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That, and the desire of money-hungry developers to raze old buildings and take over vacant lots, which had served as admittedly seedy de facto community space, and put up fancy new projects.Īh, the familiar peal of gentrification. It also chronicles Mark the filmmaker, Roger the musician, Collins the educator and other characters, who are being priced out of Alphabet City because of rising rents. With Angel, the musical plants the seeds of transgender activism, which is a full-blown movement today as well as overall LGBTQ awareness. They were living life to the fullest when I was too young to really do so.” ‘Rent’ struck me that way,” one friend tells me, amid the outpouring of impassioned responses that flooded my inbox when I asked for reflections. Another says, “It was a piece about difference and people ‘going against the grain’ when I wanted to be, too. “As a 12-year-old, I remember craving popular culture that felt raw and honest. This particular group of friends grapples with addiction, eviction, sexual identity, parents, materialism and the yearning to leave a meaningful legacy. Inspired by Puccini’s opera “La Bohème,” “Rent” also resonates with anyone who’s struggling with life, love and their discontents. So it’s no surprise that a five-day run at Long Island City’s Secret Theatre, which kicked off last night, the result of community group 5th Floor Theatre’s new production timed to the upcoming 20th anniversary, sold out within days.īeyond the appeal of its original cast members, most of whom reunited for the film - Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp - the libretto they belted out was witty, incisive and emotional. Yes, devotees were - and are - fervent: We can sing any part, quote any aside. Tours and revivals have come and gone, but true fans don’t need ’em - they have every line of the soundtrack (here, in its entirety) memorized. It spread across the world in adaptations and translations, became a movie in 2005 and finally closed its curtains at the Nederlander after a 12-year run. “Rent” moved to Broadway and went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical that year. The production opened off-Broadway in January 1996, but Larson didn’t live to see it: He suffered an aortic dissection and died, at age 35, on the morning of the first preview. But despite that or maybe even because of it, the show was a runaway hit. To most of America, the strife of the shabbily dressed characters in Larson’s musical was alien at best and self-inflicted at worst. Other sobering mysteries included the reference to AZT (the drug used to treat AIDS), slit wrists and the handcuffs worn by Mimi Marquez in her career as exotic dancer. “Was that a man or a woman?” I asked my grandmother after Angel Dumott Schunard’s “Today 4 U” number, in which a man previously seen drumming on a plastic pickle tub reappears in a slinky, feminine Santa suit, heels and a wig. I was barely 12 when I first saw “Rent,” so many nuances of Jonathan Larson’s iconic rock opera flew right over my head.