Everything Is Rent

Christmas bells are ringing as Sarah and Beth are joined by fellow Rent super fans, Joel Kim Booster and Brendan Scannell (The Cure, Vulture's Comedians You Should and Will Know) to talk about Scarlett Johansson's agent, how being a democratic socialist has rekindled Joel's love of Rent, and to theorize about all that math Jonathan Larson did for Seasons of Love.

Sarah and Beth are joined by two of their besties, Jake Regal (Scorpion, Angel in Rent at UCB) and Andrew Hansen (A.P. Bio, Joanne in Rent at UCB) to delve deep into the 25 minute version of Rent their improv team put up at UCB as an April Fool's joke. Jake also talks about rebelling against his family by liking mumblecore movies instead of musicals and Andrew (everyone's dad) explains the difference between "quite a few" and "a lot."

Guy Montgomery (The Worst Idea of All Time) joins Sarah and Beth in their high tech podcast studio after listening to "I Should Tell You" many, many times, despite actively disliking it. Earning the title of "Guest Who Has Done the Most Research," Guy outlines some differences between the 2008 Broadway Rent revival, a college production, and Vanessa Hudgens' Hollywood Bowl performance.

Paul F. Tompkins (BoJack Horseman, Superego, Spontaneanation) joins Sarah and Beth to share his "thumbnail Wikipedia knowledge" of Rent and his controversial opinions about the Pope. They break down everything that doesn't make sense in "La Vie Boheme," including the idea of putting equipment in a pyramid and the idea that meatless balls taste the same as meat it you close your eyes.

Sarah and Beth are joined by their old pal, Dan Black (Comedians of Wrestling) who uses his real New York accent to talk about the "jump over the moon" song, melting pots vs. salad bowls vs. fruit platters, which wrestler would play who in Rent, and more! Dan is a huge Rent fan and brings up some very good questions: How did Mark and all of these Bohemians meet? What the heck do the metaphors in "Over the Moon" mean???

First, Beth and Sarah go through some of their favorite (and least favorite, Malala) listener emails and tweets and realize that everyone saw Rent in 1997. Then, Mark David Christenson (Aw...Crap, a Hellboy Podcast) finally gets his own mic and joins Beth and Sarah to discuss The Greatest Showman, which he saw alone to celebrate his niece's birthday??? He also talks about famed director of Moulin Rouge, Laz Buhrmann.

Zach Reino and Jessica McKenna (Off Book) kick things off by talking about some of the similarities between La Boheme and Rent (aka La Boheme 2: More La, More Boheme), Zach invents the name "Mimolfo," Jess walks everyone through some hot new slang, and the gang debates whether or not "honest living" is an onomatopoeia. Beth and Jess compare notes on their college productions of Company, Not only does this episode slap -- it's also a bop, it twists, and it's a banger.

You may know him as Mike Scollins (Late Night with Seth Meyers) and he's here to break down the mysteries of the song "We're Okay" -- What's "the Murget case"? Where is "Penthouse A"? Who is "Newt's lesbian sister"? He also talks about his star turn as Kenickie in Grease, everyone breaks down their first onstage kiss, and Mike comes up with a great new improv warm-up in a bonus episode of "Late-2000s Improv Talk." Also, if anyone thinks the musical The Boyfriend is good, Beth will gladly fight you.

The main cast for RENT on FOX was announced yesterday, so you know Sarah and Beth had to drop everything (dogs) to record this emergency episode with their very important thoughts on the casting. Is this very podcast the reason Valentina and Keala Settle were cast? Yes. Will Vanessa Hudgens nail the role of Maureen? Unclear. Will Sarah and Beth go to the cast party and make some "Contact" with this extremely attractive cast? Hopefully!

Eliot Glazer (Haunting Renditions, You’re Making It Worse, Broad City) is a quote unquote “perfect guest” on this week’s episode of Everything is Gwen. He talks about being a Rent kid on the early Rent train, explains why Rosie O’Donnell is actually responsible for the popularity of Rent, and is yet another guest who hates the Rent song they’re talking about. drama teachers. And, at the very end, Eliot performs a special rendition of Voicemail #1 that you’re not gonna wanna miss.