The Film Adaptation Of The Musical Rent

On Saturday, October 21, I watched the film adaption of the musical, Rent. This musical takes place in New York City in the late 1980s to early 1990s and involves a dysfunctional Bohemian friend group and their struggles. The friend group features eight characters: Mark Cohen, a Jewish filmmaker, Roger Davis, a HIV-positive songwriter and musician, Mimi Marquez, an HIV-positive erotic dancer, Maureen Johnson, a bisexual performer, Joanne Jefferson, a lesbian lawyer, Tom Collins, a gay part-time philosophy professor at NYU and anarchist who suffers with AIDS, Angel Dumott Schunard, a drag queen who also suffers with AIDS, and Benny Coffin III, a local landlord. Johnathan Larson acted as the musical’s original composer and playwright and worked on the lyrics with Billy Aronson. The music was lightly based off of Giacomo Puccini 's opera La Bohème (Miller). The film adaption was directed by Chris Columbus and produced by Chris Columbus, Robert De Niro, Mark Radcliffe, Michael Barnathan, Jane Rosenthal. Historically, the musical Rent was written for the stage. In its time on Broadway, it was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won four, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book (Miller). It also won six Drama Desk Awards, three Obie Awards, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Drama League Award (Miller). Johnathan Larson, the creator of the Rent, suddenly died before he could see the success of the musical