RENT Musical Essay Example For Students

RENT Musical Essay Theres a scene in the new musical RENT that may be thequintessential romantic moment of the 90s. Roger, astruggling rock musician, and Mimi, a junkie whos adancer at an S/M club, are having a lovers quarrel whentheir beepers go off and each takes out a bottle of pills. Itsthe signal for an AZT break, and suddenly they realizethat theyre both HIV-positive. Clinch. Love duet. If youdont think this is romantic, consider that Jonathan Larsonssensational musical is inspired by Puccinis opera LaBoheme, in which the lovers Mimi and Rodolfo aretragically separated by her death from tuberculosis. Different age, different plague. Larson has updatedPuccinis end-of-19th-century Left Bank bohemians toend-of-20th-century struggling artists in New Yorks EastVillage. His rousing, moving, scathingly funny show,performed by a cast of youthful unknowns with explosivetalent and staggering energy, has brought a shocking jolt ofcreative juice to Broadway. A far greater shock was thesudden death of 35-year-old Larson from an aorticaneurysm just before his show opened. His death justbefore the breakthrough success is the stuff of both tragedyand tabloids. Such is our culture. Now Larsons work,along with Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, thetap-dance musical starring the marvelous young dancerSavion Glover, is mounting a commando assault onBroadway from the downtown redoubts of off-Broadway. Both are now encamped amid the revivals (The King andI) and movie adaptations (Big) that have madeBroadway such a creatively fallow field in recent seasons. And both are oriented to an audience younger thanBroadway usually attracts. If both, or either, settle in for asuccessful run, the door may open for new talent toreinvigorate the once dominant American musical theater. RENT so far has the sweet smell of success, marked noonly by its $6 million advance sale (solid, but no guarantee)but also by the swarm of celebrities who have clamored fortickets: Michelle Pfeifer, Sylvester Stallone, Nicole Kidmanand Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Ralph Fiennesname yourown biggie. Last week, on opening night, 21 TV crews,many from overseas, swarmed the Nederlander Theatre toshoot the 15 youthful cast members in euphoric shockunder salvos of cheers. Supermogul David Geffen of thenew DreamWorks team paid just under a million dollars torecord the original-cast album. Pop artitsts whoveexpressed interest in recording songs from the 33-numberscore include Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton and Boyz IIMen. A bidding scrimmage has started for the movie rightsamong such Hollywood heavies as Warner Brothers,Danny DeVitos Jersey Films, Fox 2000 and Columbia. The asking price is $3 million, but bonuses for length of run,the Pulitzer Prize (which RENT has already won), variousTony and critics awards could jack the price up to $3.75million. Despite these stupefying numbers, the youngproducers, Jeffrey Seller, 31, and Kevin McCollum, 34,and their associate, moneyman Allan S. Gordon, know thattheyre not home free. Theres no such thing in NewYork, says Seller. Our company has mostly done tours. Ifyou sell 8,000 seats a week in Cleveland, you did a greatjob. Never having done a Broadway show, the idea thatyou have to sell 450,000 seats a year is daunting. MajorBroadway players like the Shubert Organization andJujamcyn Theaters, which lost out to the Nederlander in thefeverish grab for RENT, would love to be daunted likethese Broadway tyros. Rocco Landesman, Jujamcynspresident, says hes crushed at not getting RENT. Hepredicts the show will be a crossover success; it willattract an ethnically diverse audience, people who are notnormally theatergo ers. RENT has a $67.50 top ticketprice, but the producers have reserved the first two rows at$20 and are tagging mezzanine seats at a bargain $30. .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 , .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .postImageUrl , .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 , .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:hover , .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:visited , .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:active { border:0!important; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:active , .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18 .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u9229beb4b0bd8a160dcd609dfe55aa18:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Transvestitism EssayRENT has a lot riding on its shoulders, says producerJim Freydberg, whose Big has just opened. I desperatelyhope it works. If its successful, were going to get moredaring shows on Broadway. If its not, were going to getmore revivals. This is interesting, coming from acompetitior whose own show, based on the popular TomHanks movie about a 13-year-old boy who wakes up onday in the body of a 30-year-old man, could be said torepresent the less daring sector of Broadway. If I reallywanted to make money Id go to Wall Street and inventmoney, says Seller. I came to Broadway because I wasexcited by the question Can you challenge the mainstream?Can you reinvent t he mainstream from inside themainstream?' Says McCollum: It would be disingenuousto say we dont hope to make money with RENT. But Imhere