Yesterday, Sept. 7 marked the end of an era. Rent, the musical that added AIDS, sexuality, and drugs to mainstream Broadway has closed its curtains for the last time, after running for over 12 years at the Nederlander Theatre, making it the seventh longest-running show on Broadway.
With regard to awards, Rent has a very impressive record, including a Tony Award for best musical and a Pulitzer Prize. But its impact on the viewer is also impressive, with its mission both to entertain and to teach. "Rentheads" - fans of the musical - are as enthusiastic as fans of rock stars. Even the ordinary audience member leaves the theater with reddened eyes, holding the hand of his or her significant other or friend, appreciating what he or she has at that moment. The musical reminds the audience to think more positively about their own lives by experiencing the optimism and hope of the characters.
Set in New York's East Village, the musical focuses on a group of young individuals learning to live each day to the fullest and to love without limits. It is a story of romance and broken hearts, discovery and loss, under the dark atmosphere that AIDS creates. Though they are all at different stages in their lives, the characters come together as a family whose ties seem, at times, even thicker than blood. They choose not to dwell on the past, but rather to make the most of the present, forgetting all regret. And while they don't own much - not even a notion - their generosity never lacks.
However, the story of Rent does not begin on the stage. It started when Billy Aronson had the idea to write a musical that would adapt Giacomo Puccini's opera La Boheme for the modern day. He met Jonathan Larson, and they exchanged ideas. Larson, however, wanted to write about what he knew best: his bohemian life, fully equipped with a bathtub in the kitchen. His life became his muse.
For example, Larson dated an exotic dancer who would eventually leave him for a woman, which proves that the ridiculous events that happened to the character Mark can happen in "actual reality." But more seriously, his closest friends were dying of AIDS. That's why Larson's words have a unique authenticity; the characters are he and his friends.
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