Lack of Payoff in ‘Rent’

I’ve been vindicated by the L.A. Drama Critics Circle’s lack of nominations for “Rent” (“Drama Critics Applaud ‘Ragtime,’ SCR’s ‘Rain,’ ” by Don Shirley, Feb. 4). The show had no story and only one decent song. The reason it has done so well is the sympathy factor of Jonathan Larson’s death and the fact that it is politically incorrect to criticize anything with gay or AIDS themes.

As soon as the curtain went down I wished I had spent my theater-going dollars on “Ragtime,” and judging from the number of people around me yawning, I wasn’t the only one.

D.E. KOZLOWSKI

Simi Valley