I feel as though a part of my young adolescence is vanishing with it. Seeing the news of RENT's imminent close off-Broadway, I am thrown back into the eighth grade once again, reliving the sing-along parties my friends and I often threw. We'd gather in someone's bedroom, and belt out the entire 2-disc soundtrack (which we had all memorized word-for-word), trading roles as the mood struck us. Knowing how popular the show was with our class, our ninth grade teachers even organized a class outing to see RENT, perhaps not knowing that the show revolved around the sexual lives of young twenty-somethings who dealt with HIV, drug addiction, transsexuality, and the ever-present fear of eviction.
Was it beyond our maturity level at 13? Apparently not. I can remember dramatically striking an S&M-style pose at the reference to Mimi wearing handcuffs during her, uh, night job, and enthusiastically raising a toast "to leather, to dildos, to curry vindaloo" right along with the cast without batting an eye. I even went to see the show later with my family, and while the song about condoms and promiscuity was a bit awkward, my parents seemed to knowingly acknowledge that Angel's AIDS-hastened death pulled the young heartstrings of my generation. Though the crises that the characters faced - saying goodbye to one's bisexual HIV-positive lover who strips to get by, for example - may have been incomprehensible for my parents at that age, RENT was an absolutely formative example of romance and loss that shaped my youth. Perhaps the themes of affirmation and acceptance of difference resonate with my adult self still.
So, with many fond memories of Roger, Mimi, Mark, Angel, and the rest of the gang, I bid adieu to my first favorite stage drama. "We raise our glass, you bet your ass, to.... la Vie Boheme!"
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