crw1025

[crw1025]

Twenty Years Later

Michael Gioia, a writer for Playbill, interviews the original cast of Rent about their auditions for the show, stories from off stage, and Johnathan Larson, the creator of the hit musical who passed away from an aortic aneurysm just after previews had started for Rent off-broadway. But Gioia didn’t just interview them for fun. April 29, 2016 was the date of the twentieth anniversery of Rent opening on Broadway.

Anthony Rapp (Mark) felt that after the tragic death of Johnathan Larson, there was always something at the center of every cast photoshoot and every stage performance. That something was Larson. Rapp also felt that they (or at the very least he) needed to share Johnathan’s story.

Adam Pascal, who originated the role of Roger off-broadway, mentioned that the cast became a family. He was never alone when he sat in the Nederlander Theatre and since this was his first ever show, he basked in excitement of sitting in a theatre with no show going on onstage.

Wilson Heredia (Angel) described the feeling of being on stage  the night after the Tony Awards and receiving a standing ovation before the show even started. “I felt very proud for us....” He even made short mention of his wig one time falling off during “La Vie Boheme”.

Daphne Rubin-Vega (Mimi) remembers being in the hall waiting to audition and standing by the door listening to Anthony Rapp audition with “Losing My Religion”. She remembers the cast and herself also hanging out before and after shows, having so much energy and fun. They would even walk around telling people to go see Rent.

With so many cast and crew apart of this production now twenty-one years ago, it is so easy to see the impact this show had on them. They carry the memories of this show, the good and the bad with them for ever and Gioia captures this perfectly in his article.

Gioia, Michael. (2016). 20 Years Later, Rent cast Remember Auditions, Memories, and Mishaps. Retrieved from http://www.playbill.com/article/20-years-later-rent-cast-remember-auditions-memories-and-mishaps

[crw1025]

An End to an Era

In 2008, Rent performed one last time in the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway. This would be the last time the Tony winning film would be shown on Broadway. So naturally, it was only fitting for @Radical.Media to film this historic onstage moment for people to see in years to come.

They open the show to Roger and Mark in their loft on December 24th. And as Adam Kantor begins to sing for his character Mark, the audience cheer in thrill and excitement.

The stage show is much different to the Movie in many ways, they use just a few set pieces, lighting, and props to change the setting in a way that you can’t even tell every set piece is the same.

The raw emotion that is on that stage while they are performing captivates you as I am sure it captivates the audience. Any mishap that occurs on stage is for the public to see, there is no stopping the show. This makes it the experience of watching it from this type of view that much sweeter.

As the show goes on, you see the actors continuing to embrace their roles and accepting what they are doing. Roger is just as emotionally distant as always, if not more so, and Maureen is even zanier. It is awesome to see a different adaptation of these characters than people are used to seeing with the Original Broadway Cast.

Even when the cast breaks into “La Vie Boheme”, you can feel their excitement and their need to make this the greatest show they have ever done, especially since it is the last.

When Act 2 kicks in, people who have hear the song “Seasons of Love” remember the memorable lyrics telling the audience not dwell on what could have been, but to focus on what is and who is around you. To be surrounded by love.

“525,600 minutes

525,000 moments so dear

525,600 minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

…

How about love?

How about love?

How about love?

Measure in love

Seasons of love

Act 2 starts on its high, but quickly goes downhill. Couples are fighting, people are breaking each others hearts, and Angel is dying.

In Angel’s last song, “Contact”, even through the raunchy background, you see Angel, who is ready for the suffering to end, even if it means leaving the people he/she loves.

“Take me

Take me

Ohhh

Take me

Take me

Ohhh

Today for you

Tomorrow for me

Today me

Tomorrow you

Tomorrow you.”

You hear Collins sing the reprise of their love song, “I’ll Cover You” and see the tears welling up in Michael McElroy’s (the actor who plays Collins) eyes as he sings his goodbye to his lover.

You hear the pain in Mimi’s (Renee Elise Goldsberry) voice as she says goodbye to her love Roger and accepts the fact that she needs to get through her drug addiction.

But nothing is more impactful than the final song “Finale B” where they send there message to the audience and Angel (Justin Johnston) comes out one last time to say goodbye.

But the final production on Broadway can’t end like that. It has to end with a bang and it sure did. You see Rent alumni, such as Anthony Rapp, Jesse Martin, Daphne Rubin-Vega and many others come out on stage with the rest of the cast and sing Seasons of Love one last time.

