D&S #8 - Rent/tick, tick... BOOM!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To celebrate the purloining of America, we discuss another stolen work: Rent! This 90s Pultizer- and Tony-winning classic, in revival now at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, earned billions for straight creator Jonathan Larson's estate by billing itself as THE standard for gritty, authentic portrayals of life with AIDS, even though Larson stole its queer narrative elements from writer Sarah Schulman, only to sideline and caricature them to make the play more palatable for mainstream audiences.

But damn, those songs...

We do our best to untie this tricky knot this week by discussing Signature's revival, Schulman's book Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America, and Netflix's new film adaptation of Larson's autobiographical musical tick, tick... BOOM!, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

And we do it all with our very first guest, Documenta's sister and ally extraordinaire Kelly (aka "Dingle Aunty")!!!

It's the perfect après-dinde!  

If you're still hungry for more queer turkey day content, don't miss last week's lesbian holiday homo-coming episode on Home for the Holidays and Happiest Season.

Happy eating, b*tches!