by Michelle Mondo
University of Dayton
February 23, 1999

For anyone staying on campus for spring break this year, the Memorial Hall has something special planned on March 2-7: the production of Rent, one of the hottest plays to hit Broadway this decade.

The play is a remake of Puccini’s La Boheme and covers a year in the life of seven friends who live in the lower east side of Manhattan. They are all struggling artists (with the exception of Joann) who are trying to make art in the worst of circumstances. The play is filled with the tragedy and triumphs of addicts, drag queens and HIV sufferers.

Katie Skurla, a senior education major, saw Rent with the original cast on Broadway.

"It’s a powerful interpretation of the problems that a large part of our society are forced to live with today," she said.

The opening scene of Rent is set on Christmas Eve in Mark’s, the narrator of the play, apartment. Mark and his roommate Roger are about to be kicked out because of not paying the rent. Roger refuses to leave his room because of the suicide of his girlfriend after she discovered she had AIDS.

For the next year, Mark tells the story of his friends and the struggles of just trying to get by. They fall in and out of love, make peace and enemies, and deal with loss.

The story of the creation of Rent is also one of triumph and loss.

The concept of the musical began about seven years ago when Jonathan Larson decided to take on the project of updating La Boheme (he had been collaborating with another playwright before he took on the project himself).

Part of the updating had to do with making HIV in Rent the equivalent of tuberculosis in La Boheme. Larson and others working on the project knew quite a few people who had the disease, which made the play come to life even more.

Tragedy struck on Jan. 25, 1996 just before opening night when Larson died at home of an aortic aneurysm. He had been to the hospital prior to his death but doctors sent him home because they believed he was not sick.

The play still opened on schedule and received rave reviews. That year, Rent received the Tony Award for best musical and the Pulitzer Prize. While many contributed to the production, most looked to Larson and his endless dedication as a source for the play’s success.

Family, friends and the production team lamented that he could not be a part of everything he had dreamed of since he organized his first production of Gilligan’s Island in his own backyard while in kindergarten.

Still, whatever playgoers feel about Rent, the play has brought many controversial topics to the forefront of discussion.

"When people see it they either love it or hate it," Skurla said. "I think one reason they hate it is because they don’t want to face the reality that the problems actually exist today."