The musical Rent was in town for its 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour last week. My sisters and I, admitted RENT-heads, had to get tickets, of course. This is a tradition we’ve had for as long as it’s been coming to Los Angeles. Whenever possible we’ve tried to see it together.
There was that one year though, when my younger sister couldn’t come because she was living in San Francisco and couldn’t get to L.A. in time. My then husband couldn’t come either. It turns out he was busy doing something else that would eventually lead to his ex-status, but that’s another story. My youngest sister and I were left with two tickets to hawk and neither of us were the salesperson-of-the-month-award-winning type. We ended up getting bullied by some smarmy guy in a business suit trying to his impress his date. He bought them for just a few bucks more than face value, even though he looked like he could’ve afforded more. Then to make matters worse, we had to sit next to him. Ugh. Then to add insult to injury, the couple left early. They didn’t even know what it was about! They didn’t even make it to intermission! To this day, 20 years after the fact, I still think about all those other RENT-heads waiting for cancellations that we could’ve sold or given our tickets to. We could’ve really made someone’s day. But no, we sold those golden tickets to some douche (can I say that?) that didn’t even appreciate them. I’m not bitter, really I’m not.
Anyway, I’m hoping this farewell tour is like Mötley Crüe’s (love those fake umlauts) “final tour”–neither a farewell nor final.
It is great that you and your sisters have this tradition. It is a shame that that “person” didn’t appreciate the tickets. Yes, I am sure there was someone who would really have enjoyed those seats. Leaving while a performance is still going on and not even waiting until intermission is just plain rude.
Something tells me the vocal performances were probably better than what Vince Neill has on offer these days. I hope you enjoyed the show.
I read the paragraph about “that one year” and I’m thinking about all the untold stories there. Yeah, the ex, we can leave that be. But what about the smarmy guy’s date? Did *she* want to leave? What about the rent-heads, who wanted a ticket and just…didn’t…get one? Ohhh the questions.
As for how farewell the farewell tour is, I’m hoping it’s not gone forever. I actually haven’t seen it, and would still like to!