Musical Sunday!
Jun. 27th, 2010 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalYou know how there are certain things in your life that define you as a generation, that leave an indelible mark on the memories of your childhood or your teen years? This week, I want to talk about Rent.
"Maureen, I'm not a theater person... I'll never be a theater person." - Joanne
I grew up as a theater person. I spent seven years in the drama club, both on and off the stage. I've seen more musicals than I can count. But there were certain shows that went beyond personal favorites, shows that seeped into the collective consciousness of my social group. The first one I remember was Les Miserables (I remember thinking, back in 7th grade or so, "What is this 'Lay Miz' everyone's talking about?"). It was a slow burn - they were gearing up for the 10th anniversary concert by the time it really caught on, but rest assured that EVERY cabaret show our school put on after that included about five people wanting to sing "On My Own" or "I Dreamed a Dream."
Then came Rent.
"To being an 'us' for once, instead of a 'them.' La vie Boheme!" - Mark
Thinking back now, it amuses me a little that we - middle class white kids from suburbs - felt a connection with the multicultural Bohemian characters. But Rent was about freedom and rebellion - not from an oppressive government like Les Mis, but from our parents and social norms - and there was nothing we wanted more. It was about sex and drugs and poverty and HIV, and that gave it mystique because people didn't want to talk about those things. And it's a show about outcasts, and did I mention we were the drama club? lol
My freshman year of high school, we did dance warm-ups to "La Vie Boheme" before our rehearsals. My sophomore year, the high school choir sang "Seasons of Love" for the winter concert. "No Day But Today" was our catchphrase - it was on T-shirts and signed in yearbooks, and dammit, if we'd had Facebook back then, it would've been in our profiles. And later that year, we went to see the show on Broadway and afterward we had a workshop with the cast, and we were so proud that we had this connection. "This is our show, too," we wanted to tell them. It's a show that is now inseparable from my high school experience for me.
"No other road. No other way. No day but today." - Mimi
This is a clip from the movie, which, as movie versions of musicals go, is pretty darn good. It's mostly the original Broadway cast, so it's kind of like watching your kids grow up, seeing Idina Menzel (yes, that's her mooning the camera) and Jesse L. Martin back in these roles after the success they've had elsewhere (that dude from Law & Order's got game, yo!). And Adam Pascal with his Bon Jovi hair, lol! It cracks me up thinking of all the girls who had crushes on him back in the day. (I was a Mark fan, personally.)
Bonus video - as much as I love Anthony Rapp like kittens, I couldn't let this one go by without mentioning that Neil Patrick Harris played Mark in Los Angeles. That dude playing Roger isn't great, but - NPH!!
"Maureen, I'm not a theater person... I'll never be a theater person." - Joanne
I grew up as a theater person. I spent seven years in the drama club, both on and off the stage. I've seen more musicals than I can count. But there were certain shows that went beyond personal favorites, shows that seeped into the collective consciousness of my social group. The first one I remember was Les Miserables (I remember thinking, back in 7th grade or so, "What is this 'Lay Miz' everyone's talking about?"). It was a slow burn - they were gearing up for the 10th anniversary concert by the time it really caught on, but rest assured that EVERY cabaret show our school put on after that included about five people wanting to sing "On My Own" or "I Dreamed a Dream."
Then came Rent.
"To being an 'us' for once, instead of a 'them.' La vie Boheme!" - Mark
Thinking back now, it amuses me a little that we - middle class white kids from suburbs - felt a connection with the multicultural Bohemian characters. But Rent was about freedom and rebellion - not from an oppressive government like Les Mis, but from our parents and social norms - and there was nothing we wanted more. It was about sex and drugs and poverty and HIV, and that gave it mystique because people didn't want to talk about those things. And it's a show about outcasts, and did I mention we were the drama club? lol
My freshman year of high school, we did dance warm-ups to "La Vie Boheme" before our rehearsals. My sophomore year, the high school choir sang "Seasons of Love" for the winter concert. "No Day But Today" was our catchphrase - it was on T-shirts and signed in yearbooks, and dammit, if we'd had Facebook back then, it would've been in our profiles. And later that year, we went to see the show on Broadway and afterward we had a workshop with the cast, and we were so proud that we had this connection. "This is our show, too," we wanted to tell them. It's a show that is now inseparable from my high school experience for me.
"No other road. No other way. No day but today." - Mimi
This is a clip from the movie, which, as movie versions of musicals go, is pretty darn good. It's mostly the original Broadway cast, so it's kind of like watching your kids grow up, seeing Idina Menzel (yes, that's her mooning the camera) and Jesse L. Martin back in these roles after the success they've had elsewhere (that dude from Law & Order's got game, yo!). And Adam Pascal with his Bon Jovi hair, lol! It cracks me up thinking of all the girls who had crushes on him back in the day. (I was a Mark fan, personally.)
Bonus video - as much as I love Anthony Rapp like kittens, I couldn't let this one go by without mentioning that Neil Patrick Harris played Mark in Los Angeles. That dude playing Roger isn't great, but - NPH!!
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Date: Jun. 28th, 2010 06:27 am (UTC)I do have great memories of some performances of La Boheme. Also, being the guy who wanted to take the girl to an opera was kinda cool. I really did love it, though. I was a romantic at heart, I think. There was one performance of "Quando Me'n Vo Soletta" that really almost had me in tears. I manned up the best I could, but it kept stabbing me for days and days afterward.
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Date: Jun. 28th, 2010 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 28th, 2010 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 28th, 2010 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 28th, 2010 11:36 pm (UTC)What are the other 5? :)