Musical Theatre and the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Great video! One note: Marvin is absolutely not bisexual, the whole trilogy is about him accepting himself as a homosexual man.

I really don't want to be mean but I want to correct you about a few things regarding falsettos -the "male writers smh" comment kind of misses the point that Trina being unnamed is INTENTIONAL. We see In trousers from Marvin's eyes and he doesn't really care about her because he's at this point filled with internalized homophobia and mysogyny. It also makes sense that the only woman who has some kind of name is Miss Goldberg and she only has a last name because Marvin's relationship with her was more about her status than being actually personal. Mysogyny is a big theme in the trilogy, March of the falsettos was even originally going to be called "the pettiness of mysogyny" according to Finn. So yeah, it is very intentional, don't you dare come for my boy William Finn like this ever again 2. Marvin is not bisexual he's gay. Any source that says otherwise is incorrect, the reason he has relationships with women is because of the time he's in and because of compulsory heterosexuality. The musical literally tells you this already in In trousers in the song My chsnce to survive the night. We also see him not being comfortable with women and then the song Whizzer going down comes and it feels a lot free-er than the ones before (also notice how many times Whizzer's name is said for someone who doesn't even appear as a character yet. He's clearly more important to Marvin than any other character) and hell, Falsettoland starts with the word "homosexuals" referring to Marvin and Whizzer (and I guess kinda the lesbians too) That's it great video though!

I think you guys should dive veeeeerrrry deep into "Falsettos" and do an analysis on it. There are so many things to talk about and you can expand on it to make it an hour long. Just a suggestion :)

Well done! I'm a gay man in his 70's. I lived through this era. Thank you, there tears still in my eyes

Note that Marvin isn’t bisexual, he’s gay

I adored Larry Kramer. He had a temper, but his anger was righteous. His style of activist work did not belong in GMHC, but Act Up, he was amazing. And I love that he used his professional talent of being a writer to teach the world what he and the gay community in particular were living through. He was loud before, during and after the AIDS crisis. RIP Larry.

hey this is all lighthearted, but in falsettos, marvin broke up with whizzer. during the chess scene, marvin let him win and broke up with him. whizzer declares that he never loved marvin, and that he wouldn’t be with someone like him anymore. that led marvin to go back to trina in a jealous rage.

This was a very well done video. While I definitely don’t mind the criticism of RENT, I often wonder if Larson would have fixed the issues in the show in its off-broadway version had he not died

I went into this without looking at the comments or view count but now that i'm about finished I'm floored at how little views this got. This was an amazing look into the topic and deserved much more attention and interaction. Thank you for putting in the work to make this!

I'm surprised this video doesn't have more views, it's super well-done and I learned a lot

Thanks for your essay on HIV/AIDS and its affect on live theatre. I will point out one thing...La Vie Boheme (24:36) takes place at the end of act 1 in Rent, not the top of act 2. Yes, the story is told mostly from Mark's perspective. However, as you yourself mentioned...Jonathan was a str8 white man. Why shouldn't the show be written from his perspective? He was clearly touched by so many of his gay, bi, trans friends...some of whom died before him due to the crisis. Writers tend to write from what they know. Sure, some from what they think they know. But often, it is from personal experiences. So, although Rent now 30 years on is considered a bit dated, it is still a great, catchy musical that allows younger people to understand what happened back then and is still happening now.

DEFINITELY want more videos like this! Keep them coming, guys!

damn this was very educational. i watched the entire video, i’m so surprised this doesn’t have more views. thank you for this

Well done. Analysis is an intellectual exercise that we do in a classroom setting led by a professor, or at home through a non-fiction book or essay designed to promote that mental process. It's not something we can do through fine or visual arts. We 'experience' theater, film, dance, and music. Exhibit A: those 35 dialogues written by Plato with Socrates as protagonist through dialogue as the medium of choice. Great analysis and examples of logic that we read in college. I defy you to turn any of them into a stage play.

I'm glad this topic led you to Larry Kramer's legacy. Today, people live with instead of die from AIDS, almost solely because of his activism and passion. He's a hero in the truest sense of the word

Wait, isn’t “La Vie Boheme” the end of Act 1?

What a great analysis! Deserves more views for sure! Appreciate the research and work!

This is so well done!

The video deserves so much more love❤

Great video!