While working as a theater critic for Manhattan's New York Press in 1996, novelist Sarah Schulman reviewed the original off-Broadway production of the eventual worldwide hit Rent. She did not particularly like the show and resented what she saw as its easy and simple-minded appropriation of the East Village's gay and alternative cultures. It was only later, when a friend pointed it out to her, that she began to see that the writer and composer of Rent, Jonathan Larson, had "borrowed" a good chunk of his play's plot and detail from Schulman's own 1987 novel People in Trouble. This shock of recognition was transformative, and it ultimately led to the writing of Stagestruck.

Schulman begins with an unhappy account of having her novel ripped off by Larson, but uses this as a springboard to discuss the broader and more complex issues of how gay themes--particularly AIDS--are used and distorted in mainstream culture, focusing her discussion on a wide range of entertainments including the film Philadelphia, Jon Robin Baitz's play A Fair Country, performances by Diamanda Galas, and POZ magazine. As in her best novels, Schulman's observations on culture and politics are astute and startlingly original. Stagestruck is an incisive and important work of social criticism. --Michael Bronski


From Library Journal
Schulman, a lesbian activist and 1997 winner of the Stonewall Award, joined ACT UP in 1987. Shortly thereafter, she completed her fourth novel, People in Trouble (NAL Dutton, 1991), which featured a group of East Village artists struggling with homelessness and AIDS and was based on her personal experiences. After attending a performance of Rent in February 1996 and writing a review of it, Schulman realized that the storyline of this mega-hit was, in fact, taken directly from her novel. Stagestruck is an engrossing narrative of Schulman's mainly futile struggle to gain recognition and legal restitution for the use of her material, but more than that is an expose of how mainstream theater has twisted gay and lesbian culture and themes such as AIDS to make it more palatable to mass audiences. Schulman also provides a look at some off-Broadway plays and performance pieces by gay and lesbian artists that give a much more authentic depiction of gay life and issues. As the struggle continues for gays and lesbians to gain acceptance and to see themselves portrayed accurately in literature and drama, Schulman clearly comes out a winner with Stagestruck. Highly recommended. [For another facet of Schulman's talent, see a review of her most recent novel on p. 134.?Ed.]?Howard E. Miller, M.L.S., St. Loui.-?Howard E. Miller, M.L.S., St. LouisCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Schulman gained small celebrity last year when she complained that the late Jonathan Larson, author of the hit musical Rent, had lifted his plot from her AIDS novel People in Trouble (1990). Larson had ditched Schulman's lesbian-performance-artist protagonist and vibrant community of gay artists, though, in favor of the more peripheral heterosexual artists in her story. There was talk of a lawsuit, but as Schulman asserts in this sharp, inciting, and insightful book, she lacked the resources to take on the moneymen behind the profitable show. Besides, no one, not even her publisher, seemed interested in helping her. Her efforts to win some satisfaction--even to get the Rent organization to recognize she may have been wronged--became increasingly quixotic. Besides her own story, Schulman discusses the various ways mainstream media have appropriated gay culture, marketed a safe, watered-down version of it to the hip straight world, and increasingly "mainstreamed" gay consumers. You don't have to agree with Schulman completely to savor her insights about society and intellectual property. Jack Helbig

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Stagestruck noted novelist and outspoken critic Sarah Schulman offers an account of her growing awareness of the startling similarities between her novel People in Trouble and the smash Broadway hit Rent. Written with a powerful and personal voice, Schulman's book is part gossipy narrative, part behind-the-scenes glimpse into the New York theater culture, and part polemic on how mainstream artists co-opt the work of "marginal" artists to give an air of diversity and authenticity to their own work. Rising above the details of her own case, Schulman boldly uses her suspicions of copyright infringement as an opportunity to initiate a larger conversation on how AIDS and gay experience are being represented in American art and commerce.

Closely recounting her discovery of the ways in which Rent took materials from her own novel, Schulman takes us on her riveting and infuriating journey through the power structures of New York theater and media, a journey she pursued to seek legal restitution and make her voice heard. Then, to provide a cultural context for the emergence of Rent-which Schulman experienced first-hand as a weekly theater critic for the New York Press at the time of Rent's premiere-she reveals in rich detail the off- and off-off-Broadway theater scene of the time. She argues that these often neglected works and performances provide more nuanced and accurate depictions of the lives of gay men, Latinos, blacks, lesbians and people with AIDS than popular works seen in full houses on Broadway stages. Schulman brings her discussion full circle with an incisive look at how gay and lesbian culture has become rapidly commodified, not only by mainstream theater productions such as Rent but also by its reduction into a mere demographic made palatable for niche marketing. Ultimately, Schulman argues, American art and culture has made acceptable a representation of "the homosexual" that undermines, if not completely erases, the actual experiences of people who continue to suffer from discrimination or disease. Stagestruck's message is sure to incite discussion and raise the level of debate about cultural politics in America today.

SYNOPSIS

In Stagestruck -- part gossipy narrative and part behind-the-scenes look at New York theater culture --Schulman uses a breakdown of the startling similarities between her book People in Trouble and the smash broadway hit "Rent" to present an argument of how mainstream artists co-opt the talents of so-called marginal ones to give diversity and authenticity to their work.

