RENT: the musical

The time is the 1980’s, and the place is New York City:  Manhattan to be more specific.  Getting down to the nitty-gritty and we’re talking the East Village, beacon to those who live a lifestyle quite different from mainstream U.S.A.  

  And there is Thompkins Square Park, abutting Avenue A, home to a large congregation of gays, lesbians, drag queens, addicts; any alternative existence you can name, and everything and everyone in between.

A group of friends have been living freebie in a loft, but the building’s been sold, and rent is due.  On top of that, their community has been ravaged by AIDS, and each of them is forced to come to grips with the death of friends and the prospect of their own not-distant mortality.

Written by Jonathan Larson, this years-long Broadway smash hit has been transported to our neighborhood on Johnson St. at the Cumberland Theater, and I would encourage you to see the show.  There are eight main characters and an ensemble that adds considerable zest to the community.  The vocals are uniformly strong, and the songs are a joy to the ear, rousing at times, lyrical and passionate throughout.

While there are religious references scattered throughout the play, and while one of the scenes is staged to be clearly symbolic of the Last Supper, this is not a show that’s going to be on the go-to list of our fundamentalist Christian citizens.

The music is rock, the dancing ribald, and the language representative of the urban East Village culture.  Transgender Angel struts her stuff, and let me tell you, she ain’t holdin’ nothin’ back.  The closets are all open on Avenue A, where kisses are exchanged, love expressed, and existential angst pervades the stage.

The message of the show is clearly one of love and acceptance:  acceptance of everyone exactly as they are; certainly a message that could use some airing here in our little backwaters of cultural narrow-mindedness.

 So do yourself a treat; there’s still time to head down to the theater and see a wonderful performance.  Meet up with Mark, Roger, Mimi, Maureen, Joann, Bennie, Tom, Angel, and the entire ensemble at the Life Café for some beer and wine and to enjoy life every day.  You won’t regret it.