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I adored Larry Kramer. He had a temper, but his anger was righteous. His style of activist work did not belong in GMHC, but Act Up, he was amazing. And I love that he used his professional talent of being a writer to teach the world what he and the gay community in particular were living through. He was loud before, during and after the AIDS crisis. RIP Larry.

Couldn't watch this..... the American over sensitivity in how they display words was too much to bare. Faggot the title of the book was not mentioned and only half shown. By doing this, they fuel its use it use as insult. By doing this, they have encouraged its use as a derogatory name. Queer was once an insult since it's been owned by the gay community, it has now become an acceptable term. I worked in a masculine job. My nic name was faggot. While it may have started as insult by one person , it soon became established. Just as the red-haired guy was known as ginger. It also allowed the guys to accept me for who I am. Words only become insults if you allow it.

So gilbert and sulivan are what to you? A little pony show? To assume that these half bit culture clips are the pinnacle of American theater is tantamount to saying that Kanye West invented philosophy. They were important to shed light on the epidemic blighting the condom hating community, but Mikado is real theater that cultural puff pieces don't come close to no matter how whiney or reductionist their authors.

This was a very well done video. While I definitely don’t mind the criticism of RENT, I often wonder if Larson would have fixed the issues in the show in its off-broadway version had he not died

This was all to cover up for @n+h0n¥ f@uc¡ selling us out to the medical industrial complex. Now they want to emasculate gay men practically at birth for refusing to conform to oppressive sexual stereotypes.

first off, MARVIN IS NOT BISEXUAL. IN TROUSERS IS NOT ABOUT MARVIN BEING BISEXUAL! many of the parts that seem to imply that are actually just dealing with his motherly issues and therefore his yearning for unconditional love, (from a wife and kids) and his shame regarding his own sexuality and how he tries to repress it by convincing himself to love women.... Marvin is gay full stop. ALSO IN TROUSERS IS NOT FORGETTABLE OR MID! sure its abstract and hard to understand, but that's one of the great joys of it. sure, if you listen once and move on you may not think much of it but the more time u put into understanding it the more beautiful it becomes, piece after piece unfolding. Its incredibly personal because it's so abstract that one line could mean many things, and it can mean something personal or relatable to you. Sure its juvenile and lacking in experience, but its also completely raw, and sometimes some of the first things to come out are some of the best, because theyre straight from the heart, no expectations.

Great video! I love learning about musical theater history

Great video!

Larson wrote rent through the prospective of his own life, thats why Mimi and Roger are the main couple, and its why they are such a disfunctional couple that really shouldn't be together. He also saw people he cared about die from this disease, his best friend who he cared about the most got HIV, i feel like Mimi not dying in the end was his own way of coping and giving some hope in a time when it was hard to find. Im sure that's not a perfect representation, but i dont think that's what he was going for.

do you by chance happen to have the link to the bootleg video of the 80's starmites you talked about? there is no official recording i can find of it and i would love to see it, even if poor quality.

grate connate

Personally, I think every one of your podcasts should have “Arrested Development”-like interjections from producer Daphne Finlayson. Then again, I’m a bit biased. 😊

Tell Paul that Scot ADORES “Knock On Wood”! 😊

Brilliant!

As a RENThead, there are 8 main characters. And La Vie Boheme is at the end of the FIRST act…. If you hate Rent so much, don’t cover it, cause your bias is heavily evident and I’d rather hear non-bias opinions… and do your research about Jonathan Larson… I love rent but I hate your thoughts on it.

Looks like it was an interesting new take

Wait, isn’t “La Vie Boheme” the end of Act 1?

Now let’s see a musical about the origins of AIDS, based on Dr. Hilary Koprowki’s use of chimps with SIV in created his polio vaccine and testing it on the huge local population.

Roy Cohn was actually a democrat who supported republicans.

hey this is all lighthearted, but in falsettos, marvin broke up with whizzer. during the chess scene, marvin let him win and broke up with him. whizzer declares that he never loved marvin, and that he wouldn’t be with someone like him anymore. that led marvin to go back to trina in a jealous rage.

damn this was very educational. i watched the entire video, i’m so surprised this doesn’t have more views. thank you for this

Note that Marvin isn’t bisexual, he’s gay

Awesome video!! Great analyses!! I just came upon your channel, while I was browsing, and I’m glad that I found this particular video!! I know that it’s not a “musical,” “but then again, neither are “Angels in America,”/“The Normal Heart,”) But it is a Wonderful, Terrence McNally play, So if you don’t mind, could suggest an “honorable mention,” in 1994’s “Love, Valor, Compassion?” Also, it would be great, if you can do another video, basically, like this one, but concentrate on how the Broadway cares community, helped in so many ways during, and since the H.I.V./ A.I.D.S. epidemic/pandemic first began. Better still, could you do a video, on the beautiful plays/musicals that focus on H.I.V./A.I.D.S., and concentrate on how the Broadway community came together, with the B.C./ E.F.A. (Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS), and HIV/AIDS crisis, in the 80s and 90s especially?! Many other plays, musicals, we’re written because of the AIDS crisis, and to raise money to provide, especially at the beginning, Anything, and Everything that AIDS victims needed. (Considering Reagan & his posse, treated HIV/AIDS like a joke,…and couldn’t even even Say, HIV or AIDS!! 🤬 Hopefully find interviews w/cast, crew members, producers, directors, Et Al, that tell the stories, how those plays or musicals came to be, and how their roles affected them, because of the AIDS crisis. Considering that they all were burying friends,…or maybe even burying their lovers, Et Al, it must have been agony. All of them, their Friends, these beautiful, talented souls, were dying, and it was happening Fast. At the same time, many of them, were HIV positive, or had full-blown AIDS, themselves. The plays/musicals that you mentioned are All perfect examples, but there are many more stories to tell, I’m sure! Thanks for reading my Long text!! 🙏🏽 😂 🤷🏻‍♀️ ☺️ Really tho, Best Wishes on Your Channel!!

