Beebo Brinker
February 28th, 2008 | Uncategorized
I went to NYC last weekend to see a performance of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It’s based on Ann Bannon’s pulp fiction novels from the early sixties. Have you read these? I was addicted to them when Naiad Press reissued them in the early eighties. I’ve probably read Odd Girl Out a dozen times.
The play was great. Somehow the playwrights condensed Bannon’s five books into an hour and a half of theatre, maintaining the melodramatic pulp flavor, but also the humanity Bannon gave her characters. You should go see it if you’re in New York. And check out the site, it’s all full of interesting interviews.
While in NYC I also went to the Orchid Show at the NY Botanical Gardens.
I’m listening to Democracy Now as I post this. Amy Goodman’s interviewing a woman who just wrote a book called Blue Covenant:The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. It’s freaking me the hell out. I need a drink. Of water.
79 Responses to “Beebo Brinker”
Sounds great AB! I loved “Spring Fire” myself, but all lesbian pulp is lush and marvelous. Can’t wait to check out the site.
And orchids too – you must be all aflame!
The New York Times piece makes me sad to think that it’s still so hard to get lesbian work produced: “A project led by gay men (or just men) of similar professional standing might face fewer hindrances. ‘It’s very hard to get lesbian work up,’ Ms. Ryan said. ‘If you’re not a self-starter and you don’t put the pieces together, it’s not going to happen.'” I wish I could see this production.
Alison, have you ever read Sarah Schulman’s book Stage Struck? It’s relevant to this, and one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. I’ve never quite been able to love Schulman’s fiction, but her non-fiction is wonderful.
I must confess I haven’t read Stage Struck, but I know it’s about how the musical RENT basically ripped off her novel People In Trouble, by stripping it of all its threatening (read, Real) elements. And then making a zillion dollars. Sarah Schulman is my hero. Here’s a great interview that our blog friend June did with her on Slate.
i can’t think of ann bannon without thinking of the team dresch song, song for ann bannon.
‘hey that girl’s looking at my butt–wait is that a boy or girl or what?’
i had to share.
Thanks for the review and recommendation!
I had never heard of such books until a few months ago when I discovered Ms. Bechdel’s literature and this website with its entriess seasoned by delicious comments.
I checked the catalogue. Ann Bannon’s books are shelved in the in Los Angeles Public library.
Have you ever read any of Jane Fletcher’s stuff? Awesome -awesome- lesbian fantasy novels and short stories. http://www.janefletcher.co.uk/index.htm I’m a huge fan. 🙂
I’m going to check the shelves at the Arlington County Public Library & see how they compare with Los Angeles!
Entirely off the subject, but you are such a smart, informed group that I thought you might be able to help:
A friend just had a mastectomy and was told at Johns Hopkins that she doesn’t need radiation or chemo, but must take Tamoxifen for five years. She doesn’t want to do it, mostly because she’s heard such terrible things about the side effects and also because she doesn’t want to put highly toxic drugs in her body. She says that she hasn’t met anyone who was able to stick it out for the full five, that it was just too awful. But Hopkins won’t follow her if she doesn’t take it. All her doctors are male and don’t like being argued with.
If anyone has experience or knows anyone who had slow-growing tumors and did not take the drug, please contact me directly. My email address is VirginiaHBurton(at)aol.com
Thank you for any help you can give.
Years ago I read a book called (I think) “Choices” which was pretty good – it wasn’t pulp and I can’t remember the name of the author. Quite realistic as well, at least for fiction.
You’re right that Stage Struck is about how RENT ripped off her novel People in Trouble, but it’s also about the depiction of gay people in theatre, and the underrrepresentation of lesbians in theatre. It has a lot of ideas for such a small book. She’s my hero too.
Ah, God, Sarah Schulman. I sent her a fan letter after reading “Girls, Visions and Everything”, and she sent me a reply, which I still have.
Still in NYC? It doesn’t sound like it – but may I tout for those who are, these next 3 weekends, some good ol’ fashioned DIY dyke-plus theatre, for which I’m running the sound board, at WOW Cafe Theatre… Schadenfreude… the Asshole Principle Explained! by Moira Cutler. I think it’s worth a trip!
