525,600 Minutes

I consider myself an exception to the rule. I say this because I do not like the musical Rent, yet I have never met anyone who has seen it and did not like it. I am definitely in the minority on this one. I hate saying that I do not a like a show, and Rent is probably the only show that I have not enjoyed. But the movie is a different story. I absolutely love the movie, and can watch it over and over again without tiring.

Rent is about struggling artists in New York's Lower East Side. It deals with topics of AIDS, poverty, addiction, and love. The characters of this show are simple. Roger, a songwriter that is HIV+, meets Mimi, an exotic dancer with AIDS. They start a relationship that is broken apart my Mimi's addiction. Roger, a filmaker, was dumped by Maureen, a performance artist, for Joanne, a successful lawyer. Tom Collins, a computer genius that is HIV+, falls in love with Angel, a transvestite with AIDS, who dies during the show.

Although I am not a fan of the show, I do like the message. These characters struggle with some ugly things in their life and you feel for them. The song "Will I" is what touched me the most in this show. The song is sung my members of the Life Support group, people with AIDS, singing "will I loose my dignity, will someone care, will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare". Half the characters in this show are suffering from this disease, and they feel abandoned by the world. It is very heart wrenching, because this is more than just a song or a even a musical, but a very real life situation. Jonathan Larson, the writer, lost friends to this disease and he did a great job of bringing awareness about it through his show. Sadly, Larson died before Rent opened.

Larson was a great songwriter, and the score to this show is amazing. But the show itself just has way too much going on for it to be meaningful. Robert Crew of the Toronto Star thought "It was messy, emotionally unengaging and had a cop-out of an ending." He later changed his mind in the article, but I still believe that. I saw this show a few years ago when I was working as an usher for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale. I was real excited to see it, because I had already seen the movie and loved it. I remember watching the show and not knowing what the hell was going on. If I had not seen the movie, I would have been totally lost. The show just did not flow and like I said there was just too much going on. I was very disappointed to say the least. I was probably a little biased, because the movie featured the original Broadway performers (including the amazing Idina Menzel I mentioned in Defying Gravity). I had high expectations and the touring cast just did not meet those.

Depsite my flawed view of it, this musical is a Broadway sensation. There is even a name for the fans, they are called RENT-heads. But I do hope to see this show again, maybe I will have a different take the next time around. If you never see the show, atleast watch the movie. It is worth it.