I don’t usually watch musicals — I really don’t. Call me boring, but I honestly always think there’s too much singing where there could be talking or some other form of communication. For Rent, though, I made an exception because of how much praise I had heard heaped upon it over the years (not to mention hearing “Seasons of Love” and admittedly finding it catchy). I did not know much about the specifics of the musical before seeing it in its 2005 film version this past weekend, but I quickly saw that it was a window into the lives of several fictional New Yorkers on Christmas Eve in 1989. Despite their separate lives, all of the characters have a relationship to each other in some way, whether they are roommates, friends, or lovers. All of them also share something in common: They have been unfortunately pushed to the fringes of society in some way, whether through poverty, through their sexuality, through addiction to drugs, or through an affliction with AIDS.

        As I expected, I didn’t initially love Rent — again, because of my personal distaste for musicals in general. I also wondered if this was really the best medium to be talking about the themes that were so prevalent in its plot. Shouldn’t the characters be having more conversations about what was going on in their lives rather than dancing around? And do Mark and his mother really need to half-talk, half-sing to each other about their Christmas plans over the phone? At first my answer was a resounding “no,” but I later took a step back and reconsidered. How many people were having regular conversations about struggling with AIDS, addiction, sexuality, or poverty — let alone musical ones — when Rent first premiered 1996? Although I can’t give exact numbers, I can be certain that there was less talk about these pressing issues in that time than there are in 2019. As I  thought more about the musical, I also began to appreciate the risk that Jonathan Larson took in creating it– I doubt that he knew how others would receive Rent as he was writing it. Perhaps they would not respond well to its messages or to its characters, and perhaps the musical would have completely flopped. I think that song and dance take some of the seriousness away from the darker issues in Rent to make them more accessible, while also suggesting that no matter what one might be going through, there is hope and there are other people going through similar struggles. And perhaps those people aren’t even total strangers, but are in fact just friends of a friend.

        I can’t lie and pretend that I’m going to start watching more musicals because of Rent. I can say, though, that I will take its concept with me as I go forward in life — that sometimes, portraying serious ideas in an unconventional way, even with some element of fun, can help get those ideas across more effectively.