Rent

“I’m nineteen—but I’m old for my age. I’m just born to be bad.”

Mimi doesn’t reveal that at 19, she is old for her age because she is facing her own mortality, and her current age may be old within her lifespan. Unlike Roger, Mimi doesn’t shy away from connection, but she isn’t willing to spend any time waiting for it. While Roger seems to characterize himself as a danger to others, Mimi has decided that she is “born to be bad,” suggesting that she defined herself morally by her addiction and HIV/AIDS and decided to take what she wants without worrying about consequences. Song Title: “Light My Candle”

“Life support’s a group for people coping with life. We don’t have to stay too long.”

By inviting Collins, Mark, and Roger to Life Support, Angel generalizes the purpose of the group that is ultimately about HIV/AIDS. Through this generalization, Angel is normalizing HIV/AIDS as just another issue that people who are coping with life have to deal with. This is one moment that demonstrates that although HIV/AIDS is a significant subject in the musical, Rent isn’t a play about AIDS. Rather, it’s about survival through community and the ephemerality of life. Song Title: “You’ll See”

GORDON: Look—I find some of what you teach suspect, because I’m used to relying on intellect, but I try to open up to what I don’t know.

GORDON and ROGER: Because reason says I should have died three years ago.

ALL: No other road, no other way, no day but today.

Paul, who leads the Life Support meeting, professes that members should make the choice to live for today instead of being afraid of the future. But Gordon and Roger express the fear of uncertainty that came with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis in the mid-1990s. Gordon is worried because his T cells are low, which means that his immune system has weakened, and he has likely progressed (or will soon progress) from HIV to AIDS, making him more vulnerable to opportunistic infections. The prognosis at that point in history wasn’t always predictable; therefore it was difficult to lean on logic. Although Roger isn’t at the meeting, he is experiencing the same fear. Paul urges the group to embrace the uncertainty and accept that they can’t change their paths, so they might as well enjoy today. Song Title: “Life Support”

“In the evening, I’ve got to roam, can’t sleep in the city of neon and chrome. Feels too damn much like home when the Spanish babies cry. So, let’s find a bar so dark we forget who we are, where all the scars from the nevers and maybes die.”

Mimi admits to herself that she is living a wild life on the edge only because it drowns out the quiet and distracts her from her life. In truth, she has pain and scars from the things that she’ll never do, and she only wants to forget herself. But falling for Roger will do the opposite, and she compensates by coping with drugs. Song Title: “Out Tonight”

“Another time—another place, the words would only rhyme, we’d be in outer space. It’d be another song; we’d sing another way. You wanna prove me wrong? Come back another day.”

For Roger, another day means that they would have to go back in time. He’s angry because he’s attracted to her, and Mimi reminds him of April. In this sense, Roger is saying that their interaction is echoing his past, but this time, things are different. By saving Mimi from himself, Roger is saving April. Song Title: “Another Day”

“Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?”

The members of the Life Support group sing about their fears for their future and what the ends of their lives will look like. One of the reasons that self-assembled families mattered so much in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was because those who were diagnosed often found themselves abandoned by loved ones who were scared of the disease. They also couldn’t know what death might look like individually, because there were so many different infections that might end up overwhelming a damaged immune system. Song Title: “Will I?”

“Who the fuck do you think you are? I don’t need no goddamn help from some bleeding heart cameraman, my life’s not for you to make a name for yourself on!”

When a police officer raises his baton to strike a woman who doesn’t have a home, Mark holds up his camera and tells him to smile for the news. The officer stops, but the woman sees Mark’s intervention as self-serving and exploitative. This moment calls attention to the questionable ethics of filming oppressed people, and, at a metatheatrical level, it comments on the issues of staging artistic interpretations of vulnerable people in a musical, which is the most popular form of theater. Song Title: “X-Mo Bells #2/Bummer”

“I teach—computer-age philosophy. But my students would rather watch TV.” 

Collins’s comment about his students is stating one of the main issues raised by the musical, which is the way technology and technological advancements create ever-thickening barriers in connections between people. Philosophy concerns the nature of reality and existence, and he sees the younger generation’s embracing of technology (such as virtual reality) as distancing themselves from and even displacing actual reality. Song Title: “Santa Fe”

“Open your door, I’ll be your tenant. Don’t got much baggage to lay at your feet. But sweet kisses I’ve got to spare. I’ll be there—I’ll cover you.”

