Rent - 'Over the Moon' question...

[lovinlovett]

Overall I loved the film but the 'Over the Moon' scene with all the mooing and everything just left me cold. Can someone please shed some light on this for me? I just didn't get it. Would it have helped to see the stage version?

[zoran912]

I didn't like the musical changes for the movie. Some of the intervals were decreased so Idina wouldn't have to sing as high and it just ended up sounding wierd and atonal.

[jimmycurry01]

yeah, it would make a difference if you saw it live. The mooing on stage is an audience participation thing, and it works well on stage. I look forward to seeing how well that tranlates on screen.

[YankeesFan175]

i went with a friend who hasnt seen the stage show. she was totally lost by this whole song. i tried to explain that its just supposed to be random and funny and over the top. she didnt get it, so maybe you do have to see the stage version. i think a lot might have depended upon the crowd. i saw it twice today. the first time the audience was dead, so it wasnt funny. the 2nd time, there were a lot of RENTheads there laughing, so it was more fun. onstage, the mooing is def more fun!

[luvtheEmcee]

You mean you didn't understand what she was doing?

Maureen's performance space is also a tent city; a lot of homeless people live there. Benny wants to build CyberArts, which means that he will build where that tent city is, evicting these homeless people that have nowhere else to go. Over The Moon is Maureens' performance piece, in hopes of protesting against Benny's intentions to evict people and build his studio. Some of what she says makes sense and you can get what it relates to in the "real" story. Some of it is just weird.

Maureen is... an oddball. She's a performance artist, and I take it that there really were/are people who did things much like she does in Rent. What's supposed to be funny about Over The Moon, though, is that she takes herself and what she stands for so seriously, even though she comes off looking like she's crazy.

I hope that was sort of helpful.

[lovinlovett]

Thanks for the feedback.

Ummm...well, I guess I didn't understand the story about the cow not being allowed to produce milk but only diet coke...

Was she trying to say that the owners of the property were not letting the tenants live their lives and were making them leave which is not the normal order of things. So by sucking the milk out of the udder and mooing she was instructing the tenants to stay anyway because that is where they belong?

I guess I just think too much.

[luvtheEmcee]

Yeah, I've never really gotten all of it either. I'm usually like "she's nuts; we're supposed to laugh. Okay!"

[RentBoy86]

Yeah my younger sisters didn't understand this part either, and it was hard to explain, because for the most part I don't get it either, i was just like "she's a performance artist, its absurd." But I just wish Larson were still here to explain it ha. I wonder how he created all that.

[lovinlovett]

Alright so I'm not alone here. I feel better!

[Baine]

I've always taken the milk/diet coke thing to be symbolism.

I think about it like this:

Diet coke is a processed, chemically-altered drink. Milk is pure and from nature.

Maureen is stating that she would rather have her "natural" habitat and not the shiny, processed one that will come when Cyberland takes over the area.

Cyberland is sterile and cold--it is a business. It is not a home.

By sucking the milk from the cow's udders, she is defying Benny. She is defying the building that he wants to put up and protesting by clinging on to what she wants and believes in. It is a complete act of defiance on her part. In the end, when she asks the audience to "moo" with her, she is asking them to join her in her protest---to vouch for the "nature" over the "chemical."

I think Maureen is a lot smarter than she's been given credit for. Everyone sees OTM and thinks, "Well, she's just crazy." But you could look at it in many ways.

Maureen the CHARACTER may not be very good at acting/performing. I mean, of course the actresses that play Maureen CAN sing because they're in a musical. We have to remember, though, that musicals are a forum for people to use song as their voices. So instead of talking about their feelings, emotions, etc.--they sing them. Perhaps when a CHARACTER tries to physically sing, he or she isn't very good at it. In this case, it's Maureen. That's why she's so over-the-top and over-dramatic and just....so Maureen. This is her way of protesting. Everyone knows it and everyone loves her and comes out to support her.

I know that I'm not explaining any of this very well. It's hard to get out of my head and onto the paper. That's the gist, anyway. I think that may possibly be one factor in why OTM sticks out the way it does.

I also think that Maureen is smarter than many think...after all, if she wasn't, how could she turn her feelings about the protest into a song about a cow that employs various literary devices to give the song a double-meaning?




....Well, that's my personal opinion on the matter, anyway. This is what I get for being an English major.......after awhile it seeps into your brain and you're seeing all kinds of oddball stuff everywhere. ^^;

[dancingthrulife04]

Baine pretty much hit it on the nose, at least that's how I interpreted it.

[OrdinaryJukebox1]

Here's how I see it...if you didn't get it on film, seeing it live isn't going to help you either...I loved it on film, and I would have loved to have seen her do it live...

[iheartcheyenne123]

I thought Idina was hilarious when she sang that! i loved the tv's in the background!! TOO FUNNY

[luvcaroline]

Wow Baine, that was a great explanation. That is how I had always interpreted the performance, but had never been able to articulate it as well as you have.

To add to the discussion, it was interesting that in the movie they show the audience's reaction to Maureen's performance. Notice that even her friends are smiling and giggling. I wonder if she realizes that they don't take her as seriously as she does?

[Fizz]

Everything Baine said is pretty much right. I also think Joanne is the metaphor for the cow, and the dish and the spoon could have been Mark and Roger, however, the 'eloped' line throws it off unless theres something they're all not telling us that fanfic writers believe is true.

[emo_geek]

I kinda of think about it like clapping your hands to save tinkerbell....you have to moo to show your support.

[ajayspak2]

"Over The Moon" is Larson's representation of performance art which was big in the late 80's in the E. Village, its over the top, usually out there in la la land stuff that was supposed to be artistic (i personally hate performance art) since Over the Moon is so funny to watch i have always felt that Larson was mocking it, but some disagree that he was honoring it.