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- |Changes [Feb 26, 2009]
The cameraRENT the musical became a cultural phenomenon the moment it hit the stage a day after the death of its writer Jonathan Larson. Now approaching its tenth year on Broadway, it has won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book and boasts a recently released film adaptation. This project aims to investigate both the musical and cultural aspects of RENT that have redefined the American musical tradition and left an indelible impression on American society.
The project will begin by examining the history of RENT and its inspiration by the Puccini opera La Boheme. By unpacking the differences between the opera and the musical and tracing the development of the work, we can understand how and why certain elements and issues such as homosexuality, the drug culture and AIDS were injected into the musical. We will then venture into the cultural connotations of these issues – what does their inclusion tell us about modern society and the problems confronting people living in it? Given this snapshot of society, we can study the impact of RENT on both the classes of people featured in the musical and society at large, and hence infer from this the function of RENT as more than just a source of entertainment.
Because RENT primarily addresses “real” issues, we can interpret it as using the medium of the Broadway musical to comment on society, as well as on broader, more universal themes of the individual’s place in a community, living rather than merely existing and coping with the physical, economic and spiritual problems of life. These themes are developed through the structure and design of the musical – the sequence of songs, the entries and exits of characters and the placements of scenes. Breaking RENT into its components, we will show how song is used as a celebration of diversity, life and the resilience of the human spirit, how dance is a detached manifestation of human intimacy and how monologue fuses the personal with the public. Also, how do moments calling for suspension of disbelief contribute to the audience’s perception of reality?
Beyond exploring the socio-cultural connections that RENT forges, we will also study the physical form of RENT and relate it to the tradition of the American musical. RENT proved to be a trailblazer in the rock opera sub-genre of the musical with its rock band instrumentation, use of headsets and deviation from both the feel-good show tunes of the early twentieth century and the melodramatic spectacle of the late twentieth century. Its position in the context of 90s musicals exposes changes in our definition of the Broadway musical and its inherent elements, as well as in our expectations of musicals. How has the theater-going audience evolved and the musical genre adapted accordingly? By examining art as explored in both the form and content of RENT, we can gain a better understanding of the writer’s role as both artist and revolutionary.
We will conclude with a study of translation – RENT as film. How does the shift from stage to screen affect the social impact of RENT, its ability to carry out its function as art, entertainment and social commentary, and the growing popularization of the American musical? The production process and differences between the film and the musical will highlight the merits and limitations of either form and delineate the overlap between the two in terms of purpose, function and design.
Among others, the following resources will be used:
