By Kiely Huynh and Kristin Vitagliano
There are 525,600 minutes in a year, and for approximately 300 minutes, Saint Leo’s Student Activates Board used their time to take students to see the 20th Anniversary edition of the Broadway musical RENT.
Back in 1996, a musical took stage telling the story of eight New Yorkers as they fight to stay alive on the 1980’s New York streets where HIV and AIDS are quickly spreading. It begins with two housemates, Roger and Mark, discussing how they are going to pay their rent. They soon decide that they don’t have the money and are going to forgo the payment for yet another year and as the power for the building is turned off. We are quickly pulled onto an emotional roller coaster as the other characters are introduced: Collins and Angel, Joanne and Maureen, Mimi, and Benny.
The music is laced with humor as parents call to check up on their children, and the main characters discover just who they really are. We see drugs, street vendors, and a makeshift Christmas tree. We hear Christmas carols and stand-up comedy, but we learn that even in sorrow and pain, good can come out of the shadows. Most of all, RENT wants fans to take away that we should measure our life in Love.
On Sept. 19, Saint Leo students set out to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa, just one of the many stops in the popular musical’s highly anticipated tour. Some students knew what they were getting into, having seen the movie or a previous edition of this show, while others had only the vaguest sense of what RENT is about.
Paulina Acevedo, a senior Communication Management major, had “heard of the name, but had never heard anything specific about it.” Overall, she was excited to see “the love for the show because it is the 20th year” and to see fans who “maybe saw it when they were kids or something. So, it’s just like going full circle.”
Lois Martinez, a senior Psychology major, was a newcomer to the tale.
“I have never seen the Broadway production of [RENT], nor the movie,” Martinez said, overall anticipating a good show. “I was excited to see what [the creative team]decided to do with the production.”
After the show, there was a mix of emotions. The production didn’t escape some criticism. Acevedo was somewhat confused.
“The first half seemed to have a lot going on at once,” said Acevedo. “When a key moment happened, it’s as if everything was put in perspective.”
Martinez too was “a little disappointed.”
“Either the theatrical ‘genius’ behind the masterpiece did not do his job correctly, or the musical itself is as confusing and boring as was originally written,” Martinez said.
The negatives were balanced out by the good, it seemed. Gloria Guisbert, a senior Religions and Global Studies major, was impressed with “a lot of everything.”
“I loved the singing,” said Guisbert. “Especially Angels’ boyfriend’s voice.” That particular character was played by Aaron Harrington.
Austin Larratta, a senior Biology major, was also impressed. Particularly by the show’s choreography and set design.
But whatever people thought, they all took the same message to heart. That, throughout the seasons, it is best to measure one’s life in love. For more information or to see if RENT will be in an area near you, visit rentontour.net.
