USA: The popular rock opera "Rent" about New York City bohemians makes its silver sreen debut

Record ID: 828943

  • Title: USA: The popular rock opera "Rent" about New York City bohemians makes its silver sreen debut
  • Date: 17th November 2005
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) TRACIE THOMS, ACTRESS WHO PLAYS "JOANNE" IN "RENT", SAYING: "Whenever I would start to, you know, spiral in myself - I got to do this right, I got to do this right, because the rent-heads are watching, cause I am a rent head as well. I was a big fan of it. Whenever I would start to spiral in that kind of way, I would just have to go right back to the story and right back to the work and it would get me out of that, you know, because you can become overwhelmed with the expectation, which we know is high, you know what I mean, but the only way to really fulfil it is to take it right back to the story and to Jonathan's, Jonathan's words and, you'll find it."
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA1KU2X0M4646DXDEGV5943K6VM
  • Story Text: "Rent", Jonathan Larson's Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical, which broke ground in 1996 by featuring some of the first clearly gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender characters on stage, is now making its silver screen debut.
    Based loosely on Puccini's opera "La Boheme", the musical centres around a group of impoverished, bohemian young artists and musicians struggling to survive in the Big Apple's Alphabet City neighbourhood, even as they grapple with the looming shadow of AIDS.
    The film version of Rent will release later this month and retains most of the original cast of the Broadway production, except for the roles of Mimi and Joanne, which will be played by actresses, Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms respectively.
    Director Chris Columbus adapted Larson's book with Stephen Chbosky. For Columbus, the biggest challenge in adapting Rent for the silver screen was the question of casting. Initially, he flirted with the idea of having a pop version of "Rent" with Justin Timberlake and Usher but later decided to go with the original cast of the Broadway production.
    "There was some talk about doing the, the pop star version with, Usher and Christina Aquilera and Justin Timberlake and I met Justin and he was a fantastic guy, he was great. So I thought about that, and then I started to meet the original cast members and I felt that, they shared some sort of bond, some sort of intense devotion to this material, that I had never seen before. Part of that was probably because of the death of Jonathon Larson - the creator of the show who passed away, who died tragically the night before the first preview," Columbus said.
    Jonathan Larson, the 35-year-old composer, who conceived "Rent" died from an undiagnosed dissecting aortic aneurysm in January 1996, just a few hours before the musical made its debut in New York City.
    The team for the film was very aware of the inevitable comparisons that would be made with the Broadway musical version.
    Actor Adam Pascal who plays the role of the musician "Roger" in "Rent" said that the team was pretty confident that people already loved the material of "Rent" in the Broadway musical but the question was whether they would be able to translate that material successfully for the silver screen version.
    "The pressure comes in - are we going to be able to present this material correctly, for the medium that we are performing it in? Are we going to be able to tell this story right? That's, that's where I felt the most pressure, I never doubted any of us individually. I doubted the whole idea as a concept, is this going to work as a movie?" Pascal explained.
    Actress Rosario Dawson, the new addition to the team, who plays "Mimi" in the film, added, "It incredible to have done this with just the most amazing people, who wanted to be there, I think, for all the right reasons, you know, of challenging themselves and putting themselves out there and being open to the experiences and sharing that with other people and the only down side to that to, to me was when that was over, you know."
    The experience of acting in "Rent" has been an intense one for most of the actors involved, including Anthony Rapp who plays the role of film-maker "Mark" in the film. Rapp has written a book on his "Rent" experiences called "Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical "Rent", which will be published next year.
    Rapp lived in the East Village himself at one point and believes that that bohemian part of New York almost doesn't survive anymore.
    "So, our production designer had to recreate in a way, a side of New York that doesn't exist anymore. But, aside from that too I just think that any, any piece of art that tells a story of people that don't normally get to be seen and heard, you know, art can change the culture, art can change the world in a way, sometimes. And I think that Rent, Jonathan certainly was intending to shine a light on people and their circumstances that don't normally get heard and seen," he said.
    Actress Tracie Thoms, who plays lawyer "Joanne" and Idina Menzel's lesbian lover in the film, grappled with the acute awareness of the high expectations from the film, even as she was shooting.
    "Whenever I would start to, you know, spiral in myself - I got to do this right, I got to do this right, because the rent-heads are watching, cause I am a rent head as well. I was a big fan of it. Whenever I would start to spiral in that kind of way, I would just have to go right back to the story and right back to the work and it would get me out of that, you know, because you can become overwhelmed with the expectation, which we know is high, you know what I mean, but the only way to really fulfil it is to take it right back to the story and to Jonathan's, Jonathan's words and, you'll find it," Thoms said.
    Actor Jesse L. Martin, who also has a gay role in "Rent" and has worked in both the Broadway production and the film, said that the music in the film largely stays true to the original score for the Broadway production.
    "We wanted to make sure that we stayed true to what the original product was, I mean, certainly enhance it and certainly, you know, explore it, so that you know, it doesn't get old. But the truth of the matter is we wanted to stick with what it was cause you know, we loved what it was. And, you know, they gave us every opportunity to keep it exactly the way it was, I mean sure they tweaked things and made things sound sweeter, you know, some things are even bigger, they added more instruments which, if Jonathon Larson was alive, he would have done the same thing and probably re-wrote everything," Martin explained.
    As for Tony Award winner, Idina Menzel, who plays "Maureen" both in the Broadway production and the film, the opportunity to work on the big-screen version of "Rent", gave her a chance to discover new shades to her role.
    The final verdict on whether "Rent" works as a film can only come from the "Rent-heads", who will be able to compare the film with the musical when it releases nationwide on November 23rd.
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