Renting My Religion
Rent
Tom Beaudoin
July 1, 1997
Rent, by Jonathan Larson (Rob Weisbach Books, 1997)
Rent: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Dreamworks Records, 1996)
James Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theater Workshop where Rent got its start, summarizes well the religious power of drama. "Theater," he states in the official
Rent book, "is like a secular church. A place where the community can go and take something away." With Rent's increasing success (particularly through its national touring companies), this experience of "secular church" has become available to more and more Gen-Xers across the country. For the first time, many are finding a religious message about their generation and their personal lives. Given the richness of its religious evocations (what I would even call its secular liturgies), Rent's is a message that deserves critical conversation with Christian Scripture and tradition.
"No day but today!" the musical famously proclaims, affirming both senses of the word "rent." In one regard, Rent highlights how our lives and religious experiences struggle to transcend the bonds of consumerism. We "rent" our identities—our bodies, emotions, parents, living quarters, and friends. All seem to be only temporarily ours. Moreover, Rent depicts how our lives are "rent," or torn asunder, as we strive to reintegrate moments and experiences and to make sense of fractured lives, sexualities, and faiths. Rent dramatizes the situation of our generation: we can only afford one day of existence at a time, and today's disparate character makes even that uncertain.
A reworking of Puccini's classic La Boheme, Rent revolves around three relationships in the bohemian tumble of New York City: 1) Roger, a white rock-star wannabe, has just lost his girlfriend, ...
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