GAY PEOPLE'S Chronicle

JUNE 12, 1998

Evenings Out

A rock opera for our time

Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generatio

by Kaizaad Kotwal

The May 13, 1996 issue of Newsweek was interesting not only because the cover featured the Broadway phenomenon of Rent, but also the "Ralph Reed's New Christian Agenda" story teaser across the top.

After all, Rent's world is populated by gays, drag queens, drug addicts and HIVpositive people-the very groups that the Christian Coalition, headed by Reed at the time, vehemently despises. It would be hard to find more unsuitable cover mates.

Unlike the Christian Coalition, Rent doesn't just give empty lip service to ideals like love and acceptance. Rather, it openly celebrates the true America, in all its dazzling, colorful diversity.

The musical has become the definitive piece of 90s theater because of the genius and vision of its creator, Jonathan Larson.

PAPASME HALPH REEDS NE

New eek

Rent Strikes

A Sexy kit for 8: Yos Beatrifes Brustway

Larson died of an aortic aneurysm at the all-too-young age of 35, just a few days before the show made its Broadway debut. The odd merging of his untimely death with a groundbreaking piece of art illuminated the show's message about the celebration of the human spirit, and offered a brilliant reflection of what it really means to be alive.

Rent is Larson's love poem to those individuals who choose to love rather than hate, include rather than exclude, and to the brave souls who look adversity in the face and laugh rather than lay down and die.

In Rent, Larson updates Puccini's opera La Boheme. Set in a different age and battling a different plague, the characters in Puccini's end-of-the-19th-century opera are reincarnated in Rent as struggling artists and resilient humans living in New York

Producer Jeffrey Seller

City at the end of the 20th century.

Rent has won every award in the world of theater, and staked an even greater claim to fame when it was awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, a category that has rarely considered musicals even worthy of nominations.

Prior to the phenomenal success of Rent, Larson was a struggling artist like the people who inhabit his creation.

In 1990, Rent's openly gay producer Jeffrey Seller said he saw Larson “in an off-off-Broadway piece titled Tic-TicBoom in which Larson was playing himself."

"He was speaking to me," Seller said, "and to a whole generation that the theater wasn't speaking to."

Seller befriended Larson, things began to come together and the rest, as they say, is history.

That history today includes a continuing Broadway run in which, according to Seller, they have had "no unsold seat, five companies of Rent worldwide, with two more opening later this year in Japan and Australia.”

There is also talk about a possible film version.

Today at 33, Seller is one of the most successful and sought-after producers on Broadway. He used to work as a booking agent before he took on his first project and everyone will agree that it was a wise and visionary risk to produce Rent.

While Seller is openly gay, he believes that it was his experience of growing up poor has shaped him more

than anything else has.

JOAN MARCUS

"My passion for theater predates my recognition that I was gay," Seller recalled. "I grew up in a home that was basically lower middle-class, not middle class. We were poorer than most of the people I hung out with, and I had a lot of shame about that. More of my drive to succeed was to make money, to set the record straight, to say, 'I'll show you'."

Based on the success of Rent, Seller probably won't have any trouble paying his rent ever again.

In fact, Rent is so hot among younger performers that it has probably become the most sought-after show to audition for, since the unknown stars of the original production have been thrust into the limelight of fortune and fame.

Twenty-eight-year-old Paul Stovall is one of the lucky actors who are touring across America with one of the companies. He will appear in the Columbus production.

The Fordyce, Arkansas native can't stop gushing about the passion and deep commitment of Larson's legacy.

"The cornerstone of the piece is that we must measure our life in love and that there is no day but today," Stovall said.

"What is so great about this play is that it shows people loving and accepting each other," he continued, "and if lovers, friends, parents, and coworkers can do that, then we can solve a lot of problems."

As a gay man of color, Stovall believes that the piece speaks in particular to those two constituencies.

"It says that you don't have to define yourself by your sexuality or color but by your

Monique Daniels and Leigh Hetherington

Paul Stovall

relationships, by how much love you put into the world and that is what we must try to be remembered by," Stovall said.

Rent can be seen in both Cleveland and Columbus during Pride month.

In Cleveland, Rent will be at the Palace Theater at Playhouse Square Center, from June 16 through July 5. Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30 pm; and matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 pm. Ticket prices range from $26.50 to $47.50. For tickets and more information, call Advantix at 216-241-6000 or 800-766-6048.

The Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center has a benefit at the Wednesday, June 17 performance: $95 includes dress circle seats and a reception with the cast afterward. Call 216522-1999 for tickets.

Rent will be at the Palace Theater in Columbus for 16 performances, June 30 through July 12. Performances are Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 pm; Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm; and Sundays at 2:00 pm. and 7:00 pm.

On Friday, July 3, the performance will be at 6:00 pm to coincide with the "Red, White and Boom" Independence Day celebrations. Ticket prices range from $32.50 to $51. For tickets and more information call any Ticket Master location or 614-224-7654.

The cast of Rent will perform a cabaretstyle show on Monday, July 6 to benefit the Columbus AIDS Task Force and Broadway Cares-Equity Fights AIDS. "The Commitment from Rent" begins 7:30 pm at the Capitol Theater in Vern Riffe Center, 77 S. High St. in Columbus. Call 614-224-7654 for tickets.✔