Category Archives: General

Rent 12 Years Later

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Campbell Robertson of the New York Times has a great piece about the ways in which the passage of time has made Rent anachronistic since it first appeared more than a decade ago. My favorite part:

There is a fascinatingly antagonistic attitude among the characters toward virtual reality and what they call cyberland. The creation of a cyber studio on a lot on East 11th Street is the great evil of the musical, seemingly more ominous than AIDS or drugs, and yet if “Rent” took place today, half the characters in the show would be blogging.

She also has some insight into the authenticity, or lack thereof, in musical theater.

[tos] again

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I decided I wanted to see [tos] again, so I got myself a ticket for tonight. I went online and it turned out there was a great seat available in the second row, center orchestra, so I snagged it. (Sometimes excellent seats pop up on the day of a show, especially single seats.)

I’m so psyched. I know I’ve sounded like an obsessed teenager this week, but so be it.

Last night in therapy I was talking about the show and how it’s reawakened these creative yearnings in me. An image came into my head of this long, sharp metal object piercing through the layers of skin and baggage and events that have accumulated over my lifetime, parting them like the Red Sea, and reaching down to touch my tender core, my truest yearnings and desires that have become encrusted over the years with so much other stuff.

I need to get this shit out of my system.

P.S. And oh my god, Jeff Bowen writes crossword puzzles.