That show marked the end of an era. It’s time for other places to take the wheel and keep this how alive. Keep spreading the message throughout this whole production, no matter what version you do.

“No day but today.”

Kamen, Jon (Producer), & Warren, Michael John (Director). (2008). Rent: Filmed Live On Broadway [Motion Picture]. United States: RadicalMedia.

[crw1025]

Musicals and Grief

In an article written in 2012 for Globe and Mail, Kelly Nestruck explains how Rent helped Anthony Rapp deal with the death of his mother. As illustrated in the Article, Rapp had written a book called Without You and turned it into a one-man musical where he not only describes being apart of the hit musical, but also how it affected his life and helped Rapp during a difficult time in his life.

Nestruck explains how the book shows how Mark and Rapp are similar, but more importantly, how they are different. She describes how Rapp would leave his role with his understudy whenever needed because, unlike Mark, Anthony loved his mother and would rush to her bedside when she needed him most.

She says at the end of the article, quote, “...even I, a Rent skeptic, was left moved by Without You and with a greater appreciation for Larson and his musical message of living for the now.”

From this Article, it shows me how even someone who isn’t a big fan of the musical, can appreciate the impact it has had on the actors, especially Anthony Rapp.

Nestruck, J. Kelly. (2012). Rent Control: How a Hit Musical Helped a Son to Grieve. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=News&currPage=&scanId=&query=&docIndex=&source=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&u=asuniv&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CA312322973&windowstate=normal&activityType=BasicSearch&failOverType=&commentary=

[crw1025]

“Without You”

In 2006, Anthony Rapp came out with his first ever novel titled Without You: a Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent. Rapp starts the book by remembering the day he auditioned for a workshop for the musical Rent. He mentioned that he was running late that day due to being at a Memorial Service for his Bill. He described the feeling of being late for his audition and rushing to the New York Theatre Workshop on his roller skates. “...glanced at my watch: no way was I going to be on time for my audition...I raced to get my shoes off and my skates and helmet of, and launched myself into traffic, my skates gliding and buzzing, my arms pumping, my breath quickening, my skin relishing the balmy autumnal breeze that flowed around me.” When he got to his audition, he went in, gave his music to the pianist, Tim (who directed the band for the workshop, off-broadway, and Broadway performances of Rent), and went to center stage to perform his audition piece. And while he sang R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion”, he felt right where he belonged. “I loved the way the song felt in my voice, right in the pocket, so I wasn’t straining to hit any notes; I was just soaring on the melody and pouring myself into it...as I sang, my arms splayed out to my sides, my chest full.” Once he was finished with his audition, the director, Michael Greif, introduced him to Jonathan Larson, who created Rent, and immediately gave him a tape of a song from the musical to perform for his callback. Rapp was thrilled and began memorizing the song. He came back to the theatre a few days later and sang the song for them twice. The next day, he got the role. This was the day that marked a change in Anthony’s life. He worked and performed the show for four weeks and met Daphne Rubin-Vega who also reprised her role as Mimi Marquez when Rent performed off-broadway which ended up being sent to the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway.

The beginning of Rent was the beginning of a new era for Anthony Rapp, not only with his career, but also in his personal life. In his memoir, he goes into depth about his mother’s impending illness (a tumor that she named Wild Bill), his relationship with his then boyfriend Todd, Jonathan Larson’s sudden death, and performing Rent.

Through the years that he cover in his book, the emotion undeniably there. When Larson asked Rapp to reprise his role as Mark Cohen, there was no doubt in his mind when he says yes. Rapp constantly mentioned how much he loved this role and how grateful he was to have the chance to play Mark more than once. His only regret was not being able to say thank you to the person who gave him these opportunities, Jonathan Larson. Jonathan and Anthony had formed a friendship over the year from when they first met. Anthony even invited Jonathan to his birthday party.

Larson had passed away on January 25, 1996 from an aortic aneurysm, which, if it had been diagnosed properly to begin with, could have been treated and could have saved his life. Rapp described that day wholeheartedly. He described how he felt so empty and was unable to cry until he made it to the theatre, where he saw Daphne. “...we both rushed into each other’s arms, and that’s when at last I started to cry, pressing Daphne to me… It was as if I’d been waiting for her embrace to allow me to unleash my sadness…” Everyone was sad and angry about his death.

That day, they decided to have a closed theatre of just Jonathan’s family and friend as the cast just sang the songs he had written, realizing how oddly perfect they fit the situation.