On the other hand, DIY, particularly self-producing, as most WOW people do, can really gouge out your energy, leaving a bereft shell. In my experience. At least there _are_ other venues now, besides WOW, where hustling, self-producing and self-promoting _can_ result in such a show. Yes, I am bitter, a bit.
oops, it’s actually “Schadenfreude.. the Asshole Differential Principle Explained!”. Left that `Differential’ part out.
I was under the impression that “Rent” ripped off Puccini’s “La Boheme”.
Always steal from the best, I say.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Ed Gardner: Opera is when a guy gets stabbed and instead of bleeding, he sings.
Shameless plug from the upper left coast, here. Seattle Women’s Chorus is doing a show this spring featuring Ann Bannon herself. AND Chris Williamson. First half of the show is a tribute to lesbian pulp fiction, with Ms. Bannon onstage. Second half is Chris Williamson, also onstage. April 12 and 13.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/02/0081387
The Ectsasy of Excellence:A Plagarism, by Jonathan Lethem. A must read on this topic.
I saw Rent – hated it. Read People In Trouble, and didn’t think that Rent was much like it at all, except the context. I’m with Jana on this one. Ideas morph, people borrow, it happens.
But then, I make a name for myself selling myself as Liza Picasso, so what do I know?
Found the author of “Choices” – Nancy Toder.
There’s another newer book with the same title, by an author named “Skyy.”
Also found this treasure trove list of lesbian fiction-
http://web.wits.ac.za/Library/Gala/Library/Books/LesbianFiction.htm
: D
Jana C.H…..want a house guest on April 12 or 13?? Kidding, kidding…
The water stuff is very scary — not to mention food. At least some people have realized already what a bad idea ethanol is. But “already” doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of refineries being built and rainforest being cleared.
Sorry, Virginia don’t know anything about cancer, but you could check other sites — here’s a thread from “google” groups — http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.cancer.breast/browse_thread/thread/d74140eea65a9828/b480ef523e9c5979?hl=en&lnk=st&q=Tamoxifen#b480ef523e9c5979
I’ve been hearing about the coming water crisis for some time now. It scares the bejeepers out of me too. It’s something we take for granted here in the U.S. Many parts of the world are already experiencing a crisis.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0605_030605_watercrisis.html
When I was in The Philippines about 3 years ago, I saw how people got their water from a water truck that came through the neighborhood. The truck would pull up and people would line up with their buckets to get their daily portion of water. I can’t imagine what a nightmare that would be. All over the island of Luzon, people have water tanks on their roofs to catch rainwater. No one owns a washing machine. Everyone washes their clothes by hand and hangs them up to dry. They just can’t spare the water that a washing machine uses.
It’s easy to shrug this off as “other people”, but it wasn’t like this in The Philippines before the time of Marcos. Before that they were a developed country like the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Philippines
It could happen anywhere, even here.
O.K., am I the only one who finds the photo with the flipped up hat, little round glasses and the serious expression cute as hell? I really do, and I surely can’t be the only one.
Deena– I’m free, as long as Boris says it’s okay. You know where to find me.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Will Rogers: If stupidity got us into this mess, why can’t it get us out?
Those are my new glasses. I know this sounds inconceivable, but I really didn’t notice that they were Harry Potter glasses until I showed them to my friend the moose. I was thinking more T.S. Eliot or I.M. Pei. But I might as well wrap some tape around the nosepiece and be done with it.
Y’know, Liza, you raise an interesting point. One I think I’d like to argue (lightly). Yes, there is no such thing as original work. The difference between human culture and all other animal culture (if they have culture) is that we build on each other’s shoulders, continuously, for millenia.
But: I went to see Rent as soon as it was a traveling show and made it to Austin, which was not long after I read People in Trouble. Somewhere in the first act, I turned to my date and said “This is just like People in Trouble. Except watered down, and the women are not nearly as interesting.” By the end, I was bitterly disappointed at the lack of depth disguised by melodramatic music.
