Ready for 'Rent'?

Calling it one of its "most highly-requested shows," the IU Auditorium will host the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical RENT for the second time in only two-and-a-half years.\nRENT, written by the late Jonathan Larson, opened in 1996 and soon became a mega hit both on Broadway and across the country. Utilizing a pop-rock idiom and addressing contemporary issues such as AIDS, heroin and homosexuality, the show was as groundbreaking as it was entertaining. \n"RENT is about a community celebrating life in the face of death and AIDS at the turn of the century," wrote Larson several months before the show opened.\nThe question remaining, then, is how does RENT continue to speak to its audience now, four years into the new century? \nConnie Glen, adjunct lecturer in the School of Music, addresses RENT in her class, "The American Musical."\n"I think RENT is a terrific show," Glen said. "I suspect that it may have staying power because its characters have depth and its focus is on contemporary life problems and the music is engaging."\nGlen said the show's popularity is also due to the characters' relevance to ordinary life.\n"Audiences are drawn into the show because they like the characters, can relate to them and develop sympathy for them," she said.\nSome, like senior Brandon Combs, believe the show continues to speak on matters of cultural significance, even as it nears the ten-year mark of its existence.\n"RENT was very progressive at the time," Combs said. "As a society, we're still catching up to it."\nShortly after Larson's death on the eve of RENT's premiere, his family found the following statement on his computer: "In these dangerous times, where it seems the world is ripping apart at the seams, we can all learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and (we) should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium."\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Anderson at erander@indiana.edu.