Rent is based on Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer and Tony Award winning musical, one of the longest running shows on Broadway. The raw and riveting musical stars Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, and Tracie Thoms, and is directed by Chris Columbus.
 
"Two Thumbs Up."  Ebert & Roeper
"One of the best film musicals in years -- exuberant, sexy and life affirming in equal measure."  Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
"Must see film of the year!"  Paul Clinton, CNN
"A major movie event!"  Pete Hammond, Maxim
"...an epic visual scope and a sensibility that's blissfully free of any generational self-pity."  William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 


Editor's Note

Director Christopher Columbus (MRS. DOUBTFIRE, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE) adapts the hit Broadway musical of the same name to the big screen in RENT. A modern spin on the opera LA BOHEME, RENT tells the story of eight friends dealing with life and love in Manhattan's Alphabet City in 1989. Wannabe filmmaker Mark (Anthony Rapp) and singer/songwriter Roger (Adam Pascal) are facing eviction at the hands of their former roommate and current landlord, Benny (Taye Diggs). Benny has married rich, moved out of the neighborhood, and wants to build a state-of-the-art studio where the local tent city stands. Their downstairs neighbor, vivacious Mimi (Rosario Dawson), who strips at a local club to feed her heroin habit, takes a shine to Roger, a self-imposed recluse and former junkie whose last girlfriend died of AIDS. Their friend, Collins (Jesse L. Martin), returns to town and quickly falls for Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), a glamorous, gracious, HIV positive transvestite. Finally, there is Maureen (Idina Menzel), a spitfire and performance artist who is planning a protest against Benny's plans and has dumped Mark for cerebral Joanne (Tracie Thoms), a lawyer.

Over the course of a year, the friends face poverty, drug addiction, break-ups, reconciliations, eviction, and AIDS. Despite these challenges, they find support, hope, and acceptance in each other, all the while embracing the bohemian lifestyle that was so much a part of the Lower East Side. Newcomers Dawson and Thoms mix seamlessly with the original cast members, and Columbus introduces some interesting staging locations. With a concept, music, and lyrics by the late Jonathan Larson, RENT is an exuberant rock-&-roll musical with the underlying message that love can prevail despite all odds and that, ultimately, there really is no day but today.