A year later, I found out about Schulman’s claims of plagiarism and said “damn right”. I don’t think the intention of Rent‘s author was to take a great idea and enlarge/expand upon it. I think the intention was to take a great idea in a market that would never see the mainstream light of day and was therefore lootable, alter it just enough to claim difference, gut it so it would be commercially viable instead of utterly political, and deny, deny, deny. In this instance, I think it WAS deliberate theft, not homage or recasting the viewpoint or even derivation.
Which happens to women, and lesbians, and folks of color a LOT. We’re shut out of access to main rivers of communication, but when we create our own vital worlds, they become not sources of inspiration but fields of droit du seigneur, as it were.
I think the difference is the power dynamic. And while I, as a writer, try to assidiously acknowledge my sources and influences (that lesbian-feminist example which you, among others, Lize, helped establish), the competitive model is what rules in most American so-called art.
I guess my question is, do we let “the market” play it out and hope that the advantages of encouraging plagiarism in all its form (as the article you reference so brilliantly explores) will lead to a new renascence? Or is there a way to protect the rights of the exploited without the ridiculous corporate patenting and “intellectual property” hogwash going on currently?
I saw “Rent” a while ago, and loved it. It’s clearly ripped-off from “Bohème”, but Puccini ( and Leoncavallo ) nicked the idea from Murger. Good ideas are always worth stealing: maybe “People in Trouble” was influenced by earlier work too. The idea of AIDS as a modern TB can certainly be traced at least to Sontag, and possibly earlier.
I love plagiarism: all the best people do it !
“Occulus reparo!”
I read in Time magazine a few years back that “Rent” was “based on La Boheme”; perhaps those other works mentioned were based on it as well.
Thanks for all the cool interviews and links, Alison! The stuff I learn on this blog…
Oh, and nice glasses. Would it be wrong to say you look even more “Mo-ish”?
Thanks for the link to that Sarah Schulman interview – she’s so righteous (in a good way). Her books were really formative for me when I was coming out; I read Ann Bannon later (also love), but “After Delores” was my “Beebo Brinker” in that it was probably the first lesbian novel I read.
i’m particularly charmed by the woodsy flap-hat/wizardy h.p. glasses combo! very cute, indeed. and nice orchid, too, by the way.
Thanks for mentioning the water issue–it is truly scary, but we need to deal with it as actively as possible so we’ll be around (and wet).
Ha! I just got down to June’s interview—I was right! (she said smugly, hoping no one would hear…)
ok, now that I think of it, 1/2 right…
maybe a quarter?
Alison–Thanks for the stellar review! I’m delighted that you enjoyed the “Beebo” play. I’ll be in New York the first week in March, and will attend several performances. This is really an amazing time in my life, and I’m so happy to share it with many wonderful women.
By the way, I’m a dedicated “Dykes to Watch Out For” fan!
Ann
Holy Smokes!!!!
Well it doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
I’m glad you saw that, Liza. Now I know it wasn’t a hallucination.
this is just so cool!
I haven’t read Schulman’s “People in Trouble”, but let me make a guess at the plot:
They meet, they fall in love, they split up for some stupid reason, then one of them dies. Or maybe they both die. And everyone is sad!
There’s probably an evil baritone or mezzo in there somewhere, too, though it’s not mandatory.
Now start at the bottom of the piano keyboard and hit one note for every opera with that basic storyline. Just operas. Don’t go into plays, or any other sort of literature. The questions is: How many pianos will you have to go through before you’ve counted them all?
So let’s no hear any more about rip-offs.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Floss Forbes: If you don’t know the tune, sing tenor.
Jana, if you haven’t read the book, you really can’t dismiss it. Of course there’s only a handful of basic plots in the world. It’s not the plot, it’s the particulars that match — particulars that were taken from Sarah Schulman’s life for her novel. It would be like arguing that Laurents didn’t base West Side Story on Romeo and Juliet because it’s just another star-crossed love story. At least Laurents admitted his influence — and he had no risk of Shakespeare calling him on it.
Yes, it’s true, as Pete Seeger quoted his father, “Plagiarism is the basis of all culture.” If Larson had credited the living lesbian influence as well as La Boheme, I’d still stick with the original (which rings truer) but have no quibble with the venture. Just to point out, Larson’s estate was sued by another woman, a dramaturg named Lynn Thompson, for $16 million because she was not credited, either, for the work she did. That case was settled with a confidentiality clause.
