by Emilie Winthrop
August 1997

Already an almost complete sell-out for its run, the rock musical RENT opened in the LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE to a roaring ovation, particularly from the younger members of the audience. However, here and there were pockets of sad and puzzled faces and , indeed, they included this reviewer.

Based on the plot of Puccini's La Boheme, this contemporary version substitutes a group of young people. Few seem actively engaged in the arts as they scrambling for existence in New York's East Village, instead of the opera's 19th Century bohemians in Paris. Their lives are video taped over a year by Mark who, with Roger, seem to be the only ones who live in a loft for which they must find the rent. The others camp out in an adjacent lot; which, like the heatless building, is now owned by Benny who wants to develop the property into a high tech cyber-arts studio, believing that will ultimately benefit everyone. The choices each makes during the year's Seasons of Love make the author's points.

This rock musical has received virtually every award an author could want from the Tony to the Pulitzer, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Obie. Unfortunately, Jonathan Larson, author and composer of RENT, died ten days short of his 36th birthday and only a few more days before Rent opened on February 13, 1996 at The New York Theater Workshop where it received superb reviews. By the end of April 1996 RENT moved to the Nederlander Theater where it continues as one of the hottest tickets on Broadway.

RENT has the advantage of being directed by talented Michael Greif, who directed the original New York production. Its cast is uniformly excellent, particularly in the work of Christian Mena as Roger, Julia Santana as Mimi, Kenna Ramsey as Joanne and, a special kudo goes to Wilson Cruz as the drag queen, Angel. The score is terrific, although had it not been for the CD containing snippets that were given the press, I would not have been able to hear the lyrics due to the volume at which most everything was played. This is a disservice, both to the author and those members of the audience whose hearing has not been impaired from attending too many rock concerts. Some strains seemed a bit reminiscent of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Cats, specially in Over The Moon.

This brings me to a minor one aspect that I found distracting in RENT: concern for the vocal chords of these gifted performers. Somehow more has never equated with better, and, in this instance, loud merely masks much of the important beauty in the lyrics.

Commenting on his work, Larson said, "With this work, I celebrate my friends and the many others who continue to fulfill their dreams and live their lives in the shadow of AIDS. In these dangerous times, where it seems the world is ripping apart at the seams, we can all learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day, and we should reach out and bond together as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium."

This is a statement with which everyone would agree, yet, it leads me to the themes that puzzled and saddened me in RENT.

I am sure these very talented young actor-singers are fulfilling their dreams as Larson says, "here in America at the end of the Millennium," but the song goes on into the dark cynicism in the play to speak of ... you are what you own... and dying in America at the end of the Millennium. The tragedy of the wasted lives in the story is due to the belief that terror is somehow new to this generation.

It is saddening to think of Larson's talent snuffed out too soon, but such waste is nothing new. The hideous plague that is AIDS has, or will touch, nearly every family in this world before it is conquered, but so may starvation, pollution, war, and horrors yet unknown. If we do not all face death squarely in the face everyday, we should, for it is the other half of the bargain we strike in accepting life.

When Maureen sings Take Me or Leave Me to Joanne, the lyrics include, ...let's have fun ... Nothing wrong with that, except the fun portrayed seems to involve courting, by indiscriminate sex and drug usage, the very terrors of which Larson speaks.

Living in New York, one tends to buy into thinking that it is the cultural and intellectual center of the Universe. I know that when I was a poor struggling art student there, we all thought so, just as creative people in the last century once thought Paris was. The mess that is Manhattan is not the whole world. There is Love and Compassion in abundance everywhere, but, like Beauty, perhaps it is in the eye of the Beholder. Maybe the world is going to end soon, but acting on the anticipation of that event is a cop-out. What happens if it continues? Who is going to lend a hand in the clean-up if were all still here?

While it is necessary for Youth to think the previous generations are wrong and have failed, ignoring the lessons learned by maturity is perilous. If the pond one finds oneself in seems dry, its well to follow the instructions of the old Zen Master, "Carry water. Chop wood."

But I hope you won't miss getting in to RENT. Like all good theater, it will make you think.