Real life pays in Rent

How do you measure a year in a person’s life?
According to the screen adaptation of the musical “Rent,” you measure it in love.
When Broadway musicals make its way to the Hollywood screen, it is usually raped of the luster that made it a sellout in the first place.
But “Rent” is different.
The play, written by Jonathan Larson, is a rendition of the Italian opera “La Boheme.” Like its musical counterparts “Chicago,” “The Wiz” and “Grease,” the singing of the acts controls the flow of the movie, but “Rent” pushes the envelope by providing very little conversational dialog.
“Rent” tells the tale of eight friends who celebrate life while facing death, AIDS and poverty in 1989.
The movie opens with all the characters singing “Seasons of Love” on a stage in a deserted theater. The scene quickly changes and enters Mark Cohen, played by Anthony Rapp and his roommate and musician Roger Davis (Adam Pascal).
Their landlord and ex-roommate Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III, played by Taye Diggs (“How Stella Got Her Groove Back” and “Brown Sugar”), gives Roger and Mark an ultimatum. Benjamin insists the two roommates stop their promiscuous friend Maureen Johnson (Idina Menzel) from protesting the plans of him building a state of the arts multimedia studio. If not, Benjamin will evict them, but not before collecting their back-rent.
The score, which was also written by Larson, is comprised from pop, rock, Latin and hip-hop beats and Larson had a talent for making the lyrics become visible. His choice of words and puns makes the movie more enjoyable.
Although the movie doesn’t hit theaters until Nov. 23, the soundtrack for both the play and the movie are now available in local music stores.
Though “Rent” is sure to be a Thanksgiving treat, it is rated PG-13 for its language and suggested sexual themes.
Oddly enough, after six years of writing the play, Larson died in 1996 of an aortic aneurysm an hour after the play premiered. He never got to receive the Pulitzer Prize “Rent” received for drama, nor did he get to hold onto the three Tony Awards the musical was nominated. The cast also sang their signature classic, “Season of Love,” at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.