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Just A Blur · Bleeding Heart Cameraman Joined: 30 Nov 2009 Posts: 33

Has anyone ever tried to get your parents to watch RENT? I tried to get my mother to watch the Filmed Live version, but she said it was too racy for her. She gasped loudly when the F-word was used in Tango: Maureen and I "accidentally" had a couching fit during the homeless woman's rant. My parents are old-fashioned like that, but I was just wondering if any of you have shared it with your parents. How did it go?

melody · Newt's Lesbian Sister Joined: 03 Apr 2005 Posts: 2791

The first time I saw RENT was with my mom, and I've seen it several more times with her since then. She loves it!

But I'm 34 - I was already an adult when I saw it for the first time. And my mom is super cool. Wink

robin · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:27 pm Post subject:

I too saw it for the first time with my mom. She absolutely loved it, and has seen it a total of 3 times.
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annalisa · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:30 pm Post subject:

Both my parents love Rent. My mother absolutely adores Angel (and likes to dance to "T4U" in the kitchen... Shocked

) and my father is proud of the fact that he has seen Rent 7 times. My parents are strange... but super super amazing.
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KickAssDwarf · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 1:20 am Post subject:

I haven't tried, but they're not prudes or old-fashioned (hell, we had movie night with Jackass), so I can't imagine them gasping at much of anything in Rent. They like musicals and we've seen plenty together. Based on their reactions to the various recordings I've played around them, they just don't care for the music.

And I'm just a few years younger than Melody. Wink

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Kat... · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:23 am Post subject:

I mean, my parents lived in the city around the time Rent took place, so they're not shocked by much. They never loved the show as much as I did, but I know they were at the Nederlander a couple of times with me. My parents even duked it out a bit about who go with me to the last show. I'm sorry that your parents aren't as supportive. Good luck!
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kellymarie465 · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:33 am Post subject:

My mom took me to see Rent for the first time when I was 12. I'm 17 now!
I've seen it 10 times since so she was the one who introduced me to the show, THANK GOD Smile

Otherwise, I've taken my mom with me numerous times and my dad saw the 08 tour with me. THEY ALL LOVE IT!

ScarletTears · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:09 am Post subject:

Both my parents have seen it on Broadway. My dad is homophobic, and his mouth dropped when Angel first walked in in drag (to add to the effect, we were in front row lotto seats), but he enjoyed it.
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theatregeek · unwed mother in harlem Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 70

My mom and I saw "Rent" (the film version) together when I was 18 and she loved it. That led to seeing the show onstage several times. It got to the point where I got tired of the show but mom still wanted to see it and listen to the music. I'm not sure why people get so bent out of shape about it when there's "worse" material out there (i.e., Spring Awakening/American Idiot).
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GingerRocks03 · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:30 pm Post subject:

My mom watched the first act of the live movie with me, and that was it. She wasn't offended or anything, she was just bored. I think it was because my sister, my sister's best friend and I, subjected her to the cast recording for so many years. I'm not concerned about winning her over. I have plenty of other people to keep me company when I see the show.
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sandy · compulsive bowler Joined: 03 Apr 2005 Posts: 3248

My parents have never seen it. My dad would never, but my mom maybe - I just never wanted to share it with her. Not to get into too much psychobabble, but I have an intense need to please my parents and they already think that my trips to NYC were "nonsense".

My in-laws saw the tour and thought it was too loud and they didn't understand hardly any of the lyrics because the volume was distorted.
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Just A Blur · Bleeding Heart Cameraman Joined: 30 Nov 2009 Posts: 33

My mom is a little annoying about it. I mean her favorite TV show is Law and Order: SVU. It's all about rape and sex and drugs and it's effect on people, but then she won't watch RENT because it has the exact same things. Law and Order even has its fair share of homosexuality.

seamstressfortheband · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:32 pm Post subject:

My mom loves it - took me to the tour for the first time, saw the movie with me, plays the recording in the kitchen from time to time, etc. My dad wasn't a fan - found it overly sentimental and dated, but those, rather than the material, were his objections. So different strokes for different folks is the name of the game in my family.
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Danny · unwed mother in harlem Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 59

My parents saw the first national tour when I was probably about two years old. Ten years later, my mom took my sister to see the non-equity tour as we became obsessed with the show. a few months later, my mom took my sister and I to the "cinecast" thing in theaters. For months, my mom put up with listening to the CD every time we were in the car, without complaining. My dad did get mad once when I was listening to it on the computer and the homeless lady's part came on during "On the Street", which is ironic because he was the one who had us start watching primetime comedies, to our mom's quiet disapproval. I think my mom was very happy that I like Rent. It helped me become very accepting, and it showed me all of these problems that I hadn't realized existed, being a sheltered suburban child in a nice neighborhood. My parents are VERY liberal and want me to be aware of these problems, so Rent was never a problem.

