Monday, September 8, 2008

Rent

"Rent" opened when I was in college as a music major.  It became almost compulsory to immediately memorize all the music and lyrics, but I didn't get to see the show until Todd took me for my birthday after we were married.  (He was so excited, he couldn't keep it a secret.)

The summer after I graduated college, I drove from western Wyoming to southern Illinois all by myself.  I listened to Rent the ENTIRE time.  And I don't think Todd and I have ever painted a room without listening to at least a few songs from it.

Todd and I even considered having "I'll Cover You" as our wedding song.  (For those of you who don't know the show, it's a lovely love song, but sung by two men...not that you can tell they're both men if you're just listening.  We thought it might be pushing things a bit to do that to all of our LDS family and friends in attendance.)

My first year of teaching I had the kids sing "Seasons of Love" at one of my first concerts as their director.  

If you've ever said any of the following things to me and I zoned out it's because I was using the lyrics from Rent to complete the sentance in my head.  My apologies.

- "You look familiar."  (like your dead girlfriend)

- "Ew" (It tastes the same.  If you close your eyes.  And thirteen orders of fries.  Is that it here?  Wine and beer!)

- "Yoga."  (To yogurt! To rice and beans and cheese!...)

-"Langston Hughs."  (To the stage!)

- "Mark."  (Mark!  Mark!  I'm Mark!)

- "Doc Martins."  (I'll kiss your Doc Martins.  Let me kiss your Doc Martins!  Your every wish I will obey!)

- "We're okay."  (We're.  O. K.)

- "Just wanted to call."  (and say 'we love you' and we'll miss you tomorrow.  Cindy and the kids are here, send their love-Oh!  I hope you like the hotplate.  Just don't leave it on, dear when you leave the house.  And Mark, we're sorry to hear that Maureen left you, I say 'C'est la vie'.  So let her be a lesbian.  There are other fishies in the sea.  Love, Mo-om!)

- "Angel."  (I'm Angel.  Aaaaaangel.  Indeed.)

-"Nice tree."  (Let's get a band-aid for your knee.)

The list goes on and on and on.  But twelve years after the show opened on Broadway, it's still in my head in full force.   It is full of clever twists and double meanings which is my favorite type of show.  It's the same reason I love Sondheim's stuff.  I love composers/lyricists who can provide singable tunes with quick wit.  Jonathon Larson certainly did that and it's so sad that he wasn't able to see the fruits of his labor.  (He died of an aortic aneurism after a final dress rehearsal in 1996.)





4 comments:

Linnea said...

What did you think of the movie?

Emilia said...

I thought the movie was done as well as it could have been done. It's not an easy show to translate from stage to screen. I think I'm going to try to see the film of the closing show.

Unknown said...

oh goodness! a girl after my own heart! Eli and I love this show so very much. He still hasn't seen a live performance though!

By the way..."what's the time?"

Emilia said...

"Well, it's gotta be close to midnight!"