Podcast

Rent is a musical about a group of friends in New York City in 1989. It explores themes of sexuality, poverty, and the AIDS epidemic. The song "La Vie Boheme" represents their Bohemian lifestyle and is a protest against conformity. The song "Seasons of Love" measures time in minutes and highlights the impact of AIDS. Rent breaks traditional conventions of musical theater and addresses taboo subjects. It has a diverse cast and is considered a stepping stone in theater history. Hello, my musical lovers, and welcome back to another episode of Broadway Banter, brought to you by Savannah Stephan, straight from Davis, California. I know last week we discussed The Excellence of Hamilton, but today we are going to look at the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson. Rent premiered on Broadway on April 26, 1996. This show ran for about 12 years, closing in 2008. There were also many revisits to this work, including the 2005 film version, as well as a live telecast version on Fox in 2019. For Rent's time on Broadway, it was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, and it ended up winning four in total, Best Musical being included. Rent is also a Pulitzer Prize winner in Drama. To summarize, Rent is about a group of friends living in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1989. It discusses roommates, Mark and Roger, who are both pursuing careers in the arts, and how they find themselves being pushed out of their apartment by their former roommate, now landlord, Benjamin Coffin III, which is because they haven't paid their last month's rent. Roger also seems to find love with their neighbor Mimi, who has similar drug issues and a similar diagnosis of HIV, even though he still finds himself grieving the loss of his girlfriend. We also get introduced to Mark and Roger's friend, Tom Collins, who gets robbed moments after arriving, and Angel, who is presented as a drag queen, swoops in and saves him. As time goes on, we see how each of the group's relationships changes over the course of the musical. The death of Angel due to AIDS also takes a toll on the group, causing them to lose touch. However, the show ends with the group reunited to watch Mark's film that reminisces their past years together and to celebrate Angel's life. Looking at some of the music, we can see how the show attributes the themes of expression of sexuality and poverty. As mentioned, the show discusses the topic of AIDS and how because of one's sexuality, you are easily discriminated against. The show presents the idea of protest and fighting for the right to be who you are freely. While fighting for this, they are also fighting to stay afloat because of their impoverished living conditions. The musical shows the real-life struggles of aspiring artists in New York. First, we will look at the song La Vie Boheme, which, according to Dictionary.com, is French for The Bohemian Life. The song describes the life of a starving artist. This song is the Act 1 finale. This part of the show takes place in the Life Cafe after Maureen's protest against removing the homeless encampment. Here, they run into Benny and investigators who try to shut down the protest. The group sings in protest to their conformity. Now, let's listen to the end cut of the song. Having listened to it, we see how the musical quotation of the phrase La Vie Boheme makes a prominent presence. This phrase is used as a tool to justify their actions throughout the song, which is how being proud of your sexuality, pursuing the arts, and protesting is all a part of Bohemian life. In the excerpt played, take notice on how they use adjectives to describe each of their professions in relation to their Bohemian lifestyle, and how the rhythm of these sections picks up against the melody. Speaking of this, I'd like to bring up the elements of Patter Song, which, as a reminder, is the fast-paced tempo in songs that simulates talking. Mark seems to take a heavy load of the Patter Song sequence. However, it seems everyone gets a turn in this when it comes to listing things that celebrate and make up Bohemian life. This song also includes elements of rock and roll to further represent their lifestyle. Overall, this piece is a big shove in the face to Benny and others like him that they are proud of who and what they are despite what they think of them. It can be seen as a subtle protest for the right to expression, though not being able to see it in the excerpt that I played, if you look up a video of the performance, this idea is presented through the choreography and blocking, which alludes to sexual gestures and innuendos to same-sex relationships. The song also hints to how even though they are all impoverished and of lower class, they are happy about pursuing what they love. I believe now is a perfect time to talk about the historical context of the show, especially in relation to these topics. As mentioned, the show is set in 1989, which is the end of the first wave of the AIDS crisis. This epidemic had a critical social impact on the world. People believed that it was so contagious that touching someone with AIDS would pass it on to you, so it caused a harsh separation in society due to this. But then, when the cause was found out to be through sexual transmission, often between same-sex relationships, it seemed to cause a whole new wave of discrimination. For having that disease, it seems you were pouted without a chance to do it yourself first, and it created an isolated world for those of the LGTBQ plus community. Next, we will take a look at the most known song in Rent, which is Seasons of Love, also known as 525,600 Minutes. It seems that even if you've never heard of or seen Rent, you might know this song. Before diving into an analysis, let's listen to the opening of this number. Measure, measure a year in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in songs of harmony, in inches, in miles, in laughter, in silence. 525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year in your life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love. Seasons of love. This song has a polyphonic texture with complex harmonies. This song also includes a reprise. We first hear this song in the opening of Act 2, where it has a more celebratory attitude. This song is reprised again when we first see signs of Angel's AIDS getting worse. But this time, the opening harmonies are now in a minor key, changing the mood from celebratory to sad. It is then reprised again as an underscoring to each member of the group speaking in remembrance of Angel. However, in the reprise, the tempo is slowed down to match the devastation of Angel's death. This piece elaborates on the construct of time and how to measure it. It is especially related to how to measure a year. In minutes, it's 525,600. But what about measuring it in other things, like love? This song especially relates to the passage of time within the story. How, a year later, they are all in the same places, but still all love one another. However, this song quickly takes on a new meaning relating to the passing of a loved one. It becomes a song for Angel and his death caused by AIDS. The song highlights how this disease affected so many people and how life-threatening this epidemic was. Looking at everything we have discussed in today's episode, I feel it is important to bring into the conversation how Rent breaks traditional conventions of musical theater. Like Hamilton, it doesn't use the traditional construct of classical musical songs. Instead, it twists it to fit into the era of music it is in to make it more relatable to its audience at the time of its premiere. It also has a diverse cast in all elements, like race, sexuality, and age. Rent discusses subjects that can be considered taboo in traditional theater, like discussing sex on stage, queerness, and money struggles. While it isn't the first musical to do this, I feel it is important to mention as a stepping stone as what we know theater as today. Wow, would you look at the time? It seems that we have reached the end of today's episode. Thank you so much to everyone who listened today. And this is Savannah Steffen at Broadway Banter signing off.