"..My body's talking to me, it says time for DANGER.."
In the summer or 1998, I went to see a play I'd heard was good.. RENT. Apart from being the most incredible, most powerful musical I'd ever seen in my life, the actor playing Roger was one of the sexiest, most talented people I'd ever seen in my life. Luther Creek.
This picture does not do him justice.. not only doesn't it sing, but you can not see the incredible biceps he has. Because Luther has the greatest arms. But that shouldn't be the point...
Rent is about a group of friends... Mark and Roger are roommates; Roger has AIDS, and has just lately recovered from a drug addiction. Roger meets Mimi, who also has AIDS, and is a current drug addict. Despite themselves they fall in love in the first act and relationship problems follow in the second. Mark is the narrator for the story, and aspiring film-maker. Mark has lately been dumped by his long time girlfriend Maureen for a woman named Joanne. Maureen and Joanne also have a problem-ridden relationship. Maureen is dramatic- an actress, where Joanne is a lawyer. Maureen is staging a protest on Christmas Eve against her former roommate (as well as Mark and Roger's former roommate) Benny building a cyber-studio over a tent-city of the homeless. The last two main characters are Angel and Collins. Collins is a former university professor, who has just lately quit/been fired. After being mugged, he meets Angel who cleans his wounds. Both Collins and Angel are HIV positive, and they fall immediately in love.
The best picture to express the feeling of Rent would have to be this one:
It is during the song "La vie boheme", my personal favorite. The cast, in order;
swing, Collins, Angel, swing (on top), Mimi (on bottom), Roger, 3 swing, and Mark (sitting on the table)
Unfortunately, Benny, Maureen, and Joanne are not in this picture.
RENT LINKS:
Above the 49th Parallel- Canadian Tour of Rent (aka Collins tour)
... and this is only a very small sample of all the RENT sites out there...
"There's only us... there's only this.. forget regret.. or life is yours to miss..."
