mark) in the process and has just lost a close friend in Angel whom everyone looked to as an inspiration. I think he feels like "my life couldn't be any worse."

It has never occurred to me that he was referring the the season.

I suppose it makes sense that he could be being dramatic and saying "I hate the fall. (autumn)" in the same kind of way we might say "I hate today" when things aren't going our way, but it's never been how I saw it.

It's always interesting to hear other people's interpretations of things like this because it makes you look at something in a new light that you thought you knew front and back.

Good thread! Updated On: 10/29/05 at 03:30 PM

[Mandi Moo]

re: Rent Clarification Question#8

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:34pm

I always thought it was fall, as in a fall from grace type thing. Amd when ever I saw the show, the person who was playing Roger never really did anything special when he said it. But I was watching this...er...clip of Cary singing it, and he looked around and kind of motioned to the world around him, which got me thinking maybe it was fall like the season.

Who knows?

[bwayfan3]

re: Rent Clarification Question#9

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:35pm

Isn't the fall of the year before when April committed suicide? That's why I always thought he said that. Bad things seem to always happen for Roger during that season.

[Patronus]

re: Rent Clarification Question#10

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:36pm

In general, I think it's one of those things that is probably open to intepretation of the given actor playing the role.

[colleen_lee]

re: Rent Clarification Question#11

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:38pm

I always thought the season, being that we know it's Halloween and it's Roger being his pessimistic, angsty self.

"You just can't win. Ever. Look at the bright side, at least you are not stuck in First Wives Club: The Musical. That would really suck. " --Sueleen Gay

[YankeesFan175]

re: Rent Clarification Question#12

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:44pm

yeah, i thought it was always the season as well, never thought of it as anything else.


bwayfan3, how do you know april committed suicide in the fall? i never thought there was anything specific to say when.

Bob: "there is a chance, albeit a microscopic one, that our baby at some point in his or her formative years will get lodged in a tree" ~Related~

[Patronus]

re: Rent Clarification Question#13

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:52pm

The workshop indicated that it was over 2 years since April had killed herself, but it doesn't specify the time of year.



Updated On: 10/29/05 at 03:52 PM

[1/2 Shiksa Goddess]

re: Rent Clarification Question#14

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:57pm

From the workshop, I'd guess that it was the fall that April died- on Christmas eve, they said:

Roger:
I've got a car, so as far as April's bucket'll go. Santa Fe, Austin...

Mark:
We couldn't make Boston.

Angel:
April?

Mark:
Suicidal girl who OD'd. He says he loved her- what he loves is to bleed. Over two years since she left that car key, but he never drives it.

So if it's over two years as of Christmas eve... that could indicate the fall...

Angel:
I beat the drum of apocalypse
like orchestras on sinking ships.
RENT workshop, Santa Fe

[YankeesFan175]

re: Rent Clarification Question#15

Posted: 10/29/05 at 4:00pm

aah ok. thanks!

Bob: "there is a chance, albeit a microscopic one, that our baby at some point in his or her formative years will get lodged in a tree" ~Related~

[Patronus]

re: Rent Clarification Question#16

Posted: 10/29/05 at 4:03pm

Ah, thanks for the line, Goddess!

[ashley0139]

re: Rent Clarification Question#17

Posted: 10/29/05 at 4:37pm

Another vote for the season here. I had never thought of it any other way, but I guess I can see that as well.

"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

[kitkatt456]

re: Rent Clarification Question#18

Posted: 10/29/05 at 6:44pm

Wow, I never thought of it as the season, I always thought of it as "a fall from grace" actually I never really knew what he meant, now it makes sense.

[xM3L24x]

re: Rent Clarification Question#19

Posted: 10/29/05 at 6:48pm

wait, so he meant it as in the season? wow i never thought of it like that before... thats kinda like another 'i like boys, boys like me' question haha.

[LeaGirl]

re: Rent Clarification Question#20

Posted: 10/29/05 at 8:56pm

I always thought it was the season.

That, combined with the rather awkward "Happy Spring" line, I thought were to help us see how time was passing in act 2, since we change from "everything in one night" in act one, to a whole year going down in Act 2.

Now what would you say if today I started over? Without a thing but this taped together four leaf clover And I'll pretend like everything is already alright And I'll run toward the sun till the castle's out of sight

[blaxx]

re: Rent Clarification Question#21

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:01pm

It is the season.
It is obviously that it is with the use of seasons that Larson varies the mood and inner transition of chracters. There are the references to winter and spring...and of course both "Seasons of Love"

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

[broadwaystar2b]

re: Rent Clarification Question#22

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:01pm

I thought it was "fall from grace" originally too, but I think the word purposely has a double meaning

[blaxx]

re: Rent Clarification Question#23

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:06pm

Well, there are a few during the show, just beginning with the title of the show "Rent" as in lease, and Rent as in:

A past tense and a past participle of rend.

n.
An opening made by rending; a rip.
A breach of relations between persons or groups; a rift.

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

[ashley0139]

re: Rent Clarification Question#24

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:08pm

That, combined with the rather awkward "Happy Spring" line, I thought were to help us see how time was passing in act 2, since we change from "everything in one night" in act one, to a whole year going down in Act 2.

That's why I thought that too.

n.
An opening made by rending; a rip.
A breach of relations between persons or groups; a rift.

Whoa! Never knew that! I'm enlightened.

"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife