Post by Lissa on May 10, 2006 9:08:08 GMT -5
Nice review Nancy!
It's funny, because I actually agree with pretty much everything you said. Character development was lacking, and yes, they sang just about everything. (And the only reason they didn't sing about going to the store for more milk was because they were broke and didn't have the money to go buy milk with.) The funny thing is- I LOVE that. In fact, I was annoyed that there was spoken dialogue, and thought that the whole thing would have been better sung.
I do think that one's expectations of Rent influence how much they'll like it. You expected to cry. I expected... well, I'm not sure, but I didn't have very many expectations. I didn't expect it to hit me hard, so I think I was less let down on that score.
I would argue, however, that there was more meaning and significance to the songs than to the dialogue, and that's actually where you're meant to look for the development. I remember this one class I took in high school called American Musical Theater or something like that. We'd read the musical, and then listen to each song, and after every song the teacher would ask "what is the purpose of this song?" There's always a purpose to it, and I think people tend to dismiss it because it's music.
I didn't say it in my review, but two other thoughts on Rent:
-I still really can't stand Mimi. On repeated viewings, it's gone from dislike to really not liking her at all.
-I figured out why the Joanne-Maureen romance bugs me. If you want to write a romance that doesn't work or where you get frustrated with the participants, great! Love it! But the frustration needs to be equal. I sympathized a LOT more with Joanne, who I thought was pretty reasonable and wanted reasonable things from a partner, than I did with Maureen. And because my frustrations with them weren't balanced, it didn't work for me.
Oh well.
But yeah- I really enjoyed this review and was psyched Justin posted it today, because he mentioned it to me and I really wanted to read it. I think it's interesting that we both agree that the same elements are there (and yes, there's a major cheesy aspect. I mean, what are the odds of a group of friends having one lesbian couple, one gay male couple, one het couple, and one single person? Seriously.), but the extent that they bother us to (or that we enjoy them) is totally different.
Out of curiousity, what do you think of other musicals that are almost entirely sung, like Phantom of the Opera and (MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE ALREADY) Les Mis?
It's funny, because I actually agree with pretty much everything you said. Character development was lacking, and yes, they sang just about everything. (And the only reason they didn't sing about going to the store for more milk was because they were broke and didn't have the money to go buy milk with.) The funny thing is- I LOVE that. In fact, I was annoyed that there was spoken dialogue, and thought that the whole thing would have been better sung.
I do think that one's expectations of Rent influence how much they'll like it. You expected to cry. I expected... well, I'm not sure, but I didn't have very many expectations. I didn't expect it to hit me hard, so I think I was less let down on that score.
I would argue, however, that there was more meaning and significance to the songs than to the dialogue, and that's actually where you're meant to look for the development. I remember this one class I took in high school called American Musical Theater or something like that. We'd read the musical, and then listen to each song, and after every song the teacher would ask "what is the purpose of this song?" There's always a purpose to it, and I think people tend to dismiss it because it's music.
I didn't say it in my review, but two other thoughts on Rent:
-I still really can't stand Mimi. On repeated viewings, it's gone from dislike to really not liking her at all.
-I figured out why the Joanne-Maureen romance bugs me. If you want to write a romance that doesn't work or where you get frustrated with the participants, great! Love it! But the frustration needs to be equal. I sympathized a LOT more with Joanne, who I thought was pretty reasonable and wanted reasonable things from a partner, than I did with Maureen. And because my frustrations with them weren't balanced, it didn't work for me.
Oh well.
But yeah- I really enjoyed this review and was psyched Justin posted it today, because he mentioned it to me and I really wanted to read it. I think it's interesting that we both agree that the same elements are there (and yes, there's a major cheesy aspect. I mean, what are the odds of a group of friends having one lesbian couple, one gay male couple, one het couple, and one single person? Seriously.), but the extent that they bother us to (or that we enjoy them) is totally different.
Out of curiousity, what do you think of other musicals that are almost entirely sung, like Phantom of the Opera and (MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE ALREADY) Les Mis?