Rent and access to shelter are significant issues in the musical, but Angel and Collins offer each other the metaphorical shelter of their love. It’s never entirely clear where either of them lives, although in Act II, Mark speculates that they’re living together in a shantytown. Their promises to each other suggest that their love is just as important as shelter. This in turn implies that although Mark ends up with no rent and a roof over his head, his loneliness makes him less privileged than Angel and Collins, even if they end up unhoused. Song Title: “I’ll Cover You”

“Can’t you spare a dime or two? Here but for the grace of God go you. You’ll be merry, I’ll be merry, tho merry ain’t in my vocabulary. No sleigh bells, no Santa Claus, no yule log, no tinsel, no holly, no hearth …”

Throughout the musical, a Greek chorus of people who don’t have homes frequently passes through to remind audiences that the main characters are choosing poverty, as opposed to the people in the tent city next door who are forced to beg to survive and live in tents in the dead of winter. They sing the phrase, “Here but for the grace of God go you” (55) perfunctorily, as it’s a common axiom spouted to undercut any feelings of superiority in those who are more well off. In this case, when the artists are using the tent city as a subject of activism and art, it’s significant to remind them that they have more privilege and resources than the people in the tent city, and they haven’t achieved that status because they are special. Any one of them is one unfortunate act or stroke of luck away from pitching their own tent. Song Title: “Christmas Bells”

“She’s had trouble with that milk and that moon ever since. Maybe it’s a female thing, ’cause who’d want to leave Cyberland anyway? ... Walls ain’t so bad.”

In her performance, Maureen speaks in the voice of her character Benny the Bulldog, who smugly brushes off the concerns of Maureen and the cow, blaming womanhood and denying that Cyberland has any issues and isn’t an enviable place to live. His offhand comment, “Walls ain’t so bad” (68), is unintentionally ironic as Maureen addresses a crowd of people who have no homes and are very much in need of walls to protect them from the elements. Maureen is worried about her art being walled in and stifled, but the primary concern of the protest ought to be the inhabitants of tent city who need actual walls to keep them warm in the snowy New York Christmas. Song Title: “Over the Moon”

“To being an us—for once—…instead of a them.” 

In “La Vie Bohème,” which is the anthem of the central characters and their anti-mainstream community, they sing lists of things that they value, from adventurous and varied sex to Stephen Sondheim and intoxicating substances. They also list things that they don’t value at all, from men who go to work in suits to their parents and social convention. But what their bohemian life boils down to is community. They see themselves as group of people who find themselves on the outskirts of society, the weird ones, the outsiders, and they have formed their own group to value each other as family. Song Title: “La Vie Bohème”

“The riot continues. The Christmas tree goes up in flames. The snow dances. Oblivious, Mimi and Roger share a small, lovely kiss.”

Mark speaks this line at the end of Act I, bookending the brief spoken narrative at the beginning of the act. He illustrates a scene of romance amid the fire, chaos, and protest that is highly cinematic. Their tentative kiss contrasts with the raging pandemonium in the background. It also highlights the characters’ focus on their own goals and interpersonal relationships over concerns about social justice. The riot footage, no doubt including the juxtaposition of their kiss, has the drama and intrigue to elevate it to the evening news. Song Title: “La Vie Bohème B”

“Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in the life?”

The musical spans a year in the lives of these eight friends, who all come together on Christmas Eve, some with histories between them and some for the first time. By Halloween, one of them dies young. Angel dies of complications from AIDS, but HIV/AIDS isn’t the only threat that looms over their short lives. The song is a memento mori, a reminder that everyone dies, generalizing death as an expected, universal experience in order to normalize HIV/AIDS as just another cause. For a group in which four members face the likelihood of dying young, the song questions the way life is quantified and measured. Years might be an objective measure, made even more specific by counting minutes, but the song suggests measuring in qualities like love. Young people like Angel who die in their 20s haven’t lived enough when measured quantifiably, but using love as a qualitative measure makes Angel’s life rich and fulfilled. Song Title: “Seasons of Love”

“The benevolent god ushers the poor artists back to their flat. Were you planning to take the barbed wire down from the lot, too?” 

When Benny brings the key to the building, Maureen comments wryly that what he is doing is more of a power move than an act of compassion. Benny couldn’t get what he wanted from them in terms of stopping the protest, but he can afford to give a magnanimous display that might redeem his investors, in light of the publicized riots. Of course, he brushes off the now barbed-wired lot as a safety concern, demonstrating that their protest was pointless since their rent-free life was the real objective, and the tent city was simply a cause to make the protest noble. Song Title: “Happy New Year B”

COLLINS: Let’s always stay friends

JOANNE: Tho’ we may have our disputes

MAUREEN: This family tree’s got deep roots

MARK: Friendship is thicker than blood

ROGER: That depends.

During their New Year’s celebration, Collins leads the group to swear friendship and family to each other, and Joanne, Maureen, and Mark agree that their friendship is stronger than biological familial bonds. At the mention of blood, however, Roger is pessimistic. His blood, as well as that of Collins, Mimi, and Angel, is an element that separates the group. Whereas bloodlines in families assert a biological compatibility, their bloodlines can’t mingle and mix. When one of them becomes much sicker, their friendships will be tested. Song Title: “Happy New Year B”

“Every single day, I walk down the street. I hear people say, ‘Baby’s so sweet.’ Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me, boys—girls, I can’t help it, baby.”

