The Director Sector

If you haven’t heard already, RENT is closing on Broadway after a 12 year run. For those of you who haven’t heard of or seen RENT, it is one of the most controversial and successful musicals of the 90s. With over 5,000 performances, it is the 8th longest running musical on Broadway. Jonathan Larson’s sardonic comment, “I am the future of Broadway musicals” is more true than he could even imagine.

RENT is a modern adaptation of Puccini’s La Boheme. It takes place in New York City, following a rag-tag band of down-on-their-luck Bohemians, struggling to pay rent and deal with the deeper issues of life: love, happiness, and community. As if that weren’t enough, the underlying issue plaguing the group of friends is the haunting fear and threat of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Half the group has HIV or AIDS, and the other half is forced to learn how to deal with it.

During the course of the play, one of the members dies, providing the theme song for the play “Seasons of Love.”

I consider RENT to be one of the best musicals ever written. Despite ludicrous lyrics (a dog committing suicide), characters that stretch the imagination (does EVERYONE have AIDS!?), and heart-wrenching lyrics (Goodbye, Love?), RENT resonates deeply within me. I’ll quote Gordon, from Life Support and Mimi from Another Day:

“If I find some of what you teach suspect,
It’s because I’m used to relying on intellect,
But I try to open up to what I don’t know
Because reason says I should’ve died three years ago…”

“The heart can freeze, or it can burn,
The pain will ease, if I can learn,
There is no future, there is no past,
I live each moment as my last,
There’s only us, there’s only this,
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss
No other road, no other way,
No day but today.”

You see, that section in particular resonates with me for a very good reason: I’m living on borrowed time. You see, true to Gordon’s song, I should’ve died three years ago. A little over three years ago, I had a liver transplant. It is unlikely that I would have lived to see January, had I not had the transplant. As it is, my donor’s gift saved my life. Today, I live a normal, healthy life. I live each day as my last. I live for myself, for my friends. No day but today.

May RENT live on in the memory of RENT-heads for years to come.

To you, Jonathan Larson.