Story:
Rent, and mentioning Rent, have to mention that the Italian opera master Puccini's "La Boheme" is a homologous book, from the French novelist Henry Muggie's novel "Scenes de la vie de Boheme" ( "Silhouettes of Bohemian Life"). Rodolfo, Marcello, Musetta, and Colline in "La Boheme" became Roger, Mark, Maureen and Collins in "Rent". Mimi simply did not change the name. The occupations of the characters in "La Boheme" are also quite consistent with the settings of "Rent": Marcello is a painter and Colline is a philosopher. In "La Boheme", Benny became the viscount to support Mimi.
However, beyond the very consistent plot arrangement, you can still see Johnthan Larson's ingenuity. The lung disease of that era became AIDS, a disease that would lead to discrimination and isolation. With the addition of Joanne and Angel, the relationship between the characters is enriched, and the bohemian edge characteristics of the protagonists are also strengthened. In addition, the ending is also different. Mimi did not die like the female textile worker in "La Boheme", but ended in a happy ending.
The three heroines in the play have their own characteristics, but I don't know if the length is limited, each of them is slightly thin. Maureen is blindly self-willed, aggressive, and irresponsible, while Mimi and Joanne are very ordinary. The male protagonist is more real and more glorious.
Roger always appears in a vacillating and hesitant posture in the whole play. He is the most negative attitude in life among the eight protagonists. He is indifferent, skeptical, and rejecting everything. The return of Collins, the gathering of the AIDS Mutual Aid Association, the love for Mimi, the care and advice for Mark, and the help of Benny all seemed indifferent or negatively suspicious. Mimi scolded Roger after Angel's funeral, saying that Roger always "run away, hit the road, don't commit", and left with Benny sadly.
His character comes from the hardships and uneven destiny of life. His girlfriend April took drugs and contracted AIDS and committed suicide by cutting her wrist in the bathroom. Since then he has become autistic and suspicious. He repeated his ideal in "One Song Glory" again and again-"Just write a good song, a song that can bring me honor", but because of this ideal, he ignored the love and friendship around him. , The beauty of family affection.
Until the end of the show, he sold his guitar, bought a car, and left New York. Wandering outside for a year without friends and lovers, he began to understand what is really important and what is the source of real inspiration. So he sang "What You Own" with Mark. So he resolutely returned to New York, redeemed the guitar, and returned to their familiar East Side and dilapidated apartment. This lost and recovered guitar actually symbolizes all the warmth and beauty in his life. Only this time he began to know how to cherish and be grateful for everything.
Angel and Collins are the most straightforward, sunny and easy-going among these people. The two of them are the glue in the circle of friends, and they play a role in conflicts. Regardless of Roger's weirdness and indifference, Maureen's arbitrary behavior, or Benny's hateful philanthropist face, both of them can show kindness and understanding. In Happy New Year, the appearance of Benny caused Maureen's dissatisfaction and caused a quarrel between Roger and Mimi. Faced with the former friend who locked them out on New Year's Eve, the couple just handed champagne for a while, and joked for a while to ease their conflicts.
In contrast to Mimi and Roger's hesitation, Maureen and Joanne's separation and reunion, Angel and Collins' love seemed affirmative and harmonious. Collins is generous by nature, and Angel lives up to its name. As soon as Angel died, the whole family fell apart immediately, which is not surprising.
Benny is actually not a bad person, Angel's funeral and house are all funded by him. However, most audiences have a very bad impression of him, mostly due to the ambiguous relationship between him and Mimi. But thinking about it carefully, Mimi can leave freely from him, which means that Benny didn't force her to be with him. To be separated from Roger and with Benny was to a certain extent Mimi, a 19-year-old young girl's own choice. It was he who sent Mimi to the convalescent rehab. Two details were added to the movie version to rectify Benny's name. One is that after Roger left, the scrawny Mimi sat alone in the dressing room of the strip club, curled up in a chair, tears streaming down her face. At this moment Benny appeared, and the sad Mimi took his hand. Second, Benny left a message to Mark and Roger, saying that Mimi was missing and asked his friends to find her together.
In a group of people, there will be artists who live on the edge every day, but there will still be real people who worry about life. Benny is just the latter.
Mark is the most real and my favorite character in the whole show. Among a few good friends, although Collins and Angel are the best, Mark is the weakest antisocial. He does not have AIDS, does not take drugs, is heterosexual, has a normal family, and then has a stable job. In this group of people, although Mark and Joanne are rivals in love, the two are the most similar to each other.
It is precisely because of his “mainstream” background that he is willing to live with such a group of marginalized people and live a precarious life every day that makes him look cute. Renovate the machine for Maureen, accept a job that I don’t like for everyone’s life, and make a movie with friends as the protagonist. Mark is the only one among them who didn’t get love, but he loves this more than any of them. Family.
song:
Musicals, operas, and musicals all have such a problem: whether music gives way to the plot, or the plot gives way to the music. "Rent" has an extraordinary advantage in this regard. The story is undoubtedly full of conflicts, rich transitions, and the combination of songs and plot is so close. A lot of songs in the play are narrative, even some lyrical songs contain a lot of plot information. For example, Goodbye Love uses rock, narration, aria, and repeated fast and slightly flustered piano minor melody to describe a bleak autumn in which friends are scattered, relatives die early, and lovers are separated from quarrels, exhortations, and farewells. The melody of the whole song is coherent and beautiful, fluctuating with the ups and downs of emotions, but not abrupt and deliberate.
