034 Revue program

Creator

Arkansas State University - Jonesboro

Preview

Identifier

Revue Program_Page_34

Creation Date

4-23-2021

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Theatre and Performance Studies

Description

DRAMATURGY - “FINALE B”

“Finale B” is a song from the rock musical Rent which premiered on Broadway in 1996. The music, lyrics and book were written by Jonathan Larson. Rent is a story about a group of young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan’s East Village under the shadow of aids and HIV. Larson loosely based this musical on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Boheme. Many of the characters and plot elements are drawn directly from the opera.

Rent is also somewhat autobiographical, as Larson incorporated many elements of his own life into the show drawing inspiration from real life events such as the 1988 East Village riot. Larson passed away from an aortic dissection the morning before the show’s first preview performance off Broadway.

Rent won four Tony awards as well as a Pulitzer. Critics praised characters like Angel, a HIV+ genderfluid street drummer and her lover Collins, a computer genius and former teacher with AIDS, for their positive outlooks on life rather than just being resigned to death. Rent gained followers who named themselves “Rent-heads”, fans who camped in front of the theaters for hours to get discounted tickets. The success of the show led to several national tours and in 2005 it was adapted into a motion picture featuring most of the original Broadway cast.

“Finale B” (often called “No Day but Today”) is the last song in the show and is a compilation of previous songs such as “Another Day,” “Life Support,” “Without you,” and “Will I?” All of these songs also use the phrase “No day but today,” which is the center of the show. That phrase means to live each day as if it’s your last. The song begins when Mimi, a drug addict, HIV+ exotic dancer, is revived after a near death experience. After a few sentences of spoken dialogue between all the characters, Mark, a film director who has been documenting the friends throughout the show begins with the first line in the song, “There is no future, there is not past,” then Roger, a struggling musician and HIV positive, begins with the next line who is then joined by his love interest Mimi until all of the characters are joined in unison. This is a scene that brought audience members to tears and was a beautiful end to the show.

Publisher

Arkansas State University

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.