Musical Notes: RENT

As seasons are starting to wind down, I still need things to write about!  So from this thought comes my newest segment, Musical Notes.  I know I’ve talked before about being a huge musical theatre nerd, so this is where I get to talk about musicals!  I’m super excited about this, because musicals are one of my favorite things to talk about.

I’m going to start off with a long overdue post…RENT.  RENT has been a part of my life for a very long time.  I think I started listening to it when I was twelve or so.  It probably wasn’t the most appropriate then, but I heard it once and was totally hooked.  This show ushered in a whole new era to musical theatre.  Of course there were rock musicals before it, but none quite like this one.  It’s edgy and alternative, and goes to places no musical before it had gone.  I think that’s something I’ve always loved about it.  RENT pushes boundaries…and it does so unapologetically.

RENT is based on the opera La Bohème.  Both tell the tales of starving, sick artists in their respective times.  But RENT does take it a little further.  The cast of characters include a musician, a filmmaker, an actress, and much more.  Some of the characters are living with HIV AIDs.  Writer Jonathan Larson was writing in the late 80s, early 90s, when this was a rampant problem.  He drew a lot of this musical from his life, the people that he knew, and what he saw happening around him.  It makes for a really meaningful and powerful show.  It changed the world of the modern musical.

The thing about RENT is that there’s someone and something for everyone to relate to.  Okay, so we’re not a group of Bohemian artists in NYC in the 90s not able to pay rent, but these are characters that hit us hard and bring so much out in us.  I think that’s something that’s kept this musical on everyone’s radar for the past thirty years.  Obviously the world has changed a lot since then, but Larson captured the very nature of humans.  He understood relationships, what people did (and still do) for themselves and for others.  He brings us friendship and romance.  All of this brings together a show that’s unforgettable.

I can’t talk about RENT without talking about the songs.  As I’ve mentioned a few times, this is the show that changed the modern musical.  A huge part of this is the rock score written by Larson.  The songs are catchy and fun to sing along to.  They have so much emotion in them.  There are multiple songs I can’t listen to in this musical without crying.  The lyrics have meaning, and bring out a depth from inside.  There are so many songs that have gained massive fame from RENT, such as Seasons of Love (which I danced to at my wedding with my mom!) and La Vie Boheme.

Jonathan Larson, who wrote RENT, had a bit of a tragic story.  He was a composer in NYC trying to write a musical that would make a difference.  There were some musicals that came before RENT, including Tick, Tick…Boom! (a semi-autobiographical musical made popular by a Netflix movie made by Lin Manual-Miranda).  But RENT was the one that really took off, and was definitely the musical that made a difference.  Sadly, Larson died the day before his masterpiece’s first preview, of a heart issue.  He never got to see how he changed the world.

How Larson took La Bohème and made it a modern musical is pretty genius.  There are some characters with the same or similar names.  Some of the romantic couples are the same, but he also changed the gender identity of some of them.  And he turned the famous TB to HIV AIDs.  I think this is absolutely brilliant…having seen RENT multiple times, and La Bohème, it’s very interesting to see the similarities and differences.  I highly doubt that there are many people who can do this the way that Larson did.

One of my favorite parts of RENT is the LGBTQ+ representation.  There are straight couples, but also queer couples.  There is a queer couple, one of whom is referred to with both male and female pronouns.  As a young queer person, RENT really changed my life.  It gave me hope, and made me properly realize it didn’t matter who I loved…just as long as I loved.  I could identify in any way I wanted.  Both as a queer person, and a non-binary person, RENT was part of what gave me the confidence to be that person.

RENT is a musical all about love, which is probably the most important part of all.  We see so much hate, so much tragedy, even in this musical, but love is what prevails in the end.  I think, ultimately, this is what made RENT such an important part of my life.  I don’t know where I’d be without this musical.  It was one of the first musicals I ever really belted out to.  It made me fall in love with the modern musical.  It made me comfortable with so many parts of my personality and identity.  RENT has done for me what nothing else has…there will never be another musical like it.