Shortly after I came out (1986 or so), I took myself to Beebo’s Books, a used bookstore in Louisville, Colorado, owned by a lesbian. On a small set of shelves, she had a gay and lesbian section. Pretty brave for a small shop in a small town 22 years ago. I walked out with two books, _Odd Girl Out_ and _Dykes to Watch Out For_.
In a matter of weeks, I returned to Beebo’s and bought the whole series of both. (At the time, I think there were only two Dykes books.)
Beebo’s Books is gone, as is The Book Garden in Denver, but Boulder is now blessed with Word is Out where I continue to get my DTWOF fix.
Wikipedia has an excellent article on Ann Bannon too.
I wish The Chronicles were playing a couple weeks longer. I won’t make it into New York until May.
Gosh! Ann Bannon herself in this very blog! I’m totally impressed!
Anyway, I just logged on to inform you – particularly the german reading community in here – about a very good review in today’s “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” of “Fun Home”.
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/kultur/aktuell/das_geliebte_leiden_1.680302.html?printview=true
The “NZZ” is a widely read (in Germany and the rest of Europe) Swiss quality newspaper (NYT-style). Being featured in their “feuilleton” is the ultimate accolade of an artist in this part of Europe. Particularly when it’s written so elegantly as Christian Gasser, Switzerland’s most prestigious comics reviewer, has done!
Congratulations, Alison, well deserved indeed!
hmmm not being that nerdy, where — and how do I attach a .png facsimile version of the article, which in the paper includes one page of “fun home”?
pffffff – you all make me really nervous: with Ann, Alison and who knows who of my favourite American intellectuals and writers hiding behind the nicks as potential audience my english’s almost gone: fellow writer christian is actually the most RESPECTED comic reviewer here.
It’s really about trying to tell you HOW big a deal his review in NZZ is in this part of the world, so you can all get up for a next round of well deserved standing ovations for Alison’s work!
That IS a cute picture. AB looks like a very odd newsie. “Wuxtry, wuxtry, lesbian pulp fiction heah.”
Remember that old cartoon series “I Am Weasel”? I.M. Weasel was a total ripoff of I.M. Pei.
bette – have you tried signing up for flickr.com or tinypic.com? I’ve just started using flickr for my blog (inspired by AB here). It took me a little while to work out how to get a pic’s URL (i.e. its address on the web), but otherwise it’s simple enough for even the completely non-geeky to use.
AB – those glasses are also vaguely reminiscent of Trotsky too – very 20s/30s European intellectual.
I would add, to the others explaining why Rent really did plagiarize People in Trouble (and not just Teh Zeitgeist or Artistic Archetypes), that Schulman learned that Jonathan Larson had actually told someone while he was working on Rent that he was using People in Trouble. It’s in StageStruck, along with much more interesting and important stuff. Plagiarism is only one part — a surprisingly minor part — of what the book is about.
Sadly, very sadly, those glasses are twins of specs worn by a sociopath of my too-intimate former acquaintance. Nearly enough to kill my crush on AB, if you can imagine! Trauma. Thank you. Where’s the brain cleanser when you need it?
It’s probably really stupid of me to say what I’m about to say, considering that the great Ann Bannon herself reads this blog, but here goes. . .I saw “Beebo” in NY last night, and I was disappointed. I thought several of the performances were on the level of a high school show. Maybe that’s what the director wanted, but it was hard to tell. (If it was a strategy to preserve some of the pulp flavor of the original books, it didn’t work, at least not for me.)
The company couldn’t seem to decide whether to do the story straight (so to speak) or camp it up; the result was rather a chaos of styles in which some actors seemed awkwardly self-conscious (as if they were constantly aware that they were wearing costumes or had no shirt on), while others mistakenly believed that you can convey emotional tension through manic flailing-about (“Laura” played her first few scenes as if she were channeling Lucille Ball, but without Lucy’s brilliant timing.) I felt *zero* chemistry between any of the women. The final lines — about Beth’s attempt to start a new life with Beebo despite the risks and the chance of failure — seemed incongrous, too. Laura narrated them almost disdainfully, as if they had ironic quotation marks around them, which had the effect of undercutting and rendering silly whatever had managed to seem sincerely-felt about the story.
