On: Considering the Fools, the Uncs, and the Business Majors

Design Courtesy of John-Michael Valat De Cordova

NEW YORK CITY – This “ete indien”, I want to consider the fools, the uncs, and the business majors. Last year was tough for me, I dropped out of St. John’s College (and went back to community college), the prediction model for the collective was lowkey wrong (thanks Diana!), and I had perhaps the grandest and longest crash out of my life. However, there is something hauntingly beautiful about it. That’s why, I’m reviewing the hit broadway music of the 1990s, Rent.

If you were born in this millenia, or were not born in the greatest city in the world, unlike the author of this article, then I will explain to you the great “christmas movie” (as claimed by my Father) that is Rent: The Musical, we don’t speak of the movie on this website. 

The basic story of the musical is this: a group of friends who live in downtown Manhattan ,with one traitor who sold-out by marrying a rich woman who he will blatantly cheat on throughout the play, and moved to Westchester County, NY, are forced to pay back-rent. 

Benny, the villain of the story, bought the building that his friends live in, and now wants to make them pay rent. Instead of paying rent, the starving artists who occupy it go on a rent strike, and refuse to pay Benny anything. This is because they have a “handshake” agreement with Benny saying that they wouldn’t have to, but they do not have this in writing. 

The story, on its surface, is just about a small movement against a proverbially “big” villain who, in all but name, betrayed his friends. It isn’t particularly complex on the surface, however, the musical is a hit. Why? Well, the writer of the musical died the night of the off-broadway premier. 

It should also be noted that Rent acknowledges the AIDs crisis, with multiple characters (a decent chunk of whom are straight) having AIDs, one of which died. Mimi, the 19 year old junkie who lives in a nearby apartment to another character, Roger, is her love interest and an aspiring rock-star who never quite got his big break. A no-hit wonder, if you will.

If you’re saying, “that’s gay” because there is a love story in this musical, then let me tell you, that you are in fact stupid. However, if you aren’t infected with a manosphere algorithm, let me explain the character Angel. Angel is a trans woman who is introduced as being such a good drum player that a wealthy woman paid her to kill a dog just by playing it, and the dog does. Angel is the first person to die in the musical. She is also the love interest of the philosophy professor who changed universities from MIT to NYU after reprogramming all of the VR headsets to say “Actual reality! ACT now! Rise up!” in MIT. 

It is, fundamentally, the story of the New Yorker starving artist. In fact, it is an adaptation of La Boheme, a musical focusing on a similar story in Paris around the 1830s. “La Vie Boheme”, which is reprised, is the evident evidence of this. It also explores the characters of Mark, who is a documentarian who is also the roommate of Roger. He films protests in downtown New York that result in the rent strike and gets a big break by submitting it as a newsreel to a local news station. 

Rent, in my mind, isn’t quite a Christmas movie. Mostly, because it’s a musical that has been recorded live and recorded as a film. However, I would say that it is a New York musical, let me elaborate. It is quite clearly one of the seminal works on Broadway, but it is in between being a “classic” and a modern musical, it isn’t Hamilton, there is no glitz, no glam. It is a reflection upon yourself of the New Yorker. Of those who leave, those who stay, and those who just want money at the cost of all of their relationships, the “amoral”.