Everything is Rent
Great news, Rentheads! Judging from the two-CD Warner Bros. soundtrack of the soon to be released Sony/Columbia/Revolution Studios film version of Rent, the Jonathan Larson rock opera to which you are devoted has been given an extremely faithful big-screen adaptation. If you love the cast album, you’ll probably love the soundtrack, which features almost all of the original leads plus two talented newbies. In the grand tradition of The Pajama Game, 1776, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the Rent movie is all the better for its employment of many personnel from the stage production.
On internet chat boards and elsewhere, quite a few people have voiced the concern that Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia are now too old to play the parts they created 10 years ago in the original New York Theatre Workshop production of Rent, which moved to Broadway quicker than you could say “Bohemia!” Judging from the soundtrack and from the film’s promo trailer, this concern is unfounded. Director Chris Columbus had the wisdom and good taste to realize that what the original players would bring to their film performances in terms of authenticity and authority is ultimately far more important than the fact that they are no longer in their 20s. (There’s honorable precedent for such casting; Rex Harrison, for example, was really “too old” to be fully credible when recreating his stage role of Henry Higgins in the film version of My Fair Lady, but would we want to see that movie without his performance?)
Though the Rent soundtrack is spread over two CDs, as noted above, it lacks some material that you’ll find on the cast recording; a few lines of spoken dialogue are missing, as well as a few recitative sections. My guess is that some or all of this is in the actual film even though it’s not on the album; respecting the fact that Jonathan Larson is not around to cut or revise his work, the filmmakers seem to have made no textual changes. Columbus and his colleagues have proven their unconditional love for Rent, remaining true to this beautiful, heartfelt work despite its flaws.
The original cast leads all sound terrific; their performances retain a feeling of freshness and spontaneity but have been enriched by all that stage experience. As before, Pascal is wonderfully sexy as the wounded Roger Davis; Rapp is appropriately intense as his tech-nerd roommate, Mark Cohen; Martin is warmth personified as Tom Collins; Heredia is charismatic and vital as Angel; Idina Menzel is a ball of fire as Maureen; and Taye Diggs is simultaneously hot and very, very cool as Benny.
But you’re probably more interested in hearing about the newcomers, and I’m glad to say that the news is good. Rosario Dawson didn’t sound terrific when delivering Julia’s songs in this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production of the Galt MacDermot musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, but there’s a world of difference between singing live for hundreds of people in an open-air theater and singing in the protective confines of a recording studio, where multiple takes are possible and technical wizardry can be performed if necessary. Dawson does a fine vocal job as Mimi in Rent; many listeners will prefer her smooth sound to the raw vocalism of the original Mimi, Daphne Rubin-Vega, while others may find it somewhat bland in comparison. The other major newbie here is Tracie Thoms, who scores in the opening “Seasons of Love” track (more on that later!) and in the scorching “Take Me or Leave Me” duet with Menzel.
An interesting gimmick of the soundtrack album packaging is that you can choose which of the leading actors/characters to have on the cover; I got Anthony as Mark, but you might prefer Adam as Roger, Rosario as Mimi, Jesse as Collins, Wilson as Angel, Taye as Benny, or Tracie and Idina together as Joanne and Maureen. (The composite image that accompanies this article is taken from the cover of the CD booklet.)
Produced and arranged by Rob Cavallo, with musical supervision by Matt Sullivan, the soundtrack boasts arrangements and orchestrations that are basically the originals with just a bit of sweetening — strings and brass in “The Tango Maureen,” some pretty new harmonies in “Life Support,” etc. Tim Weil, musical director of the stage production, is here credited as vocal conductor and for having provided additional arrangements. The CD ends with a bonus track of “Love Heals,” written by Larson while he was working on Rent to help in the efforts of the Alison Gertz Foundation for AIDS education. It’s a lovely song — and, since AIDS plays such a major role in Rent, entirely apropos.
The only thing about the Rent soundtrack that gives me pause is the song order. “You’ll See” has been moved up slightly in the action and seems to work fine in that slot; but I can only hope that “Seasons of Love” opens the album not because that’s where it actually appears in the film but because it’s hoped that the recording will become a hit single. (Wouldn’t that be great?) One of the most gorgeous musical theater songs of the past quarter century, “Seasons of Love” is tremendously moving in the stage version of Rent largely because it comes at a point in the action when we have already come to know the characters and to love them despite (or because of) their foibles. Let’s all pray that Chris Columbus hasn’t second-guessed Jonathan Larson on this point when he has trusted him on everything else.