There were a few odd amateurisms in the staging, too — no liquid in any of the bottles/drinks (even kids-putting-on-a-show can usually manage a little tea-colored water to simulate scotch), and the costume designer didn’t seem to know the difference between an elevator operator (which Beebo was supposed to be) and an elevator mechanic (which she was dressed as). These are minor points, but they contributed to the unprofessional feel for me.
I loved reading the Beebo books in my younger days, and I went to this show prepared to adore it. I was really sorry that I couldn’t.
Of course, it’s always possible that I just didn’t get it, and the staging/acting strategies were clever and edgy in ways that I totally missed. After all, I’m now one of those old (52) Greenwich Village lesbians that the character “Jack” paints such an hilariously dismal picture of, living in our pitiful walk-ups with our sad, dumpy partners and/or stinking cats, drooling over the pretty girls we can no longer have (my favorite speech). So probably I’m just too out of it to know any better.
Anyway, I’m not sorry I went. I’m happy to support art with lesbian content, and I’m glad Beebo will still be around for new generations to enjoy. Those books meant a lot to me.
To “Anon this time”:
I’m trying to go with: “Is it kind? Is it necessary?” before saying something. (Not that I always manage…)
And “Anonymous”:
Old? 52? You are at sweet young thing (with experience) age!
I am much much older and still (creak) feel 17 in some respects. Bonus! I remember chic elevator operators in the lobby, with their gloves and little tilted caps, signaling with flamenco castanets to operators in the cages.
Nevertheless those are valid and interesting points you make.
It’s interesting, though, to see how interpretations change over the decades. On seeing the letters “MLK” on some activist’s hat, a young person asked, “What does milk have to do with…” (your pick):
__ The Oscars?
__ The Democratic nomination?
__ ______________? (bonus! a write in!)
Apologies for my elderly memory. Now for a simulated Scotch.
Hello? Is Gary Trudeau reading this blog too?
Check out today’s Doonsebury – more on plagiarism!
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html
Thanks to the people who posted about the Sarah Schulman books. I am going to see if my bookstore has some of them.
Anonymous:
I’m now one of those old (52) Greenwich Village lesbians that the character “Jack” paints such an hilariously dismal picture of, living in our pitiful walk-ups with our sad, dumpy partners and/or stinking cats, drooling over the pretty girls we can no longer have (my favorite speech).
Ouch. That had to hurt.
And Minnie? Operators with castanets? ?? Can you explain? You’ve got me curious.
@Bette: Thanks for the NZZ tip and link. (The review reads as if he spoke with AB, but of course the statements quoted as hers need not have been made to him.) Respectful, appreciative, and – leaving aside a few points where Gasser says, “Not quite to my taste, this”, as anyone might, very favourable overall.
I had an author email me once about my (on line) lecture notes about him — it turned out he’d noticed a surge of hits on his website from my students & was able to trace them back to my website. So who knows if Ann Bannon is a frequent DTWOF blog reader or a total technophile who knows how to do that!
I’ve noticed with my own blog (which is normally pretty quiet) that sometimes you get a bunch of hits when you mention certain key words. I think some people also set up “google alerts” on themselves or their favourite topics. So watch what you say online! It’s not really like a diary…
Hi Jaibe,
What’s your website? Just curious! 🙂 I’ve enjoyed your posts here…
J.
Hi, Alison.
I am currently taking a LGBT Before Stonewall literature class. For a bit of fun and history, we are going to be reading the Beebo Brinker tales. What timing!
Thanks to all for the discussion here as well.
Cheers,
Sun
I was an odd kid, liking to clean house (and still do). One summer when I was around 13, I was in a spate of cleaning out closets and up in my parent’s closet, high on a shelf, I found a copy of I AM A WOMAN.
Other than hearing “queer” remarks at school, I had no idea there was such a thing as a lesbian at the time. I found the book fascinating.
