This year in “We Are Much Older Than We’d Like To Believe” news, Rent celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Broadway debut, and we celebrated by dedicated an entire week to all things Rent, a musical that changed our lives as tweens.
But as tweens, we didn’t fully comprehend every line and plot until we were adults, which can change your perspective on the show as a whole. Here are some things we missed as 12 year olds but definitely get now.
I Should Tell You: Things From Rent I Didn’t Understand As A Tween
Everything about Contact
T: I believe I was 13 when I saw Rent for the first time (full disclosure, I’ve seen it 8 times in total), and true story – I went with my church youth group. I didn’t go to a super progressive church, however I did go to a United Church of Christ, which used rainbows in all their logos for a while because they were pro-equality and stuff. Anyways, it was a group outing sans parents, and it was a majority of my friends and like two of our cool youth group leaders. However, when it came time for Contact, a scene which simulates sex, I was uncomfy to the max. I looked down at my program, attempted to stare at other non-condom looking pieces on the stage, but I mostly just blocked it out of my first Rent experience. I even skipped over the song when I listened to the soundtrack (I know, #prude). It took me a while before I could listen to it for what it actually was, and why it held importance to the story as a whole. Stay safe out there, kids.
Falling Quickly
M: In sixth grade, it didn’t occur to me that Jack and Rose’s epic romance was actually a few days of pre-dating infatuation. At the same age, I also missed that the whole first act of Rent is just Christmas, pretty much. Which means that Angel and Collins go from zero to I’ll Cover you real, real fast. Of course there’s more immediacy when best cast scenario you’re about to get evicted and worse case scenario, you have AIDS, but for some reason I thought everyone knew each other longer.
Cookies + Sangria 