Rapp’s mother’s illness took a huge toll on him and it eventually lead to him getting very angry all the time. He was having constant fights with his then boyfriend Todd about they way Anthony had been acting and treating their relationship and it got even worse after Rapp’s mother eventually passed away. With the way he bottled everything up inside of himself, Rapp one day, just before a showing of Rent on Jesse Martin’s (Tom Collins) last performance, got in a heated argument with Todd which lead to him storming off and Rapp, consumed with grief and not wanting their relationship to end, exploded in anger and sadness. He describes how he kept hitting him which seemed more out of sadness than in anger. Jesse and Norbert [Adam Pascal’s (Roger) understudy] eventually got Rapp away from Todd. The stage manager, Adam, and Jesse helped him through that brief moment of insanity and got him back on his feet. Him and Todd made up and Rapp started going to counseling in order to help him deal with everything that was going on in his life.

The way the book was written gave the reader not only insight into his life during that time,  but also into his past. For example, he talked about coming to terms with his sexuality in a way that helped us also understand the conflict that he and his mom had previously had about it. It also gave us context to when, many months before her death, she told her son that she accepted him for who he was and that it was okay to talk to her about relationships he was in.

At the end of the book, Rapp summarized his life from when he took his last bow to when he finished writing his memoir. He and Todd had broken up, but were on good terms, and he was in a relationship with a man named Rodney, and that they were talking about adopting. He reprised his role at West End with Adam Pascal, Jesse Martin, and Wilson Jeramine Heredia (Angel). And overall his life was good, even if the loss of his mom still haunted him so many years later.

But the finale didn’t end there. He described the day he filmed the scene where he was walking in the street, singing “What You Own” (a song Jonathan Larson had added into the musical after the workshop. He had written the song specifically for Anthony). This was Rapp’s favorite song of the whole show and he was so thrilled to be able to reprise his role of Mark Cohen once again, but this time, it was for the whole world to see in theatres.

Rapp, Anthony. (2006). Without You: A Memior of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.

[crw1025]

An Adaption of a Classic

In 2005, Rent became not only a stage production, but a film production. Director Chris Columbus started the movie with all of the main characters on a theatre stage singing the shows iconic song “Seasons of Love” to an empty auditorium. This really helped to set up what the audience was about to watch and give an almost celebratory feel that is constantly present in the rest of the film, whether it be celebrating someone’s life, or celebrating an engagement.

The film takes off with clip of the streets of New York where we see homeless people either sitting or wandering around as we hear Mark’s famous opening lines, “December 24, 1989, 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script. See if anything comes of it, instead of my old shit.” The camera turn to Mark, filming with his camera as the title song, “Rent”, begins playing. As Mark begins to sing about the struggles of documenting real life, he is riding his bike back to what fans of the show can assume is the loft he shares with Roger. Scene cuts to Roger as we see him in their loft with a guitar in his hands singing about the struggles of writing a song after a while; during which the power blows. Mark gets home and shows Roger, who is messing with the fuse box the eviction notice. A now looming question is upon them.

“How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay last year's rent?”

With the power back on, they get a phone call from Collins, a friend of theirs and asks them to throw down the keys. But before he could reach the door of their loft, he was jumped and his jacket stolen. With no heat in the loft, Mark and Roger have no choice but to “light up a mean blaze with posters and screen plays.” Cut back to Collins who is in pain from his incident, unable to get up. Shot back to Mark and Roger on their balcony as the camera pans down to show the rest of the residence on Avenue A burning their eviction notices.

”How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay last year's Rent?”

Mark and Roger continue to burntheir momentos in a metal trash can order to stay warm.

“Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground

And feel the heat of the future’s glow.

How do you leave the past behind

When it keeps finding ways to get to get to your heart?

It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out 

Until you’re torn apart.”

As they continue their song they take their burning past and throw it over their balcony along with everyone’s eviction notices. Benny, who at this point appears to be a landlord, comes by to a mound of people in chaos, anger, and ammusement. But as he exits his car, everyone has one thing to say to Benny.

“We’re not gonna pay.

We’re not gonna pay.

We’re not gonna pay

Last year’s rent

This year’s rent

Next year’s rent

Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent

We’re not gonna pay rent

‘Cause everything is rent.”

Benny asks Mark and Roger to come down and talk to him. As they begin to walk down stairs though, we see Roger make eye contact with a girl who lives below then. It doesn’t look like they know each other. We can tell that there is some sort of tension between the three characters and we can deduce from their conversation that Mark and Roger have kind of shunned Benny from the group because he married the daughter of the owner of their lot. We also learn that his father-in-law was upset a protest being held by a girl named Maureen Johnson, who we find out dumped Mark for a lawyer named Joanne and is protesting because Benny is turning her performance space into a digital cybernetic interactive studio. Benny wants Mark and Roger to convince Maureen to cancel her protest in exchange for continuing to forego their rent.

