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Review:
 Perhaps
God did indeed punish Jonathan Larson. The day before his baby,
which he worked so hard on while working as a waiter in a diner,
was about to start previews he died of a heart aneurysm. He, thus
wasn't allowed to sell out when he posthumously got the Pulitzer,
some Tonys and lots of other prizes. What he wrote shows very much
how he hated things like that.
For “Rent” is a celebration of failure.
For success is something that Larson excoriates in the entire
movie. Beginning with the second, title number anger and
resentment, not love and friendship, is the core of the entire
work. (The opening number is in fact the intro to the second act,
so it was put at the front).
For those who haven't seen the play: This is Christmas Eve 1989,
the end of the Koch era, and the place is the blighted area known
as Alphabet city, where wannabe/has-beens Mark (Anthony Rapp) and
Roger (Adam Pascal) have been living for a number of years. Mark
is a wannabe auteur and Roger could have been a rock star had he
not gotten HIV/AIDS from a used needle. They used to live with
Benny(Taye Diggs), who betrayed them all by marrying the
landlord's daughter and is now working for the evil gentrifiers.
He shows up on this Cold, cold day to announce if Mark doesn't
stop his ex-girlfriend Maureen (Idina Menzel) from doing her
protest performance, they're going to be out on their ear….if they
do, they get to stay rent-free forever.
Now Maureen has left Mark for Joanne (Tracie Thoms), a wealthy
attorney, and Mark is somewhat resentful of that fact and her
gender. Now at to WHY a big real estate firm would even CARE about
a stupid protest in a performance space is another question for
another time, this is a nostalgic fantasy after all, and a musical
to boot. So there must be romance, in this case between Roger and
a junkie/stripper named Mimi (Rosario Dawson) and between our
hero's old pal Collins (Jesse L. Martin) and a drag queen named
Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia). What do these new people have in
common? They all have AIDS!
That's right, these except for Mark and the lesbians, all the
major characters are dying of AIDS, which is why some detractors
have called this thing “AIDS: The Musical.” In general the
characters aren't that likeable, and we don't see exactly what
keeps them together. But we're enchanted by Larson's music and his
anger, which basically keep the hackneyed plot at bay.
Chris Columbus has managed to make his first great film. He's
tried before, and come close on occasion, but his breaking out the
claustrophobic bounds of the original musical. Numbers like “La
Vie Bohem” and “Santa Fe work much better when situated in the
subway or a restaurant.
So, take in a matinee. This is harmless fun, and is worth the
bucks.
Eric Lurio
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