Product Description
-------------------
Set in New York City's gritty East Village, the revolutionary
rock opera RENT tells the story of a group of bohemians
struggling to live and pay their rent. "Measuring their lives in
love," these starving artists strive for success and acceptance
while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS
epidemic. RENT is based on Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer and Tony
Award winning musical, one of the longest running shows on
Broadway. The raw and riveting musical stars Rosario Dawson, Taye
Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel,
Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp and Tracie Thoms and is directed by
Chris Columbus.
.com
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Rent, the show that in 1996 gave voice to a Broadway generation,
has finally become an energetic, passionate, and touching movie
musical. Based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème, it focuses on the
year in the life of a group of friends in New York's East
Village--"bohemians" who live carefree lives of art, music, sex,
and drugs. Well, carefree until Mark, an aspiring filmmaker
(Anthony Rapp), and Roger, an aspiring songwriter (Adam Pascal),
find out they owe a year's rent to Benny (Taye Diggs), a former
friend who had promised them free residence when he married the
landlord's daughter. Roger has also attracted the attention of
his downstairs neighbor, Mimi (Rosario Dawson), while Mark's
former girlfriend, Maureen (Idina Menzel), has found a new
romance in a lawyer named Joanne (Tracie Thoms). Philosophy
professor Tom (Jesse L. Martin) finds his soul mate in drag queen
Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia). But because this is the
late-'80s, the threat of AIDS is always present.
The remarkable thing about Rent the movie is that nearly 10
years after the show debuted on Broadway (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000005ALT/${0} ), six of the eight principals
return in the roles they originated. They're a bit older than
would be ideal for their characters, but they do have the
advantage of having learned the show directly from creator
Jonathan Larson (who died of an aortic aneurysm while the show
was in previews), plus they started young--we're not exactly
talking Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford here. Alongside a
polished performance like Rapp's--sometimes observer-commentator,
sometimes participant in two of the score's showstoppers, "The
Tango Maureen" and "La Vie Boheme"--the two new additions (Thoms
in place of Fredi Walker, Dawson in place of the edgier Daphne
Rubin-Vega) slip comfortably into the ensemble; the pivotal
Dawson makes a seductive case as Mimi when she tempts Roger in
the mesmerizing "Light My Candle" or burns up the stage of the
Catscratch Club in "Out Tonight." Moviegoers who have an aversion
to people who break into song while walking down the street
probably won't have their minds changed by Rent (even if they are
singing rock songs ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000AYEI4U/${0} )), and
the gritty subject matter and lack of big-name stars make it
unlikely to cross over to general audiences the way Chicago did.
But fans of musicals should find "Seasons of Love" as stirring as
ever, and the show's passionate admirers--the
"Rentheads"--probably couldn't have wished for a more sympathetic
director than Rent fan Chris Columbus, or a more faithful
representation of the show they love. --David Horiuchi
On the DVD
Three powerful musical numbers cut from the final film are the
highlight of the two-disc DVD. In the aftermath of the funeral
scene, Anthony Rapp sings "Halloween," and he, Adam Pascal, and
Rosario Dawson share "Goodbye Love" (both songs were in the stage
version). Then in an alternate ending, the cast finishes "No Day
But Today" on the bare stage on which the film began. There are
worthwhile arguments for why these scenes were cut or replaced,
so it's fortunate that the DVD lets us see these at all. Those
musical numbers have optional commentary by director Chris
Columbus, Rapp, and Pascal (two other cut scenes have no
commentary), including one funny moment in which Rapp explains in
great detail the technical challenge of shooting "Halloween" only
to have Columbus say, "Yeah, but I don't know if that's the take
we used." The three also provide commentary on the film itself,
with Columbus discussing various decisions, criticizing the
critics, and marveling "I still don't know how we got the PG-13,"
and Rapp and Pascal occasionally recalling differences in the
stage version.
The other whopper of a feature is No Day But Today, a nearly
two-hour documentary that uses video clips, still photographs,
and interviews with family and friends to celebrate the short
life of Jonathan Larson and his creation. Topics include his
early interest in musical theater ("I want to write the Hair for
the '90s."), the support of Stephen Sondheim, the impact of the
AIDS epidemic, the long and difficult road of Rent (casting the
show, Larson learning to collaborate, the transfer to a Broadway
stage, and the Rentheads), and Larson's tragic death. The last 20
minutes covers the making of the film, director Chris Columbus,
the decision to rely on most of the original cast (the only two
principals who didn't appear in the movie, Daphne Rubin-Vega and
Fredi Walker-Browne, are interviewed in earlier segments, but
only mentioned in passing here), sessions, and location
shooting. If the movie of Rent was a tribute to Jonathan Larson,
the DVD is all that and more, a moving and incredibly detailed
look at an extraordinary talent whom the world lost far too soon.
--David Horiuchi
More Rent
Movie soundtrack ( gp/product/B000AYEI4U/ref=d_ap_rent_1 )
Original Broadway cast (
gp/product/B000005ALT/ref=d_ap_rent_2 )
Anthony Rapp's Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the
Musical "Rent" ( gp/product/0743269764/ref=d_ap_rent_3 )