Cut to a man with drum sticks and a plastic tub performing on the street. He hears a noise and goes to figure out where it is coming from. He finds Collins who is hurt and bloody. The man offers his help to Collins and introduces himself as Angel. He then walks with Collins to get cleaned up and we learn that Angel is a part of a life support group for people with AIDS (which he has). We also learn that Collins as AIDS as well.

In this brief scene, you can see that these two character immediately have a connection and that they could be possible love interests.

Cutting back to the loft, Mark decides to go find Collins and asks Roger if he wants to go with him and that maybe they could grab dinner while they were out. Roger tell Mark to zoom in on his empty wallet. Mark doesn’t pry any further. He just reminds Roger to take his AZT before heading out the door. Roger goes up to the rooftop of their complex and starts reminiscing about the life he used to have as he sings “One Song Glory.” We see flashbacks of him with his then girlfriend April. We see that they were both drug addicts and that April and him tested positive for HIV. But as he sings, we hear his plea.

“One song, glory

One song before I go

Glory, one song to leave behind.”

He goes back to the loft and the girl who had met Roger’s eye came in asking him, “Would you light my candle?” Roger knows that she wants more than just him to light her candle so she could see and continues to try and keep her at bay. We learn that she is a junkie and that Roger had gotten through his drug addiction. Roger tries to hide her stash as she looks for it all over the loft, but she ultimately finds it and leaves, but not before telling him that her name is Mimi.

The next day, Mark finds out about Mimi, but Roger refuses to go any further with her. Collin’s shows up and brings the boys a bunch of snacks and booze and introduces them to Angel, who we discover is transgender.

Maureen ends up calling Mark, asking him to help Joanne fix her sound equipment. Mark goes down to the studio while Angel and Collins head to a life support meeting and Roger just stays at home.

Cut to Mark walking in and meeting Joanne for the first time. The camera follows them as Joanne reluctantly allows Mark to help her with the sound system. Pretty soon, they start comparing their relationships with Maureen in “Tango: Maureen”.

“Mark: Has she ever pouted her lips

And called you ‘Pookie’?

Joanne: Never

Mark: Have you ever doubted a kiss or too?

Joanne: This is...spooky”

Mark fixes the sound system and joins Angel and Collins at life support and ends up filming a bit for his film. You see people talking about their fears and looking desperately for a solution.

Cut to Mimi dancing at her job and soon after, walking the streets to her loft. This is during the song “Out Tonight”. She eventually goes up to Roger’s place and is begging him to take her out. Roger pulls away and begins singing, “Another Day” where he is trying to get Mimi away from him. You can tell that he has enough baggage of his own and he is afraid of taking on someone elses. Mimi is trying to reach him.

“There is no future

There is no past

I live this moment as my last.

There’s only us

There’s only this

Forget regret

Or life is yours to miss

No other road

No other way

No day but today.”

But even with her persuading, Roger doesn’t give in and ends up hurting her feeling. Even through all of this, you can tell that Roger is into her. After this, Roger ends up going to a life support meeting with Collins, Angel, and Mark.

After the meeting, Roger and Mark go to help Maureen with final sound checks. Collins and Angel are alone together and end up declaring their love for each other in the song “I’ll Cover You.” Angel even buys Collins his iconic jacket which he wears for the rest of the film.

Cut to Roger finding Mimi just outside of Maureen’s show. He apologizes to her for being out of line and asks her if she wants to go have dinner with them after the show. She agrees and the whole gang goes to see Maureen perform her protest piece “Over the Moon” which ends with the cops stepping in.

Scene moves to Life Cafe. The group waits for Mark inside, unsure of where he is. He makes his way into the cafe and tells Maureen that he sold his footage of the protest to a news station. The group finds a place to sit at the cafe and they see Benny. Benny starts to patronize them for the way they live their lives as he begins the song “La Vie Boheme”.

“Bohemia, Bohemia’s

A fallacy in your head

This is Calcutta

Bohemia is dead.”

The whole group decides to celebrate the Bohemian Life and begin to mock Benny in front of his investors.

