User:Wikintoppa/Rent (musical)

Rent is a Tony Award winning musical originally published in 1996 by Jonathan Larson, loosely inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” from 1896. The musical was later interpreted into a film in 2005. The story follows a group of friends in East Village Manhattan. Each of them has a dream but is fighting through their own demons. The musical touches on the subjects of being poor, drug abuse, HIV, AIDS, social tension, and political unrest. The main characters of the story include Roger Davis, Mark Cohen, Mimi Marquez, Angel Dumott Schunard, Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III, Tom Collins, Maureen Johnson, and Joanne Jefferson.

Mark Cohen is an aspiring filmmaker and the narrator of the show. The show opens on Christmas Eve in 1987. Roger Davis is Mark’s roommate who is a former drug-abuser and a songwriter. Throughout the show, Mark’s film follows his life and the life of his friends. Simultaneously, Roger is trying to compose a rock song. Mark and Roger also used to live with Benny. However, Benny married into a wealthy family and moved out. He now owns the apartment building, lives next door, and is constantly hard on the pair to pay their rent.

Mimi Marquez is the female lead of the musical. Mimi is a dancer at the “Cat Scratch Club” and lives downstairs from the main male leads, Roger and Mark. Mimi is a drug addict and later in the show it is revealed to the audience that she is HIV positive. Mimi is Roger’s main love interest throughout the show.

Tom Collins is another former roommate of Mark, Roger, and Benny. He is an anarchist, diagnosed with AIDS. He is a professor who has a dream of opening a restaurant in Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, the problems of New York will not affect him or his friends. Tom’s main love interest is Angel. Angel’s character is said to be the most controversial of the cast. She is believed to be a transgender woman, while others consider her a drag queen. She discovers Tom, Collins, after he was beaten on the street, and she takes him in. Angel is also positive for HIV and passes on Halloween of 1990.

Maureen is a performance artist and Mark’s ex-girlfriend. She hosts protests, mainly focused on stopping the homeless from being evicted and mistreated. Maureen left Mark to pursue Joanne. However, Maureen tends to have problems in her relationships due to her “flirtatious” personality. Joanne is an interest lawyer who is Ivy-League educated. She had a strict upbringing due to her parents also being involved in government. She deals with no nonsense, which is the second factor of her and Maureen’s rocky relationship.

Due to the character’s identities and struggles, Rent has been one of the most controversial musicals, especially for the time period in which it was produced. Today, we are more educated on LGBTQIA+ subjects such as sexuality and gender identity. Maureen is a bisexual woman, Collins is a gay man, and Angel’s identity is unique to herself. Also, not everybody was ready to talk about AIDS and HIV openly. The show also follows the struggles faced in New York. Roger, Mark, Angel and Maureen are all artists, Mimi is an exotic dancer at the age of nineteen, and Collins is an educator. Regardless of what they give back to the community, the struggle to pay their rent. They are in the “Big City” trying to make it but finding it difficult to get by.

Despite everything being thrown at the group, the sense of community they demonstrate continuously through the show is unmatched. They may all be struggling, but none of them will ever struggle alone. The musical takes you through a range of emotions and is a beautiful piece of art that is still relevant and significant within society today.