Rent

Rent

Rent is a play that I have always loved. Though I may not agree with all the things that this play idealizes, I do think it was a truly revolutionary piece of theatre and the music is phenomenal. I first saw the play when it toured in the late 90′s, early 00′s, and I saw it on Broadway in the summer of 2004. I have the entire soundtrack memorized.

I tried to go into the movie without any expectations. I really had no idea if putting this play onto film would actually work, so I figured that if I didn’t think about it much that if it was bad then I wouldn’t be disappointed.

Needless to say, I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The characters became so alive, it took me by surprise. All but two of the characters (Mimi and Joanne) are portrayed by the actors who originated the characters. It’s quite obvious that the actors love their characters, and now that they have 10 years more experience on them than when they first acted these parts, it’s quite obvious that the maturation has developed stronger, richer actors who were able to bring these characters into a real existence.

It was great to be able to see the play take place in its actual setting – we get to see the apartment, the CatScratch Club, the life support meetings, Angel’s funeral.

I’d describe the music, but there’s much better review than I could ever write on Amazon.com. It’s the user review by M J Heilbron Jr. “Dr. Mo”, who wrote this review based only on the soundtrack two weeks before the movie was released. The review is currently the first one that you see when you visit the page for the Rent soundtrack.

SPOILER ALERT – MILD SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!

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Minor complaints (let me stress MINOR):

Joanne’s parents were OK with her sexuality, and in the play they were most definitely not OK with it. I think that added an extra dimension to Joanne’s character that we were missing. However, I think Tracie Thoms did an EXCELLENT job acting the part!

Also, Roger’s walk through the desert was a bit much. I wish they’d picked a slightly less cheesy location for him to sing from.

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