They don't own or RENT, they wank
Well, it's not Harry Potter related, so that has to be worth something, right?

So, BroadwayWorld is a board dedicated to all things Broadway. It acquired a sardonic Sondheim-esque personality rather quickly, but also has a contingent of very excitable fans of Wicked/RENT/BKLYN/whatever is currently popular and has really devoted fans, which is often a cause of, well, you can imagine. Of concern here are RENTheads, the devoted followers of the musical RENT.

RENT, which is more or less an updated version of Puccini's La Boheme, follows the story of poor young Bohemians, several of whom have AIDS. The writer of this musical, Jonathan Larson, died tragically and never got to see just how wanky successful his musical was.

Because Larson felt strongly that "Bohemians" should be able to see the show, there are seats in the front which sell for a very low price. While this is a nice idea, it led to an enduring culture of RENTheads, some of whom camp out at the theatre to see the show numerous times.

Today, fengshuihellnyc discovers that the 10th Anniversary show (in a year) is going to be a benefit at $1000 a pop, which obviously is SO WRONG and against St. Jonathan Larson and all he stood for, not to mention encourages the rich NY elite! He/she also suggests that people keep posting to keep the thread alive all year! EVERYTHING SHOULD BE FOR THE FANS!

"Ok everyone, and I know there are a lot of you on her who love rent. We as fans have a mission to do and just under a year to achieve it. It was just posted on Playbill.com and on the New york theatre workshops website that the tickets start for the rent benefit at $1000 bucks. Please this is rediculous. I completely understand that this is a benefit for a GREAT cause. But this is not a show for the fans.... doesn't everyone think that the show should be for the fans. This is Bull$hit. I'm sorry... the reason the show has become so popular is because of the fans. The average person cannot afford $1000 bucks to go to something like this. Doesn't this kindof go against what the show is about... Money Money Money attitude. Hello Bohemians out there I think we need to make our voice heard. I think we should start giving feedback on this all year so they can't ignore us. Email them once a day telling the Larson Family How much this is completely unfair to the fans. The fans deserve to see the show not some rich stuffy people who can't even comprehend what the show is about. And if they eventually say that there will be one row of 100 buck seats thats not enough we deserve our own performance. I know there are those of you who feel the exact same way. SO lets speak out and tell them how we feel. My suggestion is to write a nice email (I SAID NICE) to the larson foundation and cc to all of the right people.... so The New York theatre workshop, Playbill, and BroadwayWorld tell them how unfair to the fans this is.

To read the playbill article click here

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/94176.html

To see the NYWS site go here:

http://www.nytw.org/rent_benefit.asphttp://www.nytw.org/rent_benefit.asp

To go to the Johnathan Larson performing Arts foundation go here:

http://www.nytw.org/rent_benefit.asphttp://www.nytw.org/rent_benefit.asp


Please email to the following addresses with your voice to make a 10th anniv. performance of rent for the fans not elite society:

jlpaf@jlpaf.org JONATHAN LARSON PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION

rent10@nytw.org The New York Theatre Workshop

rsimonson@playbill.com PLAYBILL.COM Editor

go to this address to paste email in form to send email to BroadwayWorld

http://www.broadwayworld.com/contact.cfm


Come on Guys we need to do this. The fans were the one that made this show soooooo successful not the rich elite. This so goes against everything that RENT is about. Even if you don't live in NY... if you agree with me please email make your voice heard, tell the Larsons how you feel.

Also please continue to post here regularly so that we may keep this going all year."

Meanwhile, people who think that is completely insane show up! People are snarky!

SueleenGay: "Oh. My. God. I will pray that you find something more meaningful to concentrate your effort on. Perhaps they will do a lottery? I mean you probably wouldn't be happy unless you had to camp out for a couple of days without showering while singing Seasons Of Love 24/7 and crying at the thought that you may not be one of the lucky ones to get a ticket, but hugging and cheering each and every person as THEIR names are called...and then if you DO get in you can scream and yell and sing along at the top of your lungs and ruin it for everybody who doesn't deserve to be there in the first place because they are not true FANS!!!!!

Yes, I will pray..."

fengshuihellnyc (who has apparently seen the show 100 times, thus causing others to wonder why he/she doesn't save if it's that important to see this show) is not daunted, and Private Messages people to tell them to stop their negative hating and cease posting on the thread he/she has created. People point out that he/she doesn't own the thread! People try to make clear that it's a benefit concert and the point is to raise money for causes Larson believed in! fengshuihellnyc claims to have been threatened! Other people agree that it all goes against the spirit of RENT and turns it into a yuppified commercial event! Grammar and spelling are lampooned!

And it's still going! It can only get more exciting from here!

(Disclaimer: not all RENTheads are crazy. I think.)

Update: Sadly, all five pages have now vanished, although some minor fallout may appear here as well as in perhaps not so fond mockery here. And fengshuihellnyc was threatening to return under other names to keep the dream alive...

Further Update: This person of bad feng shui will not be vanquished! Let's see how long this one lasts! It's becoming car-crashingly like his/her first post! Be there for pooh-poohed dreams and so much more.

And there's more! (Thanks, wallflower!) Apparently a "pitition" was started and mentioned in a thread that has since been deleted.

Additionally, the "pooh-poohed dreams" thread has also been deleted, but not before it was dramatically revealed that: He/she is now claiming that it was all an "experiment."

According to fengshuihellnyc, "There is a long list of people here who should be deleted for insighting [sic] here." Apparently he/she works full-time at a major organization, and this whole thing was all to show how mean people are at BroadwayWorld. Or... something. And he/she will be back, sometime, under another name, to demonstrate now evil all the "thread-jackers" are.

"In a couple of months at randon there will be another post that noone will know and then we'll see. So all you Thread Jackers beware.... you might be the butt of some ones joke." [sic sic sic]

Keep that in mind, folks.

And, it isn't really a substitute for the lost wank, but LJ is getting in on the action in a sort of parallel yet much less wanky way (so far) here. (Thanks, dommichan!)