I'm glad this topic led you to Larry Kramer's legacy. Today, people live with instead of die from AIDS, almost solely because of his activism and passion. He's a hero in the truest sense of the word

29:04 I disagree with your point here, yes Jonathan Larson was a straight white man as you said, but it’s said he based most of his characters and things in Rent of people that he knew and experiences he had as a struggling writer living a bohemian lifestyle. I get your point, but I think it’s great that he is able to highlight the stories of others as a writer in his way, and still provides great representation even if it’s not the absolute perfect version. Definitely good representation for the 90’s anyway

Well done! I'm a gay man in his 70's. I lived through this era. Thank you, there tears still in my eyes

Thanks for your essay on HIV/AIDS and its affect on live theatre. I will point out one thing...La Vie Boheme (24:36) takes place at the end of act 1 in Rent, not the top of act 2. Yes, the story is told mostly from Mark's perspective. However, as you yourself mentioned...Jonathan was a str8 white man. Why shouldn't the show be written from his perspective? He was clearly touched by so many of his gay, bi, trans friends...some of whom died before him due to the crisis. Writers tend to write from what they know. Sure, some from what they think they know. But often, it is from personal experiences. So, although Rent now 30 years on is considered a bit dated, it is still a great, catchy musical that allows younger people to understand what happened back then and is still happening now.

The video deserves so much more love❤

Great video! One note: Marvin is absolutely not bisexual, the whole trilogy is about him accepting himself as a homosexual man.

Tim Curry: *appears onscreen in a Merry Widow and fishnets* World: This better not awaken anything in me. Film’s creators: HA HA HA .

Absolutely amazing!!! I had to watch it a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss anything!

LOVE this video so much! Such a fabulous job ❤

Angels in America is great. There’s nothing wrong with how the people of color is written. It’s amazing how people jump on the ban wagon saying the show isn’t good. As a Gay Black Man, the show spoke to me, as it spoke to many. The “controversy” levied at Rent and Larson is Liberal BS. (And I’m a Liberal!). So it doesn’t cover EVERY aspect of Aids - personal stories and political - a show shouldn’t have to cover everything that comes with a specific topic. Get off your soap box… Rent is good. And it will stay that, with me.

Loved this! Utterly fascinating!

Why no mention of the glowing reviews Lea received and how she basically saved a show that Beanie ruined? Lol

Beanie was woefully miscast. I was mortified watching the sneak peek from the Funny Girl YT channel, mortified I say! I cringed at her attempts to sing the difficult score. Someone should have been honest with Beanie from the jump and tell her she cannot sing the role.

"why not do Gypsy"... because it's been on Broadway 5 times lol

the funny girl concert can be found here on youtube! it's a great performance, wish they had recorded a cast album th-cam.com/video/JERVMVAkWhY/w-d-xo.html

Lea had just had a baby in August 2020. Jane was all ready on a TV show that was picked up again. That was why she left.

Yul Brynner in his heyday could DEFINITELY get it!

I really don't want to be mean but I want to correct you about a few things regarding falsettos -the "male writers smh" comment kind of misses the point that Trina being unnamed is INTENTIONAL. We see In trousers from Marvin's eyes and he doesn't really care about her because he's at this point filled with internalized homophobia and mysogyny. It also makes sense that the only woman who has some kind of name is Miss Goldberg and she only has a last name because Marvin's relationship with her was more about her status than being actually personal. Mysogyny is a big theme in the trilogy, March of the falsettos was even originally going to be called "the pettiness of mysogyny" according to Finn. So yeah, it is very intentional, don't you dare come for my boy William Finn like this ever again 2. Marvin is not bisexual he's gay. Any source that says otherwise is incorrect, the reason he has relationships with women is because of the time he's in and because of compulsory heterosexuality. The musical literally tells you this already in In trousers in the song My chsnce to survive the night. We also see him not being comfortable with women and then the song Whizzer going down comes and it feels a lot free-er than the ones before (also notice how many times Whizzer's name is said for someone who doesn't even appear as a character yet. He's clearly more important to Marvin than any other character) and hell, Falsettoland starts with the word "homosexuals" referring to Marvin and Whizzer (and I guess kinda the lesbians too) That's it great video though!

This is so well done!

I’d pay to see a musical based on “Knives Out”!

I went into this without looking at the comments or view count but now that i'm about finished I'm floored at how little views this got. This was an amazing look into the topic and deserved much more attention and interaction. Thank you for putting in the work to make this!

What a great analysis! Deserves more views for sure! Appreciate the research and work!

My husband (Daph’s dad) and I just watched the Kevin Kline movie “Dave” (awesome movie). Kevin and Sigourney Weaver sing “Tomorrow”, so there’s another pop culture reference!

I would like to see more videos like this.

Well done. Analysis is an intellectual exercise that we do in a classroom setting led by a professor, or at home through a non-fiction book or essay designed to promote that mental process. It's not something we can do through fine or visual arts. We 'experience' theater, film, dance, and music. Exhibit A: those 35 dialogues written by Plato with Socrates as protagonist through dialogue as the medium of choice. Great analysis and examples of logic that we read in college. I defy you to turn any of them into a stage play.

Just wanted to add a comment about women’s roles in the 60s. Originally, Carol Brady in “The Brady Bunch” was supposed to be a divorcee, but that was considered too “shocking” for a sitcom, so the Powers That Be made her a widow instead.

Up until now I never knew how much I wanted to see a video about musical theatre during the depression. And yet here I am, munching on some popcorn and enjoying every second of it. What a wild time to be alive!