![]() In the end, this ambitious cocktail of social misery and youthful strive becomes a clichÉ-ridden and bland musical, romanticizing the life-style of present-day Manhattan bohemia. And that’s not to deny the existence of a few catchy melodies like “Seasons of Love” and “Will I?,” but from a musical point of view the tunes are hardly original. Again, much of the material sounds familiar. There are songs to all contemporary beats, be it rock, funk, soul, or gospel. The result is a multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-sexual blend (hetero, homo, bi, and trans all fit in nicely), with enough anti-establishment sentiments, AIDS, and drugs to give it the necessary doomsday feel.Įven the score is careful in not leaving out any trends. Hair and La Boheme are just for starters Rent is first and foremost Larson’s attempt to portray the counter-culture of his peers in East Village. Rent’ s main weakness is that it tries too hard to be too many things. One such friend is Tom Collins, a computer wizard turned homosexual, who comes back to squat in the East Village after having been a professor at MIT (so that’s where they all go!). ![]() We follow their romance, and the relationships of their friends and enemies in the East Village. But Roger’s moodiness quickly fades when Mimi - sexy, HIV positive, and positively flirtatious - knocks on his door. Mark, a wannabe film maker, has been dumped by Maureen who now dates Harvard graduate and full-time lesbian Joanne, while his friend Roger laments the suicide of his former lover. Besides agonizing over the rent, they are both haunted by memories of ex-girlfriends. ![]() Roger and Mark are roommates sharing a tiny apartment in East Village. The action has moved to Manhattan, and Rodolpho, Marcello, and Colline have become Roger, Mark, and Tom Collins, but the main dramatic line remains the same: how to pay, or not to pay, the rent. Larson’s musical is loosely based on Puccini’s opera about struggling artists in Paris. If Hair gave Rent its context, theme, and raison d’Ítre, it was another classic, La Boheme, that lent it the story. In his quest for a similar hit, Larson used the Hair formula, putting contemporary rock music to a story about East Village bohemians who scorn material success in favor of personal and artistic freedom, friendship, and love. Hair, written by two out-of-work artists from the East Village more than thirty years ago, perfectly captured the Zeitgeist of a whole generation and managed to become the hippie movement’s most successful work. In his last interview, two hours before he died, the 35 year-old composer told New York Times that he wrote the “ Hair of the 90’s.” Tragically, Larson wasn’t around to witness the success of his show: he dropped dead in his Greenwich Village apartment on the evening of Rent’s last dress rehearsal in January of 1996. Rent was written and composed by Jonathan Larson, a bohemian artist from one of the more creative corners of Manhattan. But in Rent the cathartic moment never comes: the experience is more like a cold shower, waking you up to the fact that it takes more then media hype and Tony awards to make a great musical. When you’re witnessing a show that arrives on such a giant wave of hype and endorsement, you’re anxiously waiting for the wave to finally break and engulf you in its thunderous surf you want it to throw you off-balance, shock your system, and wash you up on the shores of your every day existence as a transformed human being. Any more bids? Yes, Wall Street Journal, please go ahead: “ the best new musical since the 1950’s.” Thank you gentlemen, that’s enough. If you believe what critics say (and I sincerely hope that you don’t), then Rent, now playing at the Shubert Theatre, is “a raw and riveting milestone in musical theater” ( Rolling Stone), “a landmark rock opera” ( The New York Times), and “the most exuberant and original musical to come along in a decade” ( Time), “if not decades” ( Variety). Musical by Jonathan Larson inspired by Puccini’ s La Boheme THEATER REVIEW Rent A loud letdown By Bence Olveczky
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