During this, Roger and Mimi have a heart to heart and begin to open up and accept their feelings for one another. We learn that Mimi is also HIV positive. They decide to be together and rejoin their friends for one last round of “La Vie Boheme” and celebrate “...people living with, living, with, living with, not dying from disease!”

The next year of their lives, no one expected. Mark and Roger became squatters in their own loft thanks to Benny. This forces Mark to get a job he hates in order to have money to pay for rent. Joanne and Maureen are having many quarrels, and in the middle of their wedding shower, have and explosive argument and break up. Benny decides to give back the loft to Mark and Roger, free of rent, after talking with Mimi about it, but Mark gives him a check to pay for it. Roger starts to get jealous of Benny and starts becoming distant. Mimi stops taking drugs in order to be with Roger and Angel’s health worsens. Roger ends up catching Mimi buying drugs from a dealer and breaks up with her. She ends up going back to Benny, even though he is married. Angel eventually passes away in Collins’s arms.

The funeral is held on Halloween. Everyone speaks at Angel’s funeral and Collins reprises their love song “I’ll Cover You”. After the service, Mimi and Roger, as well as Joanne and Maureen get in an argument about Roger and Maureen being too afraid to love them. Collins has to stop them in order for them to realize what they are doing.

Maureen and Joanne seem to make up, but Roger pushes away from Mimi and heads off to Santa Fe.

Mark and Roger are being haunted by past ghosts in “What You Own”. Roger sees Mimi everywhere he goes and Mark is alway hearing Angel. Neither of them are happy with their current lives and end up doing the scary thing, following their hearts. Mark quits his job to focus on his own film and Roger moves back to New York after finding his song.

Benny calls Mark and tells them that Mimi is missing. The whole group, especially Roger, are trying to find her but to no avail.

“December 24, 1990, 10 pm Eastern Standard Time.” Collins comes to visit the boys again and ask them if they have any news of Mimi, which they didn’t. Soon after they pour themselves a drink, Maureen shouts for Mark to help them with Mimi. Joanne and Maureen had found her living in the street. Roger and Mimi share a tender moment and Roger plays his song for her before she goes. After telling her the he loves her, she passes away. But soon after, she comes back to life and tells them that Angel told her to go back and be with Roger. The movie ends with them all watching Mark’s film and reminding themselves of one very important lesson.

This lesson doesn’t just apply to them, it applies to all of us. We all need to realize that we have no clue that the future holds and we need to just go for it. There is no day but today.

Rosenthal, Jane (Producer), & Chris Columbus (Director). (2005). Rent [Motion Picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.

[crw1025]

Becoming Part of the Rent Family

Rent got a film adaptation in 2005, three years before it closed on Broadway. Even though the majority of the was the original Broadway actors for Rent, there were still some new faces to be seen. Rosario Dawson was cast as Mimi Marquez, “a beautiful dancer who happens to be a hopeless heroin addict who is also HIV-positive.” She mentioned in her interview with Jet Magazine that she wanted to audition because “the show can change lives as well as attitudes about AIDS, homosexuality, poverty and illness.” She also felt drawn to the character because she could identify with the setting of Rent. Jet Magazine describes the setting as “...an area populated by homeless drug addicts, drag queens, musicians and actors. Many illegally live as squatters in buildings scheduled to be renovated and, for many months, haven't paid any rent.” She mentioned in her interview that, “...she knew she could play Mimi was that she had grown up squatting in the same area the show is set-the lower east side of Manhattan.” This shows how much she wanted this role and felt that the movie adaptation would help to address a very important issue.

Another actress compelled to audition was Tracie Thoms. She landed the role of Joanne, a lawyer who is dating Mark’s ex-girlfriend Maureen. Thoms is a huge rent fan (otherwise known as a Renthead) and landing this role was a dream come true for her. She mentioned in her interview with Jet that “Rent was a little bit of an obsession for me for a while...So, to actually be a part of it now, for someone to say to me, 'Okay, you, the big fan of these actors ... come be in the movie with there'--it was great and really scary at the same time.”

Many may wonder what the rest of the cast thought of these actresses entering the Rent family. Jet Magazine sat down with Jesse L. Martin, who portrays Tom Collins, says, “Rosario and Tracie found a way to become part of our family almost instantaneously...They fit like a glove. I'm so glad they were there because I got to make two new friends as well.”

With two new faces entering the family of Rent actors, this makes for a compelling new adaptation of the Broadway hit musical.

