Rent is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical. It opened in New York City on April 29, 1996, at the Nederlander Theatre and continues to play on Broadway (the seventh-longest running Broadway musical as of March 1, 2006). Based upon Puccini's opera La bohème, the musical centers on a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive in New York's Alphabet City neighborhood under the shadow of AIDS (in La bohème the disease was tuberculosis).Rent was one of the first Broadway musicals to feature clearly gay, bisexual, and lesbian characters on stage. Almost every previous production that dealt with such issues had generally been relegated to off-Broadway venues (an exception is La Cage aux Folles). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_(musical)).
I've watched this movie last sunday night because our cable went off and i will not be able to watch CSI supreme sunday, so it leaves me with no choice. I rented some movies at a local pirated dvd store. I actually intended to watch "Just Friends" because I wanted to watch a feel good movie, but it is a 4-in-1 Dvd so i immediately got hold of it. I have heard about RENT long before college and get quite interested with theatre, but i did not have a chance to watch the theatre. Anyways, the dvd comes with lyrics so on the first scene, i just found myself singing along, hahaha (and i still sings it right now in the office). It is entertaining with its satirical content and eccentricity. The setting is different because having AIDS, being bisexual, and being a prostitute nowadays is not as a BIG issue as before, but it is still an issue. There are several outreach programs and indie films that already deal about their situation, and they are widely accepted in the society. I will not be surprised if a transvestite runs for government. Certain parts were edited in the movie (daw? because i wasn't able to watch the theatre version), that were moving, but it is still enjoyable watching.
What do we know of New York City? It is the city that never sleeps, land of professionals, rich and famous, but we do not know of the place of oppressed, struggling people who wants to survive their fast-paced world (sounds family...Makati???) on the other side of New York. That is what the movie is all about, about survival, about paying the rent of love and life. We can not buy happiness, experience, love, and everything that adds up to what we call life, but we can rent those, with a given time and with a price. That movie brought me to tears, in realization that all of us can afford differently in reality. All we have to do is enjoy 525,600 minutes of it amidst of all the shortcomings that we have.
FAVORITE LINES:
- (Referring to Angel the transvestite when he was mugged) I am more than a man you can ever be and I am more than a woman you ever wanted.
- (Referring to Angel when she died) You always said how lucky you were that we were all friends. But it was us, baby, who were the lucky ones.
- (They were just singing, ahehehe) How do you start a fire when there's nothing to burn, and it feels like something's stuck in your flue?
- (Mimi referring to Roger) Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
- (Well said by Collins (Angel's lover) at Angel's funeral) I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love. Now I know you can rent it. A new lease you were my love - on life...all my life.
For synopsis, google is available anytime.
