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chuckroIdina Menzel plays Elizabeth, a 38-year-old who comes to NYC after a divorce to pursue either love or career, and we see to parallel timelines in which a fateful choice defines how her life turns out. Definitely aimed at the aging RENT and tick…tick…BOOM! fan base, this show features pleasantly normalized lgbt relationships and isn’t afraid to work blue. If that sounds good to you, or you just like hearing Menzel belt out some rock opera, go see it.
And now, SPOILERS!
Jethrien commented that this put too much emphasis on romance as success and there wasn’t enough regret about her career in the love timeline. I think (beyond this being created by artists who value romance over careers as a general rule) that it’s because the “career” timeline is a fantasy, a thought experiment, and the love timeline “really happened.”
The bookend scenes in with Liz talks to her dead husband at the beginning and end seem to indicate that, and the way each timeline plays out bolster it: The love timeline contains more “unique information” that she couldn’t have known in the career timeline; the career timeline features many events that should would have learned about (the job offer, the protest) later on. Several events scream wishful thinking (“If only I’d had an epiphany during a plane crash, I could have rushed in and saved my lesbian friends’ marriage!” and “If I’d gotten that job I’d be winning international awards in five years.”) while others have an air of trying to convince herself that she chose the right path (Lucas would never have met his husband and would have grown bitter, she would have played a role in breaking up her boss’s marriage, she’d never have children and her friend circle would break apart, etc.).
Even if the ending scenes for both timelines seem to show her “getting everything”, she only gets a lesser version—the career success she’d see as a 44-year-old single mother are different from what she can do as a 38-year-old career woman; though she’ll still “do important work.” And if she met her husband after his third tour, he’d still be alive to be with her, but they would probably never have children; and his impact on her friends would presumably be different.
On an unrelated note, “I’m beginning to suspect that I’m a schmuck! And I SUUUUUUCK! What the fuck?” is the sort of line worth buying a soundtrack for.
And now, SPOILERS!
Jethrien commented that this put too much emphasis on romance as success and there wasn’t enough regret about her career in the love timeline. I think (beyond this being created by artists who value romance over careers as a general rule) that it’s because the “career” timeline is a fantasy, a thought experiment, and the love timeline “really happened.”
The bookend scenes in with Liz talks to her dead husband at the beginning and end seem to indicate that, and the way each timeline plays out bolster it: The love timeline contains more “unique information” that she couldn’t have known in the career timeline; the career timeline features many events that should would have learned about (the job offer, the protest) later on. Several events scream wishful thinking (“If only I’d had an epiphany during a plane crash, I could have rushed in and saved my lesbian friends’ marriage!” and “If I’d gotten that job I’d be winning international awards in five years.”) while others have an air of trying to convince herself that she chose the right path (Lucas would never have met his husband and would have grown bitter, she would have played a role in breaking up her boss’s marriage, she’d never have children and her friend circle would break apart, etc.).
Even if the ending scenes for both timelines seem to show her “getting everything”, she only gets a lesser version—the career success she’d see as a 44-year-old single mother are different from what she can do as a 38-year-old career woman; though she’ll still “do important work.” And if she met her husband after his third tour, he’d still be alive to be with her, but they would probably never have children; and his impact on her friends would presumably be different.
On an unrelated note, “I’m beginning to suspect that I’m a schmuck! And I SUUUUUUCK! What the fuck?” is the sort of line worth buying a soundtrack for.