If you've been figuring out the math and how it adds up, I was born in August of '96, my parents saw the tour sometime after then, my mom and my sister saw a tour in February of '08, when I was eleven and saw the movie for the first time, and I saw the "cinecast" thing in September of '08, when I was twelve. I will be turning fourteen in two weeks. At age eleven, I was very young to be a fan of the show, but I'm so glad that my parents allowed me to see it at that age.

i'matheatreperson · compulsive bowler Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 1819

My mom also took me to see Rent for the first time. I was 13 but very sheltered. She was fine with it, and assumed that I would understand what I understood and figure the rest out later.

I didn't see the show again for seven years, and then saw it many times after that gap with my mom. My mom is a theatre going buddy and loves the music and show just as much as me.

I have taken older friends to see the show with me, and I always give them fair warning of what it contains and also tell them why I love it... Even if it isn't their cup of tea, I think most of them understand why I would be drawn to the story and messages...
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ActingDude17 · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:50 pm Post subject:

My parents took me to the 2007-2008 non-Equity tour because I'm an actor and as a family we enjoy theatre in general. We had heard lots of good things about Rent, so we decided to see it. I was only twelve at the time, so naturally a lot of stuff went right over my head, and other stuff was a little awkward to experience sitting next to my parents. It's not that they disapproved of anything necessarily, it was just a bit uncomfortable. But nothing more. We enjoyed the show and they dropped me off at a performance of the Farewell Tour (at the time we decided it wasn't financially reasonable to purchase three tickets; plus, they're not the type to see shows over and over again). A week and a half later my dad came home with Filmed Live On-Broadway the day it came out. We watched it together as a family and have done so a couple times since. "Seasons of Love" is one of my mom's absolute favorite songs. My dad particularly enjoys "Santa Fe". I'm so thankful that I can enjoy this show with my amazing family. In addition, they're very supportive of Mark being my dream role (second only to Sweeney Todd).
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Rent Count: 2

4.24.08 - 07/08 Non-Equity Tour - Greensboro, NC
1.24.09 - Farewell Tour - Durham, NC

DNAchromoX · Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 1:32 am Post subject:

First time I saw RENT, I'm pretty sure I was about 12 years old... November 1996. Some friends of my dad were trying to get me interested in a show other than The Who's Tommy, which I was totally obsessed over, and suggested my dad take me out to see the show to "see something else". I took my first airplane ride to go see it, and we had what I thought were stellar seats in the third row on the side next to the band and Life Support (which was actually the fifth row, due to the rush seating, if I remember correctly... all I know is we weren't in the third row and I was pissed =P).

Honestly, I didn't even know what the show was about prior to going! I had the soundtrack, but skipped a lot of it most of the time and overplayed a lot of tracks (I'll Cover You, Santa Fe). Didn't know the story, just knew it had some foul language and sang about dildos at some point, LOL. And, of course, I really enjoyed it after knowing what it was really about, it changed my young life. My dad didn't think it was the best play he'd seen, but compared Angel to Freddie Mercury (LOL - which was a huge compliment coming from my Queen-fan dad)

After seeing it so many times later... I begin passing the second rush ticket off to my folks if they'd drive up to see it (touring productions). I think my dad has gone four or five times with me, maybe more, over fourteen years... not sure on the exact count, I should ask him sometime. It was at the final broadway tour performance in Sacramento that he told me, "I think I understand why you like the show so much now", and now calls me with random tidbits like, "I saw so-and-so in Wicked and they played in RENT once" and "Rosario Dawson was on TV the other night". Yay, my dad is a RENThead now! Only took fourteen years!!! Haha!

Now, my mother... Smile

... she wasn't too pleased back in 96 when we went to see the show. She thought the show would warp my mind due to her disgust of the song La Vie Boheme. But, alas, some months after returning from the show, she allowed me to travel on the weekends with my friend (who was old enough to drive many many hours out of town) to go camp out for tickets down in LA. And she too has seen the show with me a couple of times, but not until much later. And in the front row too, lucky Mom! She enjoyed it very much after seeing it the first time, and I think the movie kind of put the show in a better understanding for her (she was confused on what was going on before seeing the movie).

And that's my story.