RENT on repeat non-stop

Hi!

I have seven friends, and they are the strangers on a 2019 Spotify Community thread who railed against the music platform for losing the Original Broadway Cast recording of RENT. Here is their discussion in full, typos left uncorrected:

Original Poster (my best friend): Recently the music that I listen to on repeat has been removed from spotify? I listen to the Original Broadway Cast version of the musical RENT, however just last week, almost all of the music has been removed and replaced with "Selections from the Original Broadway Cast" or the album from the Original Motion Picture. These songs are NOT the same and I am very dissappointed that the music that I listen to on repeat  non-stop has been removed from the usic streaming service that I pay for. I am looking for some answers to how I can get my music back, please?

Friend #2: I know. Why is no one talking about this? They got rid of some of my favorite songs like La Vie Bohème and You Okay Honey. It’s just not the same in the Rent Live recording and the Rent Movie recording doesn’t have all the songs. Just wanted to let you know you’re not alone. 

Friend #3: I am looking for the same music! I’ve listened to the whole soundtrack before, and now it’s missing. If I’m paying for the service I’d like to know where the music I love has gone. 

Friend #4: What gives? This is crazy! Bring it back!

Friend #5: I just discovered this as well. I don't listen to the soundtrack all the time, but at least 1-2 times a month. I really don't get it - they basically neutered the broadway version. WHY?! 

Friend #6: Agreed.  This is useless... come on Spotify.  At least give us an answer! 

Friend #7: I know, I’m so upset about this! I wish they’d give us an answer. Bring it back, Spotify!!

I am looking for some answers. Why is no one talking about this. Just wanted to let you know you’re not alone. Bring it back, Spotify. These RENT fans are not just my friends – they are my family, and their words speak for me in full. The eight of us are comrades on a righteous quest for accountability; we are truth-tellers who will not be silenced; we are the granddaughters of the witches you couldn’t burn because your candle’s out and that was my last match, our eyes’ll adjust, thank god for the moon, maybe it’s not the moon at all, I hear Spike Lee’s shooting down the street, bah humbug, bah humbug.

If you think I’m being facetious, ok yeah maybe a little, but also I really really really love RENT in earnest. How much do I love it? I un-ironically enjoyed Fox’s universally-maligned RENT: Live. My instinct is still to defend that whole cast: yes, Valentina botched the end of “Today 4 U,” but it was the dress rehearsal footage, she was giving it her all, and can you play Angel?? Any critiques I can come up with are absolved by my unconditional love of the musical. Other childhood loves (Trix yogurt, talking on the phone, Harry Potter) have soured, evolved, faded – RENT persists.

When I say “childhood love,” I mean childhood love. Like, I remember listening to the OBC soundtrack with my mom while reading The Secrets of Droon; the book’s cover art tells you I was eight, tops.

In 5th grade when it was announced that we’d be singing “Seasons of Love” at our elementary school graduation ceremony, I was simultaneously thrilled beyond measure and filled with panic: how to convey to these snot-nosed novices that I know this song? That I could discern, clear as day, that we were singing along to the Stevie Wonder karaoke track version specifically? I had to prove my expert status, so I asked my teacher Mrs. Ryan if I could bring in my RENT two-disc CD set to play for the class. She said yes. (Tangent: does anyone else remember asking a teacher if you could share something with the class and they were just like “yeah sure, I’ll fit that in”? I was allowed to do this a lot and I’m not sure if that’s a universal experience or a me thing.)

So a few days later Mrs. Ryan played the Act II CD, which opens with “Seasons of Love,” as background music for Quiet Reading Time. We made it three songs in, at which point Idina Menzel croons “ever since puberty/everybody stares at me/boys, girls – I can’t help it, baby.” The CD was abruptly yanked out of the class boom box. I looked up guiltily from my copy of The Giver – was I in trouble? Was RENT… age-inappropriate?? I had more or less learned the show’s lyrics phonetically. If there are, say, 526,000 nouns in the script, I knew the definition of maybe 12. What can I say? I was too busy daydreaming about playing Mark one day (???) to investigate the meaning of “curry vindaloo,” “MIT,” or “sodomy.” And if I’m being honest, I still don’t know what those things are.

