“From here on in, I shoot without a script.”
The Rock Opera “RENT” defined a portion of my life. It led me to an understanding of the world around me, and of myself, that may have taken me years longer to come to on my own. Silly and trite as it seems to feel this connected to a musical, the abstraction of themes and emotions through music allows you to imprint on a story in ways that you simply can’t with words alone.
Everyone affected by RENT has their own stories, and feels their own personal connection to the words, the music, and the feelings that they evoke. It’s as much a story about love and life, as it is about grief and loss. It’s also a connection to who you were when you first really heard it, and first felt these things with the characters.
Not your average musical.
Over the years, I’ve drifted from the theatre, especially from the musical theatre, and RENT has become somewhat of a footnote in my past.
When I heard that the movie was being made, 9 years late, I was more than just miffed. I was virulently angry. They’d taken a young, twenty-something cast and let them become
thirty somethings. They’d replaced the spit-fire Mimi and left everyone else in, trying to play “young.” I’m still a big fan of Anthony Rapp and Taye Diggs, but Adam Pascal is the consumate tool now; a Broadway pretty boy.
So when I watched the trailer tonight, I was not expecting this. I was not expecting to be taken back 10 years.
I was not expecting to be moved.
They’d taken moments, tiny moments from the show, and expanded them into heart-wrenching images.
The loss is so tangible, so real, even in just these 2 minutes, that you can’t help but feel for this little family.
Watching some of the videos on the rent blog I suddenly understood why so many of the original cast were returning. They simply couldn’t let this story go. They had so much to say, so much to bring to it, that they had to see it through. For the first time in 9 years, they were finally able to finish the story that Jonathan Larson had left unwritten when he passed.
The cast has been documenting the process on the blog the entire way through shooting, and hearing them talk about their characters and what they hoped to accomplish with this film has brought me full circle. I am now more excited about this than any other movie in the next year.
Add to that the fact that listening to RENT has been synonymous with Thanksgiving for my best friend and I since 1996 (and he is *not* a fan of musicals) and that the movie is coming out November 23rd. I will see this movie the day before thanksgiving, barring an act of god.
* Watch the “Seasons of Love” Trailer at the Rent Myspace page
* See the short “teaser trailer” at the official site
* Watch the full movie trailer at apple
* Watch lots of cast documentary and interview videos at the RentMovieBlog
December 22nd, 2005 at
[...] As a means of bashing Time Warner—and for the sheer joy of it—I’m going to write the inaugural product plug to appear on American Madness (unless you count Skiff’s love letter to the movie Rent). [...]