inconsistency in Rent (the musical)
A thought occurred to me this morning that might serious hinder my love of Rent, or at least give me something to rant on about it.
The background arc of the whole first half of the musical is how this open space that can be put to use by the homeless and by bohemian artists is going to be torn down and replaced with an office building. Maureen's existence in the first act is as the artist who is so protesting this idea that she writes herself a one-woman, one-act play to present in that very space. She cares about it. She is personally invested.
Yet when she shows up at the end of act 1 (riding her motorcycle through a crowded flea-market-type area of Alphabet City in seeming disregard for injuring other people) her first line is, "Joanne, which way to the stage?"
She doesn't know where her performance space is? The one she's written a play to save? The one she's so vehemently protesting the removal of?
The background arc of the whole first half of the musical is how this open space that can be put to use by the homeless and by bohemian artists is going to be torn down and replaced with an office building. Maureen's existence in the first act is as the artist who is so protesting this idea that she writes herself a one-woman, one-act play to present in that very space. She cares about it. She is personally invested.
Yet when she shows up at the end of act 1 (riding her motorcycle through a crowded flea-market-type area of Alphabet City in seeming disregard for injuring other people) her first line is, "Joanne, which way to the stage?"
She doesn't know where her performance space is? The one she's written a play to save? The one she's so vehemently protesting the removal of?