For around 16 years I’ve been writing my own comic book SHANDA THE PANDA, and the most popular character in it has always been Terri the lesbian cricket. So Ann Bannon spawned some unusual fruit with me.
Ever read THE MARRIAGE, the 6th book? Granted, the characters from the other tales aren’t in it much.
Mike Curtis
SHANDA FANTASY ARTS
J. — I have an angst-ridden one at http://jaibe.blogspot.com but I haven’t been posting there much recently (or particularly well) since I’m not particularly angstful lately.
If you want my “real” / professional one, email me at jaibee@gmail.com (Note the two ‘e’s; can you believe someone else bagged *my* gmail address so I have to misspell my name…)
By the way — plagiarism -> creativity, you *have* to watch this:
http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html
Lessig points out that Disney got so snitty about copyrighting mickey mouse when “steamboat willy” was a parody / rip off of buster keaton, made within the year that the movie it was spoofing came out. But that’s like the most minor point. He thinks trying to ban the exploitation of previous culture fundamentally limits society.
Off topic of the thread, but …
(aside from WOW – Ann Bannon among us!!!)
Alison, are you issuing a public endorsement before the Vermont primary on Tuesday?
Jaibe,
There are less restrictions for parody than other kinds of retelling. I’ve parodied two books, Is It A Choice? and The Bridges of Madision, without any concerns about copyright.
For me, it’s a morals question. If someone liberally borrows from a writer and makes a fortune because of it, it is simply human decency to pay them something. Disney might have ripped off the Brothers Grimm (who collected the stories from oral folk tales) but they were long gone by the time he started making his cartoon movies. As I recall, he was also an anti-Union man.
Would Jonathan Larson have paid up if he were alive? It complicates things not knowing if the financial greed was on his part or that of the estate.
In the big picture, Sarah Schulman is alive and producing art. Jonathan Larson is not. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
The frames reminded me of Henry Miller, actually. In fact, I just HAD to watch Henry & June over the weekend because of it. They are are good change from your usual square.
It’s funny how the conversation on the blog slows down to a trickle when AB has not posted for a while. I find it surprising because after all, it is not as if our unruly mob ever tries to keep to the topic! It’s like a confused beehive missing its queen – can only go on so long.
Which makes me think of the next posting. Despite being a dtwof strip junkie, I was very slow to realize that if the previous episode went up in less than 2 weeks, it means that the next one will take more than 2 weeks…
Those who want to see for themselves – The Beebo Brinker Chronicles have been picked up for an off-Broadway run! for 10 weeks, at 37 arts! Yay!!! for tickets
[did I neglect to say that the WOW show Schadenfreude is _hilarious_? Harrowing, sexy, back to hilarious… Saying it now!. Only 2 more weekends!]
I was directed to this discussion by Ann Bannon herself. I am responsible for her article on Wikipedia (Ellen O. is my best friend now), and have somehow ingratiated myself with her enough that my partner and I were able to accompany Ann and her daughter to the performance of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles on March 2.
I love Ann’s books, and she knows, because I tell her shamelessly, that I think she’s the coolest shit since spice racks. The characters and emotions in the books are extremely personal to me, and to have someone muck about with re-interpreting them for the stage made me very nervous.
I’ve read quite a bit about Ann and the books, in literary feminist criticisms (*cough*), and pulp retrosectives and there seems to be a spectrum of responses to them. Some women, like me, have been truly moved by them. They were not nearly the first lesbian novels I read, but I tell folks that I was levitated right off the sofa while reading I Am a Woman and was so tensed that I was sore for days afterward. Others find them shallow or trashy, which I don’t understand. And some find them subjects of mild curiosity. This is why Dogs Playing Poker and Thomas Kincaid are considered art alongside Edward Hopper and van Gogh.
Hey, all this earlier talk about Puccini, and Bannon and Bechdel is gettin’ just too high-brow and cultured fer me. Reminds me of the time some friend was talking about how much they liked Bellini, and I said that bellini sandwiches are my favorite.
Iara, unfortunately, has hit my dilemma right on the nose! I’ve been going through withdrawal for the last two weeks(!), hoping that La Bechdel would put up a new strip the week after #521 went up (which would have been the normal time for #522 to go up, but #522 went up a cycle early, and oh dear . . .)
