I Should Tell You: A Rent Rant

by Paul Wontorek

OK, now I'm officially worried about Rent, the feature film adaptation of Broadway's longest running rock opera, set to hit movie theaters a year from now. I've been really patient until now--telling friends that complaints about the casting and script were premature and keeping my disappointment at bay when Spike Lee left the project and mainstream director Chris Columbus picked up the reins.

Still, I had plenty of reasons to like this Columbus guy (who admittedly knows his way around warm and fuzzy flicks like Mrs. Doubtfire, Stepmom and the Harry Potter series) in the past month or so. After all, he didn't shun the notion of using the original Broadway company, ultimately hiring six of them to recreate their roles for the big screen. And I'd also heard that he was a Rent-head himself, having seen the show several times and really wanting to keep its integrity in check for the film.

But then Columbus had to ruin my impressions of him by opening his big mouth! In a recent chat with Fred Topel, the "Action-Adventure Movies" expert on About.com (Does Rent qualify as such a project?), the director made not one, not two, but a handful of alarming statments about the project.

1. He's Adding to the Plot: Columbus revealed in the interview that he's adding a subplot to the story involving gay marriage. I don't see how a viable gay marriage plot can be inserted in a mid-90s story, which brings up the more troubling question of whether or not he's going to try to set Rent in the present day. I assume he's going to marry off Angel and Tom Collins,

Married? Tom Collins (Jesse L. Martin) & Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia)

but then again, Maureen and Joanne are the longer-running gay couple in the show so that's an option as well. Of course, I believe that these couples deserve to marry, but I don't believe that any such plot belongs in Rent. Why? Well, Jonathan Larson's musical isn't political at all, and the sexuality of its characters is never discussed or debated. They simply are what they are—living lives where they can be “an us for once instead of a them,” to quote the Act One rouser “La Vie Boheme.” To have them debate why they can or can't get married will take away from the real issues of their lives—issues like AIDS, homelessness and loss.

2. He's Cutting Songs: In order to add in dialogue scenes, Columbus admitted that he's cutting some pieces of Larson's Tony Award-winning score. “We had to do that,” he told Topel. “We couldn't do it as a straightforward opera.” Well, sure you could have, Mr. Columbus. I mean, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita and The Phantom of the Opera recently made it to the screen without cuts. I can only assume that Columbus will leave the big “hits” like “Seasons of Love,” “One Song Glory,” “Light My Candle,” “Out Tonight” and “Take Me or Leave Me” intact and it's probably safe to say that fans of the “Tune Up” and “Voice Mail” segments of the score will have to wave them goodbye. But what of the less known yet emotionally driven songs like “Will I?” “Halloween” and “Goodbye Love”? Will Columbus have the good sense to know what to leave in?

3. He's Trying to Prove He's “Down” With It: Columbus also shared that he understands the bohemian existence of the Rent characters because he once “lived in a loft with mice” where he had to throw the key down to let people in the front door a la Roger and Mark in the show. “I knew those guys,” he said. “I lived in that kind of world, so I'm just going to bring that to the movie.” No mention, of course, about living with drug addicts, AIDS patients and drag queens. Hey—I'm not saying that he even has to be from that world. But why is he trying to say he is?

5. He's Only Kept Some of the Original Cast: In response to an Entertainment Weekly piece deeming the original cast members that he hired too old for the characters, Columbus hemmed and hawed a bit. He started by saying that they all still look like they're in their 20s. Then he immediately added that Tom Collins can be older so Jesse L. Martin is ideal even if he doesn't ooze “twentysomething.” He admitted that he hadn't met with Martin and Taye Diggs, but knew their television work on Law & Order and Kevin Hill, respectively. He mentioned meeting with both Menzel (Maureen) and Adam Pascal (Roger), but said nothing about Anthony Rapp, who is playing Mark—perhaps his memories of working with a teenage Rapp on his first film, 1987's Adventures in Babysitting, burned bright enough for him to just offer him the role. I'm puzzled as to his quote about “not going with Frenchie” for the role of Joanne; does he think that Frenchie Davis created the part or is he simply mixing up “Frenchie” with “Fredi” (Walker)? Columbus stated that he wanted to bring back (most of) the originals because of the experience they all had originally with Larson's death and the show's enormous success, saying that he “wanted to capture that emotion on film.” Bravo to that but where the heck is Daphne Rubin-Vega?  

Daphne Rubin-Vega in Rent

Columbus incorrectly stated that Rubin-Vega is currently seven months pregnant (instead, she's due any day—and would surely be in fighting shape by the time filming starts in March), as if that were reason enough to not use her. Look, I don't know where Rubin-Vega stands in all of this—for all I know, she didn't want to slip back into the Mimi stilettos—but Rent without Rubin-Vega is a sad thing. This talented mom-to-be was the heart and soul of Rent and, as the only female original workshop cast members to make it to Broadway, would surely be Larson's first choice for celluloid immortality.

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