The full version of Christmas Bells is included in the original Cass CD for the tenth anniversary. This six-minute work contains the themes of many other songs, including several plots and dialogues. The amount of information is very large, but the completeness is surprisingly good. Seven homeless people and a car glass cleaner told about their lives that they couldn't even get enough food and clothing. This theme melody appeared in all four songs including You Okay Honey. The dialogue between Roger, Mark and Mimi, Collins and Angel choosing clothes, bargaining with sellers, Mimi buying drugs, etc., are all compressed in the last three minutes and integrated into the chorus with their own unique melody. Each paragraph can be distinguished, but the combination is quite harmonious.
La Vie Boheme is the most lively song in the whole show. If La Vie Boheme A and B are regarded as one work, then it is the one with the most characters and the most elements in the whole show. In fact, La Vie Boheme A is a rare multiplayer song in the history of the entire musical. There are dozens of people present, and everyone has a solo. Speaking, narration, rap, church mass, hip-hop, popular, rhythm and blues are all integrated in this song. Nothing is more exciting than a series of toasts. The objects to be respected run through the hard life of Bohemian artists, run through the literary and artistic circles of the 20th century, run through all continents on the earth, including directors and poets. , Bands, illegal drugs, religion, and even physics, there are all kinds of words that are not worthy of our purpose. Singing until the blood of the artists is in the blood, singing until Benny yells "check out", leaving the stage hurriedly with Yue Zhang, singing until all the audience have also discarded their reservations and restraint, and both on stage and off stage push their emotions to a boiling point.
Among the eight protagonists, Roger's songs are the most difficult. The famous musical actor Adam Pascal plays him. He has a wide range and rich timbre, sometimes desolate, sometimes warm, and full of emotions. Roger's songs are basically lyrical arias, except for Another Day and group songs that quarreled with Mimi, such as Your Eyes, I Should Tell You and so on. Among them, One Song Glory is the most beautiful and lyrical. In this song, Roger tells about his past love affair, his illness, his ideals and pursuits. The accompaniment of the song is basically only a very loosely tuned electric guitar, with Adam's slightly hoarse broad voice, which evokes strong sympathy and sympathy in many people's hearts. The transition from this song to Light My Candle was arranged very interestingly. As soon as the previous song ended, there was a knock on the door, and the electronic music keyboard popped up with the right split rhythm. Roger went to answer the door, and it was Mimi holding a candle that jumped in.
Tango Maureen is fierce. The two capitals are very nice, but the latter is simply magical.
Tango dance music itself often has a tense atmosphere, regardless of body language or musical melody, there will be an atmosphere of confrontation. This confrontation may be slightly provocative or extremely hostile. In tango dance music, men and women are generally relatively balanced. The use of a pair of male and female rivals is not only in line with the characteristics of music and dance, but also unique and creative. It is very exciting.
The music of "Rent" combines rock, folk, rhythm and blues, gospel music, Latin dance, heavy metal, and hip-hop. Use the characteristics of different music types to convey a variety of emotions of the characters. Even the phone call is like singing and singing, full of fun. Between songs and plots, "Rent" is smooth and natural. The song itself will not mislead or restrict the performance of the actors. The spirit of the characters on the stage is vividly presented through a song. If the music of a musical can do this, the author has already succeeded for the most part.
Author:
The story of "Rent", although spiritually uplifting, the plot is hopeless from the beginning. There are several characters who are terminally ill, some are drug users, and everyone lives on the edge. But why did Johnthan Larson write a happy ending to this story? When I watched it for the first time, I couldn't accept that Mimi woke up again inexplicably-she obviously had AIDS, was ravaged by drugs, and lived and slept for many days. The end is about to come. Moreover, if you speculate on the fate of Mimi, Roger, Collins, etc., these people, as HIV carriers, will not stay in the world for long. Therefore, I always feel that the author's change of the ending of "La Boheme" is unnecessary.
After learning about Larson's life, I understood a little bit about his adaptation. As a young Bohemian artist like his own character, Larson used his good wishes when creating "Rent" to create a new ending for the story. Although this ending weakens the shock and appeal of the play itself, it reflects Larson's hope for life and the trust he still holds in the world in the midst of hardship. Just imagine, if the characters in your pen are almost yourself and your friends, how can you still bear the heart to kill them.
Larson and "Rent" brought a revolution in stage play. Prior to this, musical theatre plays had traditional forms, except for a few niche works that were not very popular, and there were almost no rock dramas. At that time, many people thought that musicals had not developed for decades and remained unchanged, and they were even reluctant to enter the theater. And "Rent" changed all that.
The decaying Greenwich Village, New York, lively Bohemian artists, sincere friendship, pure love. With dynamic and hot music and dance, the actors maintain a high degree of unity while acting rashly. Such a play has never been seen before on Broadway or even the world.
The playwright Larson used his life to declare to the Americans: Believe in your dreams, cling to your dreams, and realize your dreams. He said: "My music has no format, just like American lives. We only have needs, expressive needs, and entertainment needs. Music is my dream, and the color of my dream is the color of my music, expressing our generation of Americans. The need of a common dream is the need of my music, and I use music to express the love of life".
This somewhat sad story has been performed on the world stage for more than ten years and won unanimous praise from the audience. Although the poor artist was expelled by the landlord, Christmas Eve was hungry and cold, and the professional and sexual orientations of the couples were not mainstream, but the story itself was bright and bright. Although it is a stripper, a homosexual, a drug addict, and suffering from AIDS, it chants love and support in adversity.
On the day when "Rent" was officially performed on Off Broadway, the actors still sang and danced. After the lively "La Vie Boheme", the stage was silent. The actors sat quietly at the table and could not perform anymore. About a minute later, everyone said in unison:
"Thank you, Jonanthan Larson."
View more about Rent reviews