Then I hoped #523 would go up two weeks after #521, and AB would just go through life off-cycle by one week. No soap, but I’m hangin’ in there!
Per schedule, a new strip should be up TOMORROW! *happydance*
I adore Thomas Kinkaid.
Kidding.
Several years ago, Terry Gross (“Fresh Air” NPR) did a wonderful interview with Ann Bannon. You can check it out at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1407161
Maggie, I think what Jana was saying (unless I’m imagining this) and my opinion is that Jonathan Larson’s decision to borrow from Puccini was so thorough, and so complete that it’s possible that other similarities happened unintentionally.
Everything from the characters’ names to the actual musical motives quote La Boheme. He was setting out to do what Bernstein and Laurents did with West Side story, only on a more inclusive level: Take the classic and update based on what was happening in his world.
I don’t doubt that Larson may have absorbed other works along the way, but if you put up a synopsis of La Boheme and one of Rent side by side, you’ll find that the only differences are the gender of one character and the relationship of two others. Oh, and that Mimi stays dead in the original….
Also, Jonathan Larson started working on Rent before People in Trouble was published. It took him years to get it onstage, though, so it premiered well after.
Coming next? Beebo – The Musical! I can it now, with Beebo, dressed in her turtleneck, khakis and doc martens, tap-dancing down Gay Street (one way, of course), while singing the opening number!
kat, remember that Larson *told* people he was using People in Trouble. I don’t think there’s ever been much doubt that he used La Boheme as well.
Also, as I recall (it’s been a while since all this happened, and I haven’t read Stagestruck in a few years), his estate was also sued by a dramaturg who worked on the play, but who hadn’t got paid, and the estate settled with her. Larson wasn’t good at narrative, apparently, and he needed a lot of help to get the play stageworthy even after he’d worked on it for years and after importing large chunks of material from other people’s work. I guess he wrote the songs, mainly, is that it?
Huh, I didn’t realize that, Duncan. I was assuming that because there was at least one draft of Rent when PiT came out, they would have written more or less simultaneously. Guess not.
Yeah, it has always seemed that he was more a composer than a playwright. I think there would have been massive changes to the show after the previews, had Larson lived to see it. It became hallowed, I suppose, and no one was willing to fix the clunky moments?
So strange that I’ve found this topic…I just saw “Beebo” last night as a virgin to the play and Ann’s books.
I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THEM ALL!
I’m a gender studies major and I find it unbelievable that I’ve never read or known about these books.
If you’ve read the books or haven’t read the books, if you saw the play downtown if you didn’t see the play downtown go see it now!
Closes 4/27…
I was a Beebo virgin too. The play was awesome. I bought all the books and am so sad now because I finished them. I’m going to see the show again. It’s girls night out on Tuesday! Free drinks!!!!
Hey Beebo lover I know what you mean about not having the books to read any more. Does anyone know any good Beebo like books? What do people know about the play Beebo Brinker Chronicles. My friends are coming from out of town – one of them is straight. Do you think she’ll like it?
I was in NYC this past weekend and checked out the show. Two of the people I went with were straight and they absolutely loved it! Some of the jokes were over their heads, but the show is really funny and there’s something in it for everybody. Even my mother liked it (and she doesn’t like anything!) I don’t wanna write up a whole synopsis of the play, you should just check out their website or their myspace I’m sure the info is up there.
beebo was a really cool show, but it sucks cuz there’s only like 2 weeks left. yall should definitely go check it out! has anyone heard anything about them making it into a movie?
going to see this show tonight. i procrasinated on seeing it, but since it’s the last week i had to get tickets.
it’s a gross understatement to say that i loved the books. these books were life changing. thanks ann!
Hey I heard mention of the book “CHOICES” by SKYY. Trust me people that is a GREAT Book. I read it after reading the amazon.com reviews and I was blown away. I will admit that it needed a better editor for some parts but overall that is the best depiction of black lesbian life that I have ever read. For a new author she blew it out of the park. for more info on that book check out amazon.com or her website is http://www.simplyskyy.com