RENT the Musical and HIV/AIDS

If you have never seen this musical or movie, it is very inspiring and powerful.  Not just the popular songs that came from the play, it carries a deeper message of hope.

RENT is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.  The disease is woven into the fabric of the story which will draw you into it.

The play started in 1994 and the success of the show led to several national tours and numerous foreign productions. In 2005 it was adapted into a motion picture that features most of the original cast members. Sadly Larson would not live to see Rent’s success; he died from an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm (believed to have resulted from Marfan syndrome) in the early morning of January 25, 1996.

I’ve seen the musical on stage and have the movie as well.  Check it out sometime, I believe you’ll enjoy it plus the musical score is tremendous. 

Tom Thayer

info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_(musical)

Tagged AIDS, aortic aneurysm, Bohemian Alphabet City, Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, HIV, Jonathan Larson, Marfan syndrome, New York's Lower East Side, RENT, RENT HIV AIDS, Rent the musical