Musicals are really tricky things. Sure there are some good
ones. A lot of good ones. Some phenomenal ones actually. Les Miserables,
Phantom of the Opera, Book of Mormon, more recently Hamilton, Sweeney Todd and
my personal favorite, Wicked. On the other end, there are some musicals that
don’t work as well. Grease, Young Frankenstein, and today’s entry, Rent. With
all of these musicals, I’ve noticed one common theme amongst those that were
good, and those that sucked. The ones that were really good, already had an
existing story, a ground to build off of. Since Les Mis and Wicked were already
stories to begin with, they just needed to translate it to the stage. And so
the songs were written to advance the story and develop the characters. Same
goes for Hamilton. So that’s why in a lot of cases the songs by themselves come
off as alright, but when you actually know the context that the song is taking
place in, then it just makes the song so much better. The best example I can
think of is someone who I follow on facebook said that they listened to the
soundtrack to Wicked years ago, thought it was alright, and didn’t really come
back to it. Years later, he saw the show, came home, and tore up his house
trying to find the soundtrack. A little context goes a long way. The story
helped give meaning to the songs, and the songs helped intensify the emotions
of the scene. Each worked for the other, improving the quality of the other,
and benefiting as a result. Thus we have an audience that is more invested.
The
same cannot really be said for a musical such as Grease. In that show, the
songs were all written first, and the story was filling in the blanks. The
story was slave to the songs and as a result we have a musical with some good
songs, but that’s it. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. Book of
Mormon wasn’t based on anything, and that was enjoyable. Young Frankenstein was
based on a movie, and that fell flat on its ass. Sweeney Todd is very loosely
based on a real person, more an urban legend than anything else, and that was
one of my favorite musicals. I dislike Grease for a lot of the same reasons my
mother despises The Little Mermaid. Basically, I think the characters are all
stupid and selfish and don’t really know what they are talking about. Granted,
this is high school, but they act like this is the end game, like this will
define who they are as adults forever, and as immature as we all were in high
school, I think we were all aware that the story didn’t end with graduation.
But I digress. You’ll have to ask my mother why she dislikes Little Mermaid.
See,
Rent falls into that category that I think Grease falls into. Good songs, crap
story. And what’s more is that Rent not only tries to tell a story, but tries
to make a statement about society, and I don’t think it does a very good job of
it. So before people want to label me as homophobic or anti-lgbt, or say that I’m
the kind of person who says people with AIDS are suffering God’s wrath, you can
put that one away too, because like I said, it has a point to make, it doesn’t
do a good job of making it though. One thing that Rent has in common with a lot
of musicals is that it features a lot of people who are left behind by the
system, the outcasts, the dregs of society, people that don’t fit in with
society’s view of what things should be. Characters like that are at the center
of Phantom, Les Mis, Wicked, and most recently, Hamilton. Ex cons, freaks of
nature, lower class levels of society, sons of whores and and a scotsman,
orphan bastards, you get the idea. All are people who cannot help the situation
they are in, they were dealt a bad hand in life and now have to do the best
with what they got. The same can be said for (some of) the characters in Rent.
The same can also be said about the characters in Philadelphia and Angels in America.
Both stories about homosexuals living with AIDS, both become social outcasts and
exiled. And both stories handle these themes much better than Rent.
Here’s the difference: The people in Philadelphia and Angels
in America are generally good people, or at least in Roy Cohn’s case, he gets
what’s coming to him and has something resembling redemption. It’s complicated
and I can’t fully get into it right now. In Rent, most of the characters are
terrible people. Maureen is manipulative and emotionally abusive who cheats on
both partners she has in the story, Angel (while generally a likable character)
gets money after he kills a dog. Throughout the rest of the show she’s alright,
but I can’t get over the fact that she killed a dog at the very beginning. How
has Peta not said anything about this? Not only did a character kill an animal,
but got wealthy off the deed. Mimi is a very self destructive type, which doesn't really make her a bad person, but she also enables her love interest which is cause for concern for me.
The other case that stands out to
me is Mark. The self described artist who just films people in every day life.
He says he shoots without a script, but then again, so do I whenever I use
snapchat. Can I be an artist? He also films group therapy sessions of people
who have AIDS. Sure, his buddy Collins is okay with it, but I don’t imagine
other people would be. They have a hard enough time opening up, and now they
are supposed to open up in front of a guy with a camera. A little sensitivity
is all I’m asking. He also films a homeless person getting harassed by the
cops. He gets called out on this, basically getting told he’s exploiting
someone else’s tragedy for his gain, and it doesn’t change anything. The scene
goes on like nothing happened. The thing that bugs me about characters like him
and Maureen is that they act like they are in the gutter with the others who
have HIV/AIDS, but in reality, neither of them are sick, and there’s no reason
for them to be broke, they both come from wealthy families who are supportive.
So stop acting like you guys have it rough. Also, stop acting like being broke
and having weird ideas makes you a genius that society can’t handle. It doesn’t.
Mark is not an artist because he shoots without a script, he’s just making home
movies on the streets of New York. Again, does using snapchat make me an
artist?
It also
bugs me to no end that he romanticizes poverty when he has the option to not
live in poverty, while all around he’s surrounded by homeless people who don’t
exactly have a way out. Really makes him seem like a dick for romanticizing
their plight. Compare that to Marius in Les Mis. Yes, he comes from a wealthy
family, yes he decided to reject that, but only because he saw a problem with
society and decided to actually do something about it. He fought and nearly got
killed trying to help his broke student friends create a better world. He is a
man of action. Mark is not. Now in the grand scheme of things, Marius and his
friends didn’t really accomplish much but at least they tried to do something.
Mark won’t because he just wants to film, and he won’t try to market that film
because he sees that as selling out. He gets a job in journalism and he sees
that as selling out. He also lives in an apartment rent free and demonizes the
person that lets him do so. Okay, so the guy is a friend of his from back in
the day who sold out and joined the system. Translation: he got a stable job.
But to someone as revolutionary and visionary as Mark, he may as well be
Benedict Arnold, or Lucifer. A traitor to our movement, even though you
extended an olive branch and let me live rent free in a building that you own.
I am now entitled to this because I am an artist and because I do not fit the
mold of society, I therefore should not follow the rules of society, and
therefore, I must not be allowed to be charged rent. God I want to punch Mark
in the face. Also, calling him Benedict Arnold was a history reference for
those of you ‘artists’.
You
want to know how you can fix a character like Mark? Write him so he is actually
part of a movement. During the 80’s there were plenty of these, particularly
groups who protested the government’s inaction to the AIDS crisis, which some
would argue is what caused the disease to spread as much as it did. These
people took action, they tried to wake people up to the issue that many were
blind to. Let Mark use his art for an actual purpose, other than to let him
call himself an artist. This is what would make him more like a character like
Marius, it would make him someone who sees an issue with the world around him
and the way society is treating it, and did something about it, or at least
tried. Instead, he’s a preppy whiner who only does that. Carries a camera and
whines about issues that he doesn’t suffer from and is doing nothing to change.
With
all this said, I should say that I don’t hate everything about Rent, like I
said before, I like the music a lot, the two best songs being No Day but Today
and Seasons of Love. Take Me or Leave Me is also pretty good, even if Idina
Menzel is using it to justify cheating on her partners. And I can appreciate that it was trying to
say something, I just think it went about it all wrong.
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