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THREE PRIMARY SOURCES FOR A DBQ ABOUT MY LOVE OF RENT IN MY EARLY TEENS

Document A: the transcript of a 7th grade AIM conversation with my soon-to-be girlfriend. We spent an hour talking about RENT and only RENT; this chat was the tipping point in my decision that I had a crush and I should ask her out (she said “um ok” and then broke up with me 11 days later). The conversation is so embarrassing that I legally can’t share it in full, but here’s a snippet where we very tastefully discuss the playwright Jonathan Larson:

I am potter78geek.

Document B: photos of me, the summer before high school, writing in the RENT fan guest book at the Life Cafe in NYC.

I just tried zooming in to read my message, but the text is too pixelated to fully decipher. From what I can make out it says: “I have loved RENT for so long, I’m sort of [illegible] to be here at the Life Cafe. I know that I will always love it, and will never stop singing “La Vie Boheme” under my breathe :)”

Document C: Film footage of the 7th & 8th grade Maplewood Middle School chorus singing “Seasons of Love.”

This video requires a preface. Our music teacher Mrs. Bradshaw didn’t want us to perform at the music department winter concert – she wanted us to shut down the music department winter concert, and “Seasons of Love” was her silver bullet (her One Song Glory, if you will). Her vision: 50-ish kids stand on an auditorium stage in total darkness. Blacklights switch on, illuminating just our hands because REVEAL, we’re all wearing white gloves. The piano intro swells. As we start to sing, our glowing, disembodied hands perform a ghostly dance to the music. In perfect unison, we hold up five fingers, two fingers, five fingers, six fingers. We pantomime sipping a cup of coffee; we hold our fingers a small distance apart for “in inches” and our arms wide for “in miles.” We act out the entire song (which we are singing beautifully), and the whole thing goes down in MMStory.

This concept was some Maureen-level shit, but just like Maureen’s performance at the 11th Street lot, we ran into some technical difficulties. Difficulty #1: lighting. The auditorium wasn’t light-proofed, the blacklights Mrs. Bradshaw obtained weren’t, like, incredible, and our concert uniform was black pants + white shirt. Our gloves weren’t going to visually pop like they were supposed to, especially because of Difficulty #2: Mrs. Bradshaw didn’t get enough gloves for everyone?? Instead, most of us were handed rolls of toilet paper and ordered to mummify our fingers. This was decidedly less glam than an elegantly-gloved hand, but hey, on with the show.

Except things continued to get worse as the show went on. Difficulty #3: we couldn’t see Mrs. Bradshaw conducting. Difficulty #4: the accompaniment CD started to skip, causing the first soloist to lose her place in the song. Difficulty: #5: we as a group were not very good singers.

Enough with the preface, you say? Ok, go ahead and watch the chaos for yourself (if you dare).

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I thought a lot about RENT this week because of the New York Theatre Workshop’s recent 25 Years of Rent Virtual Benefit. I didn’t tune in to the event, but I read the Vulture recap and got in my feelings about it. 25 years! And it only gets more iconic! And stays relevant! Every few years RENT makes its way back into the zeitgeist. Remember when the Parkland kids sang “Seasons of Love” at the Tony’s?? The Tony’s said we DARE you not to cry >:)

The other day I thought to myself: wow. This past year has felt exactly like being tied to the hood of a yellow rental truck, being packed in with fertilizer and fuel oil, pushed over a cliff by a suicidal Mickey Mouse.

So to circle back to the beginning: how dare Spotify not have the Original Broadway Cast recording fully available! I’m supposed to listen to “Christmas Bells” on YouTube?!? What am I to do when I want to (and I will want to) run to “Voicemail #5”????? And don’t get me STARTED on the disrespect to Ms. Daphne Rubin-Vega!!! To quote a friend: why is no one talking about this?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?