“Musetta’s Waltz” from La Bohème is a repeated motif throughout Rent. When Roger tries to write music, his songs always come back to awkward versions of the famous aria “Musetta’s Waltz.” In the first act, the title and placement of “The Tango Maureen” reference “Musetta’s Waltz,” but “Take Me or Leave Me” translates the lyrics of Musetta’s aria nearly verbatim in Maureen’s defense of herself as always uncontrollably attracting sexual attention. In the opera, she sings to Marcello (Mark), and they reunite for a tempestuous relationship. In “Take Me or Leave Me,” Joanne counters Maureen’s argument, and the two decide (for the moment, anyway) that they are incompatible. Song Title: “Take Me or Leave Me”

“Without you, the ground thaws, the rain falls, the grass grows. […] The earth turns, the sun burns, but I die without you.” 

Mimi’s words about missing Roger stand out as a brokenhearted love song because she is saying that the world won’t stop without him, but she will. It takes the grandiose nature of many sad love songs and points out the reality. Her agony and loneliness are monolithic, but only to her. Similarly, when one of them eventually dies, those who are close friends will be devastated, but the world won’t stop. This is the tragedy of dying young that the play attempts to mitigate by urging everyone to live in the moment. Song Title: “Without You”

“You all said you’d be cool today so please—for my sake… I can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t believe you’re going. I can’t believe this family must die. Angel helped us believe in love. I can’t believe you’d disagree.”

Collins has perhaps been the most fervent about the group’s need to stay together as a family. He saw Angel as someone who brought them a pure idea of love with the ability to override their petty squabbles and the larger issues that tear them apart. The moment Angel is gone, he sees them fighting again. As a human being, Angel wasn’t enough to smooth over the fears and sorrows and resentments of the group. But as a martyr, Angel becomes a symbol of love and family, and the group owes it to Angel to try harder. Angel even becomes the voice that Mark hears as well as the spirit who sends Mimi back from the beyond to receive Roger’s love. Song Title: “Goodbye, Love”

MARK: Maybe you’ll see why when you stop escaping your pain. At least now if you try—Angel’s death won’t be in vain.

ROGER: His death is in vain. 

Mark follows through with Collins’s deification of Angel as a way to give their lives and deaths meaning through love. If Roger can only learn from Angel’s death to take the risk and love Mimi, even as she gets sicker, Angel’s death will mean something and won’t have been in vain. But Roger can’t see Angel’s death as anything but a pointless loss, just as he sees his own and Mimi’s future deaths as pointless losses. Nothing that he can do can add meaning to Angel’s seemingly arbitrary death. Song Title: “Goodbye, Love”

“You don’t want baggage without lifetime guarantees. You don’t want to watch me die?” 

Throughout the play, Mimi has been tough, refusing to lament her own sickness or feel sorry for herself. She armors herself against fear by making living for today a lifestyle choice, in which she takes risks and moves on any time she thinks that her time is being wasted. She seemingly doesn’t care about consequences, even though some of the consequences of her choices will shorten her life. When Mimi overhears Roger and sees herself through his eyes, she is struck by her own mortality and frailty. This terrifies her, and she agrees to go to rehab, which may or may not be enough to help prolong her life. Mimi demonstrates that refusing to face the situation and really accept the realities of her illness is not a tenable coping mechanism. Song Title: “Goodbye, Love”

“Must be nice to have money.” 

Mark says this after Benny offers easily to pay for Mimi’s rehab and Angel’s funeral, both impossible expenses for the rest of the group. With a nod and a promise from Benny, the irate, anti-gay preacher is mollified. In the end, the needs for dignity for a young man’s body and help for a young dying woman aren’t valued in capitalism. The only thing that speaks is money. Mark’s statement seems silly and obvious, but he has also been afraid of money and its corrupting force on his artistic sensibilities. Song Title: “What You Own”

“You’re living in America at the end of the millennium. You’re living in America, leave your conscience at the tone. And when you’re living in America at the end of the millennium, you’re what you own.” 

Mark has taken a job with Alexi Darling, which he finds ethically questionable and contrary to his principles. Before he makes the decision to quit, he sings through the way capitalist structures force people like him to conform and sell themselves to survive. He references the answering machine, a repeated image symbolizing the endless failure to connect with one another. Leaving his conscience at the tone is no different from the unreturned messages that his mother leaves for him. These connections die on the tape. And in mid-‘90s capitalism, a person’s time or year isn’t measured in love, but in money. Social worth requires ownership of property, not renting (or squatting) with nothing to show for it. Song Title: “What You Own”