Rent


 * Rent **

Rent is a rock opera musical that first appeared off Broadway in 1996 and was an immediate success. It made it on Broadway within 2 months. Jonathan Larson wrote this play that chronicles the lives of the diseased and drug-addicted young people of East Village over the course of a year. The characters bond over a rent strike against their landlord and their efforts to overcome this obstacle and the other obstacles that are a part of their everyday lives, such as drug addiction, AIDS, and relationships. The musical was a winner of the Pulitzer and Tony Awards. Rent became a film in 2005 that was directed by Chris Columbus and a box office success (//Rent,// 2011).

** Plot Synopsis:** With a basis on Giacomo Puccini’s //La boheme// that was set in Paris in the late 1800s, Rent is a rock opera that takes place in the East Village of New York City. Rent opens with Mark and Roger, roommates at an apartment who have just learned that their landlord, Benny, is asking them to pay the rent that he previously waived. A former roommate of Mark and Benny, Collins, is just getting back into town when he is mugged and left for dead in an alley outside of the apartment. Angel, an HIV-positive drag queen finds Collins in the alley. Collins is also HIV-positive. Roger is mourning the loss of his girlfriend, who committed suicide when she found out she was HIV-positive. He is a guitarist and his hope is to write a lasting song before HIV takes his life as well. Mimi, a nightclub dancer who lives in the building flirts with Roger when asking him to light her candle.She is a heroine addict and is looking to have a good time before she dies. Benny asks Mark and Roger to put a stop to Maureen’s protest in exchange for free rent. Maureen is Mark’s ex-girlfriend who recently left him for a woman, Joanne. Benny is planning on turning Maureen’s performance space into a cyber-café and Maureen had planned a protest. Angel invites Roger and Mark to join Collins and him at a Life Support Meeting at the local community center. Roger declines but Mark takes this opportunity to film for the documentary he is working on and hears some moving stories about what to believe and how people live their lives. The next day Angel, Collins, and Mark are happy to see Roger join them at the meeting. After the meeting, Roger and Mark go to the protest while Collins and Angel profess and sing of their love for each other. A riot breaks out at the protest, and all of the characters meet at the café that night. Benny apologizes with little acceptance from everyone, especially Maureen.Mimi and Roger express their love for each other outside and jump right into a relationship. Roger finds out that Mimi is HIV-positive as well.They all celebrate the New Year together only to find that Benny has repossessed all of their belongings and locked them out of their apartment. In response, Mark sells his footage of the riot to Buzzline and gets a job there, with Joanne as his lawyer. Maureen and Joanne get engaged after a jealous fight about Maureen flirting with other women and break up for the same reason at their engagement party. When Mimi gets Benny to change his mind about locking them out and repossessing their belongings, Roger assumes she is cheating on him and Mimi falls back into drug-addicted lifestyle she had left behind. At this time, Angel’s condition is also worsening and eventually he dies. After Angel’s funeral, Mark quits his job and Roger goes to Santa Fe in a car funded by the money he made selling his guitar. Once there, he realizes that he loves Mimi and goes back to New York, where he learns that Mimi has gone missing. Joanne and Maureen find Mimi close to death in a park and they bring her back to the apartment where she regains consciousness. She tells them of her vision of Angel and a warm, bright light. Mark shows his documentary titled “Today 4 U: Proof Positive” (Columbus, 2005).

**Cast:** Mark- Anthony Rapp Roger- Adam Pascal Mimi- Rosario Dawson Tom Collins- Jesse L. Martin Angel- Wilson Jermaine Heredia Maureen- Idina Menzel Joanne- Tracie Thoms Benny- Taye Diggs (Columbus, 2005)

**Sexuality Themes:** Just as //La Boheme// shocked the audience in the late 1800s, //Rent// faced the obstacles that were becoming a part of many peoples’ everyday lives and relationships. Larson was writing to the MTV generation and was looking for a way to respond to the AIDS crisis (Tommasini, 1996). At the time, HIV, which affected the characters greatly, was on the mind of many people in New York City and around the world who all felt threatened by HIV. Jonathan Larson used this crisis to create a theme around what people were going through. In a New York Times article (1996) he was quoted as saying, “It’s not how many years you live, but how you fulfill the time you spend here. That’s sort of the point of the show” (Tommasini, 1996). At one point the characters are all quoted as shouting “Actual reality! Act up! Fight AIDS!” (//Rent//, 2011). These characters are striving for acceptance while enduring the effects of poverty and AIDS (Sony Pictures, 2005).

**AIDS:** While some sources imply that the number of people affected by AIDS was inflated by the government during the AIDS crisis of the 1980’s (Tierney, 2011), others estimate the scope of the AIDS virus as affecting 630,000 to 897,000 people as of 1993 (Rosenberg, 1995). AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is the final stage of HIV disease. It attacks the immune system and is currently the 6th leading cause of death for those ages 25-44 in the United States. This number has decreased. In 1995, a year before RENT premiered AIDS was the number one leading cause of death for this age group. The virus is transmitted through blood, sexual contact, and from mother to child. In this specific age group, sexual contact and drugs facilitate most of the spreading of the virus. There is currently no cure for AIDS but treatments are available. Support groups are also common, just like the support group that Angel brings Collins, Mark and Roger to in Rent.

**References:** Columbus, C. (Director). (2005). //Rent// [Motion picture]. Rent Productions LLC. Dugdale, D. (2011). AIDS- PubMed Health. //National Center for Biotechnology Information,// //U.S. National Library of Medicine.// Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001620/ Fan Pix. Retrieved from http://www.fanpix.net/0663052/012036055/rent- 2005-large-picture.html History of Rent. //Rent Musical.// Retrieved from http://www.rentmusical.net/history. //Memorable quotes for Rent.// (2011). Retrieved from IMDb.com, Inc. website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294870/ //New York Times.// Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/11/theater/theater- a- composer-s-death-echoes-in-his-musical.html?src=pm. //Rent.// (2011). Retrieved from IMDb.com, Inc. website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294870/ Rent- Official Site. (2005). //Sony Pictures.// Retrieved from http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/rent/index.html. Rosenberg, S. (1995). Scope of the AIDS Epidemic in the United States. //Science Magazine.// Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/270/5240/1372.short. Soda Head. Retrieved from http://www.sodahead.com/entertainment/best- musical-ever/question- 1139121/?link=ibaf&imgurl=http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Nov-23- Wed-2005/photos/rent.jpg&q=rent%2Bthe%2Bmusical%2Bpictures Tierney, J. (2001). //In 80’s, Fear Spread Faster than AIDS//. Retrieved from: http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/news/nytfear.htm. Tommasini, A. (1996). Theater; A Composer’s Death Echoes in His Musical. //The New York//