Rent Play Analysis

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In 1996 the face of musical theatre was changed forever when the musical Rent was preformed at the New York Theatre Workshop. Rent, written by Jonathan Larson, is a rock opera about a set of musicians living in New York City near the end of the millennium struggling with sexuality, poverty, friendship, drugs, and AIDS. The Broadway musical follows aspiring Jewish filmmaker Mark Cohen (Anthony Rapp), who narrates the show, and his roommate Roger Davis (Adam Pascal). Roger is a singer-songwriter who is HIV positive. At the start of the musical, we find out that Roger is an ex-junkie, who has been clean for half a year. Another character is Tom Collins, who to quote Mark, is a “computer genius, teacher, and vagabond anarchist”. Collins (Jesse L. Martin) has AIDS and is African American. After being mugged on the street he meets Angel Dumott Schunard (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), a Hispanic drag queen who also has AIDS. She is a percussionist and becomes Collins’ love interest. Later, Mimi Márquez (Daphne Rubin-Vega), who is a 19-year-old drug addict with…show more content…
Then Mark leaves and Collins and Angel sing a duet together titled “I’ll Cover You” and become a couple. Later, the whole group meets at the Life Café after Maureen’s protest, “Over The Moon”. Roger had gone to Mimi to apologise and invite her to the Café before the protest. When they arrive, Benny is there with his investors. They ask where his wife is and he explains that his dog died and then sings about Bohemia being dead. This causes the group to break out into a musical mock-funeral. “La Vie Boheme” is sung, including many toasts to things such as “the Stage”, “Buddha”, “cheese”, and “Bohemia”. During the song we find out that Mimi also has AIDS. The song fades into “I Should Tell You”, where Mimi and Roger sing to each other and share a meaningful kiss. While “La Vie Boheme B” is being sung a riot breaks
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