We are into the second decade of the reign (some might protest tyranny) of the musical. Musicals have swept most other kinds of theatre off the boards. There has never been as great a variety – from stage adaptations of films like Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple to new agitprop pieces going by such jingles as Failed States. The decision then to stage Rent here and now is surprising, especially after the 2005 film adaptation failed spectacularly.
A reworking of La Bohème, it is set in 1990s New York on the eve of Mayor Giuliani’s big clean up that saw the iconic gay Marlboro poster felled and most of my artist friends empty out of the Village to take the A-train north.
Rent is a big hit, even picking up a Pulitzer, and running for 10 years in the city it is so specific to. The local production’s production values are respectable and compare favourably. But Rent rode to fame on the emotions of the time, gay liberation and resistance to the blinkered response of the Reagan administration to AIDS in the 1980s – a plague that blighted the community as TB did for Puccini’s Europe.
The thin storyline revolves around a group of friends in their Alphabet City garret as they deal with having AIDS (they are not just HIV positive). Prostitution, needle drug usage and no holds barred sex clubs are part of their liberal lifestyle.
Given the radically different nature of the HIV epidemic in South Africa, and the brutal reality we are facing, out of the innumerable musicals available Rent is a thoughtless choice.
