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Broadway Guy

We're celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the Hollywood film "Rent"--not a very good film, but an important one for countless suburban kids-with-dreams--so....a few thoughts....

*"Rent" is one year in the life of an invented family. Would-be artists in Alphabet City confront various crises. A flighty actress leaves her boyfriend for a woman. People struggle with HIV and making rent payments. Extracurricular affairs occur, and occur again.

*The heart and soul of "Rent" is Mimi, and it's shocking that Daphne Rubin-Vega did *not* win a Tony for her performance. (Only Angel won.) Mimi tends to get the best material. When we meet her, she is claiming to be nineteen (and this is up for debate)....and she dances professionally at a club. She falls for a singer, but both she and the singer are contending with the awareness of encroaching (early, tragic) death -- and depression leads to bad choices. As Mimi and Roger fall in and out of love, your heart breaks, over and over:

The world revives....
Colors renew....
But I know blue--only blue--lonely blue....
Without you....

*Some parts of "Rent" are exasperating. The Akita/Evita story is something I can always, always skip. It's silly to have Mimi "come back to life" at the end, and it's especially painful to have Roger's big climactic song take the form of a massive let-down. I'm embarrassed each time Idina Menzel does her "performance art" moment ("In Cyberland, we only drink Diet Coke....") and, though I sense the writing is *deliberately bad* here, the moment still seems to be something less than truthful. (Also, David Rakoff has the most damning line about "Rent": "The one and only work of art in which the main consequence of being in the terminal stages of AIDS is that you become more and more attractive, more glamorous....")

*All that said, I will go to my grave defending other moments: "Will I lose my dignity....Will someone care?" "Look, I find some of what you teach suspect....because I'm used to relying on intellect..." "I hear Spike Lee's shooting down the street...."

I love this musical just as much as any other formerly scared, closeted kid. I can't overstate its importance. To "Rent"!

P.S. I should mention that Maya Phillips--in the NYTimes--was an inspiration for this trip down memory lane. Check out her piece today.

P.P.S. The final Broadway performance from the original run is available on Amazon Prime. You can stream the performance. You have to buy it; renting is not an option. The cast is ideal--especially Will Chase and Renee Goldsberry (who would go on to win fame by starring in "Hamilton"). Much better than the Hollywood film.
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