RENT, Like Returning Home

The particular magic of this one special show.

From the RENT P/C score. — Music Theatre International

I still remember the first time I saw RENT.

It was my sweet sixteen, a Saturday; me and a handful of editors and writers were at school, working on the newspaper. We didn’t like coming in on the weekends or staying the late nights, but we also liked getting a paper out more than once a month. And our grade depended on it.

I don’t remember how many of us were there. Just a handful of us, really. And Jenni put on RENT. It was her favorite, she said.

I don’t remember paying much attention to it. I don’t remember how I felt about it. This was a good two years before I’d make up my mind to try out for the school’s Fall play, before I jumped wholeheartedly into the world of theatre.

I was pretty evangelical back then, and I was a total stick in the mud when it came to music choices — I was a big fan of Celine and Cher and many of the CDs my grandma had neatly organized around her computer station.

I was, as the kids say, totally lame.

But there was something about Seasons of Love, that was strong, welcoming, that felt like home. It was an invitation to another kind of life. A life that was less lonely, less bitter. Maybe it wasn’t amazing, maybe it was still difficult, but it…