Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)
by: Jeff Potter, Anthony Jackson, Daniel A. Weiss, Ira Siegel, Kenny Brescia, Steve Skinner, Adam Pascal, Aiko Nakasone, Anthony Rapp
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Into Broadway's creative vacuum of revivals, movie adaptations, and Hollywood star vehicles comes Rent, the story of squatters, junkies, performance artists, struggling musicians, drag queens, aspiring filmmakers, and HIV-positives (and you thought Miss Saigon's helicopter landing was cool). Undoubtedly among the defining pop cultural events of 1996, Rent has already won four Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. More importantly, it threatens to bring substance back to the Great White Way.
Transposing Puccini's 100-year-old opera La Bohème into modern day Bohemia (19th-century Paris's Left Bank becomes late-20th-century New York's East Village where the scourge of tuberculosis becomes the plague of AIDS) Rent celebrates life among the young, sick, and unconventional. While Broadway shows are hardly the place for authentic portrayals of the latest marginalized hipsters, composer Jonathan Larson (who died at age 36, days before his musical opened) managed to sculpt vivid characters and scenes that bring Avenue A as close as it will ever come to 42nd Street. And by telling a socially relevant story of living without the guarantee of a future (renting, that is), Larson does his own little bit to define an X'ed generation. At worst, Rent is the Hair of the '90s.
For the majority of us who won't be seeing Rent anytime soon, the Original Cast Recording is more than just an after-show souvenir. Well-packaged with a complete libretto, the two-CD set is a worthwhile album separate of live performance. Full of songs that are funny and catchy, inspiring and touching, smart and hip and not overly sentimental, Rent mixes showtune pop with elements of rock, R&B, dance, gospel, and tango to make one of the best albums of the year--certainly the best rock opera in decades. La vie bohème, indeed. --Roni Sarig
Into Broadway's creative vacuum of revivals, movie adaptations, and Hollywood star vehicles comes Rent, the story of squatters, junkies, performance artists, struggling musicians, drag queens, aspiring filmmakers, and HIV-positives (and you thought Miss Saigon's helicopter landing was cool). Undoubtedly among the defining pop cultural events of 1996, Rent has already won four Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. More importantly, it threatens to bring substance back to the Great White Way.
Transposing Puccini's 100-year-old opera La Bohème into modern day Bohemia (19th-century Paris's Left Bank becomes late-20th-century New York's East Village where the scourge of tuberculosis becomes the plague of AIDS) Rent celebrates life among the young, sick, and unconventional. While Broadway shows are hardly the place for authentic portrayals of the latest marginalized hipsters, composer Jonathan Larson (who died at age 36, days before his musical opened) managed to sculpt vivid characters and scenes that bring Avenue A as close as it will ever come to 42nd Street. And by telling a socially relevant story of living without the guarantee of a future (renting, that is), Larson does his own little bit to define an X'ed generation. At worst, Rent is the Hair of the '90s.
For the majority of us who won't be seeing Rent anytime soon, the Original Cast Recording is more than just an after-show souvenir. Well-packaged with a complete libretto, the two-CD set is a worthwhile album separate of live performance. Full of songs that are funny and catchy, inspiring and touching, smart and hip and not overly sentimental, Rent mixes showtune pop with elements of rock, R&B, dance, gospel, and tango to make one of the best albums of the year--certainly the best rock opera in decades. La vie bohème, indeed. --Roni Sarig
Disc 1:
- Tune up #1
- Voice Mail #1
- Tune up #2
- Rent
- You Okay Honey?
- Tune up #3
- One Song Glory
- Light My Candle
- Voice Mail #2
- Today 4 U - Stevie Wonder, Cast
- You'll See
- Tango: Maureen
- Life Support
- Out Tonight
- Another Day
- Will I?
- On the Street
- Santa Fe
- I'll Cover You
- We're Okay
- Christmas Bells
- Over the Moon
- Vie Boheme
- I Should Tell You
- Vie Boheme B
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- Music » Refinements » Format (binding) » CD » CD Album
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Greta CD!!
I purchased this CD after seeing a high school drama club's performance of this play. I loved the music, and I had to have the CD!!! The seller said it was "Like new"... and it was!!! Still in the jewel case. No problems whatsoever! Now I can listen to this music whenever I want! Thank you!
Rating: - no day but today
i relive the play every time i listen to this CD. when i discovered RENT i heard what i always believed - that life is precious and everything is RENT! no day but today . . .
Rating: - My Season of Listening Brilliance!!
When I bought This CD I did not know hardly anything about this brilliant musical wonder. I soon became hooked on it't magic. I think that I listened to this CD every day for a year. Driving to work. Driving home. On the way to visit friends and family, I had this CD playing. I had all of the words to each song memorized. I sang each song at the top of my range!! Then came the day when I was asked by a co-worker if I would like to see RENT on stage, at the Ammison theater.I remember that I was mesmerized ... Read More
Rating: - Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)
All of the exhilarating music written by Jonathan Larson for this amazing musical is captured on these two CDs, which come with a complete lyric book. The performances are simply astounding. This CD set is a must-have for any fan of RENT!
Rating: 
- Rent: The original cast recording
I received the cd in a timely matter, however there are a few songs I can not listen to because of bad scratches on the cd.
- Greta CD!!I purchased this CD after seeing a high school drama club's performance of this play. I loved the music, and I had to have the CD!!! The seller said it was "Like new"... and it was!!! Still in the jewel case. No problems whatsoever! Now I can listen to this music whenever I want! Thank you!
- no day but todayi relive the play every time i listen to this CD. when i discovered RENT i heard what i always believed - that life is precious and everything is RENT! no day but today . . .
- My Season of Listening Brilliance!!When I bought This CD I did not know hardly anything about this brilliant musical wonder. I soon became hooked on it't magic. I think that I listened to this CD every day for a year. Driving to work. Driving home. On the way to visit friends and family, I had this CD playing. I had all of the words to each song memorized. I sang each song at the top of my range!! Then came the day when I was asked by a co-worker if I would like to see RENT on stage, at the Ammison theater.I remember that I was mesmerized ... Read More
- Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)All of the exhilarating music written by Jonathan Larson for this amazing musical is captured on these two CDs, which come with a complete lyric book. The performances are simply astounding. This CD set is a must-have for any fan of RENT!
- Rent: The original cast recordingI received the cd in a timely matter, however there are a few songs I can not listen to because of bad scratches on the cd.
