Ambassadors at Rent

Blog by: Apoorva Jha

Rent is a musical by Jonathan Larson and was written regarding the story of two young roommates, Mark and Roger in the East Village of New York, while Roger struggles with grief and loss while Mark captures their life, friends, and navigation, while also encouraging education about HIV/AIDS throughout the musical.

While the ambassadors were watching this program, we were beyond shocked at the pure talent and presence that dominated the stage. At no point, even during more key emotional scenes, did we see a faltering of energy and a breaking of character. Grief, loss, sexual education, and topics such as living with HIV/AIDS were treated with sensitivity and care as each character learned to navigate how difficult their life could be struggling with poverty and the threat of consistently living below means.

Characters such as Angel, showed us the meaning of living with passion, love, and energy even in the midst of tragedy and their death was felt deeply throughout the audience and well throughout the show, and Tom revealed how deeply love and loss can coexist. Characters like Mimi and Roger showed how love could pull through in the roughest of times, even when the two weren’t ready to have open communication and reveal their feelings. Joanne and Maureen brought humor to the show and revealed to us how messed up, hilarious, and tender-hearted love can be at times. Benjamin Coffin III made audiences hate and love him, as his pretentious status annoyed the audience but later fell in love with him as he covered the cost of Angel’s funeral. Mark Cohen connects with audiences all over the world, as he causes us to look back and connect with ourselves and makes us ask the question: Can we really stand up for ourselves and others, or will we just sit behind a screen, documenting?

Rent tells us how to live our lives to the fullest with no care to what people think and to embrace our authenticity even through our deepest tribulations, though none of it can be done without the love of a community.