Rating: 
Summary: An Extraordinary Look at Contemporary Culture
Review: Sarah Schulman's inspiring and inspired book looks at the gross ways in which genuine American experience is corrupted and commodified by unoriginal, shrewd writers. The book is the story of the musical RENT but it is so much more -- an accessible but intellectually rigorous look at contemporary playwriting, a heartbreaking narrative about the loss of the artist culture in New York City's East Village, and an entirely compelling personal memoir about the difficulties of being a moral artist in amoral times. This is a heartbreaker, a must-read for anyone who cares about books and art.The first review posted here is by a white male who feels offended by Schulman's challenging of dominant authorities and conventional and patriarchal narratives. This is an unfortunate and in my view invalid response; it's about time marginalized people get to tell their stories.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting, well-written work of cultural criticism
Review: Schulman has the uncanny ability to: a) tell a personal story about the plagiarism of her work, her attempts for resolution, her experiences as a woman, a lesbian, an author in the fight against AIDS; b) write an insightful account of the state of the commercial theatre -- a late '90s version of the type of essay Miller and Albee wrote 40-50 years ago; c) create a remarkable context for unmasking homophobia and explaining the cultural position of gays and lesbians in contempory America; and d) give the reader something that's both challenging and easy to read. I found it to be entirely engaging and incredibly smart. I am also one of the many people who saw "Rent" on Broadway during the week it won the Tony, and I'm not ashamed to say, I loved it. But a year or so later, when it came to LA, I took a couple of friends and saw it again -- and I have to admit, it seemed fake, packaged, forced. In her role as a critic, apart from her personal connection to the show, Schulman explains why parts of "Rent" seem false. She puts into words some of the fleeting, troubling thoughts I couldn't articulate for myself. I'm an English professor and I teach drama -- I intend to use "Stagestruck" in future courses.
Rating: 
Summary: schulman is an attention-grabbing idiot.
Review: this is insane, simply put. there may be similarities between her book 'people in trouble' (read it, and it isn't as great as some of the other reviewers make it out to be), and RENT (the best show ever to come to broadway), but if you think about it, there's no way. jonathan larson based RENT off of la boheme and his own life, not some cheap book he probably had never even heard of. and the man died, for christ's sake! even if this is true, larson deserves more respect than to be yelled at by a person desperate for attention who has nothing better to do than accuse other people to find recognition. this book isn't even worth glancing at.
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