FROM THE CRITICS

Ted Gideonse

When Sarah Schulman went to review Rent in 1996, unlike almost every other theater critic in New York, she was decidedly underwhelmed. She thought that the rock opera about AIDS and New York's East Village was "a bit flat" and distorted the history of the AIDS crisis. Worse, for Schulman anyway, was the fact that half of the plot seemed ripped off from her own 1990 novel People in Trouble. She didn't mention this in her review, though, and in hindsight probably regrets that decision: Rent went on to win four Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize, and has become the biggest theater success of the last decade. Schulman eventually tried to sue, but her quest to get anyone to listen to her was nearly fruitless. Instead, Schulman, a respected novelist (Shimmer, After Delores) and longtime AIDS activist, wrote Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America, a book that combines her bizarre Kafka-esque tale and an utterly damning analysis of the popular cultural depictions of AIDS and homosexuality.

The book is not "My Case Against Rent." Broken into three parts, only the first and aptly titled section, "Rent: The Dirt," deals explicitly with Schulman's failed fight for copyright justice. It's the most engrossing section, though, especially if you follow New York theater. Was Frank Rich's wife really that nasty? Who is the literary agent code-named "Morticia"? You feel for the slightly paranoid and bitter Schulman, because she makes an excellent case and seems to have been victimized. Schulman didn't have the law on her side, however. It seems fairly clear that her plot, characters and setting were stolen, but alas, only words are copyrightable.

After dishing the gossip, Schulman loads her gun and fires. In Jonathan Larson's book for Rent, the gay and lesbian characters of People in Trouble play a big part, but Schulman argues that a heterosexual couple with AIDS (taken fromLa Bohème) becomes the center of the dramatic arc. "Rent was about how straight people were the heroes of AIDS," she says. But for much of the epidemic, she rightly points out, gay men with AIDS were abandoned by straight people. To Schulman, one of the first members of ACT-UP, Rent was a lie.

Her second chapter describes shows that went up the same year as Rent that were truthful about AIDS, homosexuality, race and the plight of the urban poor -- however, she says, no one went to see them. Schulman leaves no one unaccused: In her third chapter, she argues that the gay community, in its search for economic and political acceptance, has been complicit in this deformation of the truth. Why? Popular and monetary success come with playing well in Peoria. "Vehicles like Rent, Philadelphia and other AIDS stories promoted by straight people portray a world in which heterosexuals have nothing to account for, to reflect on, or to regret in their behavior toward people with AIDS and gays and lesbians in general."

Schulman is right. But if Rent's central plot was about lesbians and gay men, the show probably would not have become the $1 billion industry it is; the much more brilliant and true Angels in America didn't even make a profit. Anger doesn't sell, and it doesn't permeate the walls of the dominant society. Whether Schulman would like to admit it or not, Rent, with its straight-friendly narrative, has enabled thousands of people to see, and at least partially understand, the way the other side lives. -- Salon

Michael Paller

What Schulman asks is simple: Must we continue sacrificing the memories of those who have died in this epidemic to hawk another album, a T-shirt, and a bottle of Absolut? Her answer in this powerful, provocative work is equally direct: Don't lie about our lives. -- Village Voice

Library Journal

Schulman, a lesbian activist and 1997 winner of the Stonewall Award, joined ACT UP in 1987. Shortly thereafter, she completed her fourth novel, People in Trouble (NAL Dutton, 1991), which featured a group of East Village artists struggling with homelessness and AIDS and was based on her personal experiences. After attending a performance of Rent in February 1996 and writing a review of it, Schulman realized that the storyline of this mega-hit was, in fact, taken directly from her novel. Stagestruck is an engrossing narrative of Schulman's mainly futile struggle to gain recognition and legal restitution for the use of her material, but more than that is an expose of how mainstream theater has twisted gay and lesbian culture and themes such as AIDS to make it more palatable to mass audiences. Schulman also provides a look at some off-Broadway plays and performance pieces by gay and lesbian artists that give a much more authentic depiction of gay life and issues. As the struggle continues for gays and lesbians to gain acceptance and to see themselves portrayed accurately in literature and drama, Schulman clearly comes out a winner with Stagestruck. -- Howard E. Miller, M.L.S., St. Louis

Michael Bronski

As in her best novels, Schulman's observations on culture and politics are astute and startlingly original. Stagestruck is an incisive and important work of social criticism.

Out Magazine

Ok, so Schulman trashes Out in the final pages of her book. So she implies that you're a bad queer if you buy this magazine. Promise not to cancel your subscription if we tell you to read her book anyway? This combination manifesto/expos￯﾿ﾽ is a cracking read. Apparently Jonathan Larson, that famously dead Broadway wunderkind, used a hell of a lot of Schulman's 1990 novel People in Trouble, in his hit musical, Rent. Initially, Schulman thought she'd sue. But after locking horns with the lawyers, she realized that a dyke who wrote a novel some other dykes liked wasn't going to get anything from Broadway big boys. Instead she wrote Stagestruck, which is much more than the story of Schulman's wrongs. She examines the Rent case as representative of a larger epidemic: the dominant culture's systematic harvest of queer experience. Written in outrage, this book is often outrageous, but don't let the bombast get you down-it's meant to get your blood boiling and your eyes flashing in righteous furyRead all 14 "From The Critics" >

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