(2005). Rosario Dawson: gets to show her singing and sexy dancing skills in movie version of ‘Rent’. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=32&docId=GALE%7CA139434580&docType=Biography%2C+Cover+story&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=ITOF&contentSet=GALE%7CA139434580&searchId=R2&userGroupName=azstatelibdev&inPS=true

[crw1025]

Controversy over Characters Sexuality

For those of us who sing “Seasons of Love” as a pre-show ritual, if may be hard to understand why, when Rent went on tour for the first time in 1997, it would be viewed with such criticism for the contents in the show. But, Charles Isherwood, a writer for The Advocate, writes about Charlotte, North Carolina’s decision to ban the show from performing in their town.

Isherwood mentions that there was huge protest against a previous show called Angels of America and many feel that Rent would cause the same effect since both shows have homosexual tones displayed in the show. “Explaining why she passed on Rent, Judith Allen, president of Charlotte’s Blumenthal Center for the performing arts, said simply that the musical would be ‘too risky on a subscription series that’s only four years old.’”, yet she didn’t comment further on her statement.

It was also mentioned by Isherwood that due to the town being very religious and conservative, they felt that Rent would perceived as promoting homosexuality. . Commissioner Hoyle Martin said, when he was trying to decide if Rent should be shown in Charlotte, “I did not enter into this lightly...I sat down with 48 members of the gay and lesbian community because I think you always have to listen to the other side, but in the end it only reaffirmed what I believe. There are many gay and lesbian people in Charlotte who are responsible to God for that--and who I have no problem with. But I have a problem when some of them shove it in my face. I don't shove myself in their face."

But regardless of Charlotte, NC, they had no problems booking places all over the rest of the country, in places such as Chicago, Il, Salt Lake City, UT, and  Columbus, OH just to name a few. They performed their tour through the years 1997-1998 and continued on Broadway, not needing Charlotte to help them continue to make this show a hit.

Isherwood, Charles. (1997). Rent Control. Retrieved fromhttp://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=4&docId=GALE%7CA19715192&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=ITOF&contentSet=GALE%7CA19715192&searchId=R2&userGroupName=azstatelibdev&inPS=true&authCount=1&u=azstatelibdev 

[crw1025]

Rent: Written From Experience

In a 1996 article published by the New York Times, music critic Anthony Tommasini reflects on Jonathan Larson’s conception and creation of the Tony Award winning musical sensation, Rent.

For those who don’t know what Rent is, it is an amazing show about bohemian starving artist in New York who are struggling to keep their heads above water with the underlying conflict of HIV and AIDS. In a moving piece of remembrance, Tommasini reflects on the struggles of this “composer with sad brown eyes.”

The man credited for this piece, Jonathan Larson, didn’t just write this to show the world his work, he wrote this in honor of his friends. So much of Rent is pulled from his own life. Tommasini mentions how he used to throw down his keys to friends who by his apartment to see him, just like Mark does in the show. It was also mentioned that Larson had the experience of watching his friends die from HIV and has even supported a few friends by going with them to life support meetings (the Rent equivalent to meetings at Friends in Deed).

After trying to write a hit show for so long, Tommasini explains how Larson came so close to experiencing the greatness that came with Rent, but he never got the chance. Three days before previews started for Rent off-broadway, Larson was feeling some pain and went to the emergency room. He was sent home, the doctors saying that there was nothing they could do. Two days later, Larson continued to not feel well, which resulted in another trip to the ER and another doctor sending him home. The show began previews and Jonathan had started to experience the thrill and excitement of his new hit show.  And just a few hours after his interview with the New York Times about his show, Larson passes due to an aortic aneurysm, causing a minor delay of previews. In this time of sadness, Tommasini discusses how Larson’s friends reflect on how characters and plot points from Rent were pulled from his personal life. One of his friends, Mr. Rosenstein, said, “This was his funeral, and Jonathan had written his own score for it. Listen to this show; Jonathan has prepared us for his death.”

In reading Tommasini’s piece reflecting on Jonathan Larson’s life and his masterpiece, I realize how real the struggle with AIDS and HIV is even today. Luckily today, we have medication that can help to save a person’s life from these diseases, but back then not so much. Even today, I am sure not everyone gets the treatment they need and lose their life to this illness.

I also got a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the musical I love so much. I almost picture Larson himself throwing down his keys and helping his friends who are going through these horrible illnesses. I can now see where Larson came up with Rent, and it makes me love this show even more than I already do.

Tommasini, A. (March 17, 1996). Theather; “The Seven-Year Odyssey That Lead To ‘Rent’”. Retrieved From http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/theater/theather-the-seven-year-odyssey-that-led-to-rent.html