In the context of the album, it's darkly defiant. And not really about singing.

Agreed. You could have had "yell", "shout", "scream" or even "fight" instead of "sing" and the song would have meant the same thing. However, in the context of an album about music as rebellion it really did have to be "sing".

OK, I only just started watching it, but Mr. Sunshine won me over with the theme music.

Wow. That is a really out-of-context "Take Me Or Leave Me."

Yeah, it took me awhile to even identify the song and the show.

I knew the song immediately, but the staging and the switching around of who sang which lines seemed designed to un-lesbianize it, and I couldn't figure out what sense it was supposed to make this way.

Nice to see the nod to New Wave with "I Know What Boys Like," even if Lauren sold the song better than she sang it. I especially like Lauren's comfort within her own skin.

"Sing" seemed to cover the same thematic ground as the Carpenters' song of the same name, or Mama Cass Elliott's "Make Your Own Kind of Music." Not so much defiant as out and proud. Or at least out and nonchalant about it.

I wouldn't have expected Sue to stop at forcing a diva-off. I'm not familiar with the show, so I can't comment on the context of "Take Me or Leave Me." But vocally, it seemed to be one of those duets where each singer inspired the other to go further and further.

Much of my dislike of modern musicals is that the songs aren't universal, that if you pull them out of the show they make no sense (or, worse, have no real melody). I didn't think that was the case with "Take Me or Leave Me." I just assumed it wasn't originally meant as a duet.

"Take Me or Leave Me" is a duet, but not the way they did it -- they skipped around the verses a bunch, and most of what both of them sang was Maureen's part, with just a few lines of Joanne's part here and there. This is the original cast at a tenth-anniversary concert performance: [link]

Wow, I guess I've been successful in blocking Rent out of my mind. Forgot that song entirely.

I don't know, the entire first half of that song is one person singing, so I don't really see that it's much different from what they've done with other songs that make even less sense in the context of the show. And, again, I think a good musical song can be transformed to fit many different situations. Otherwise, it's pretty uninteresting to me.

Now I'm clicking around Rent videos, and I just have to say, OMG Jesse L. Martin. [link]