Rent Says Goodbye
I'm not a big fan of musicals. I will go see them if someone is desperate to go, or if I have a friend who is starring in one, but for the most part they just don't interest me. I do like the opera though, and I remember about ten years ago or so, someone told me that I had to go to New York and see this brand new musical based on La Boheme. They said it was called Rent. About two months later I was in New York and someone asked me if I wanted to go see Rent. I had completely forgotten about it, until they mentioned it, but said sure.
I have now seen Rent about 15 times live and watched the movie countless additional times. To some, Rent is just music and a good story, but if you read my posts on World Aids Day you know that Rent can be very personal and very moving and very identifiable. In 1989 and 1990 when the story is supposed to take place, AIDS was a death sentence and you saw how different people coped in different ways. Those people with AIDS came from a wide variety of backgrounds and had a variety of friends which all intertwined. Added to the hopelessness of AIDS, was the homeless issue and the stark background of New York smack in the middle of an economic recession. It was real, and therefore is also the problem with its long term survival prospects.
People who are in their early 20's now have no idea how to relate to any of those issues which I mentioned above and so to them it is just a story. They might not even catch on that some of the characters have AIDS. This is not their reality. It doesn't affect them. It is way to serious to just see lightly on a Sunday afternoon. It is not going to numb you like two hours at Mamma Mia. It is going to hit you head on and confront you. It is going to make you think and reflect about what was and what you lived through. The problem is younger audiences never lives with it and so don't get it, and aren't confronted and aren't reflecting. They should.
If you want to see Rent before it closes you have until June 1st. Take someone who has never been before. Take someone younger than you. Talk to them after. Tell them what it was like. Tell them how you had friends just like those in the play. It is a part of our history that is already being forgotten. Try to do your best to make sure it isn't.
