Rent, Rent, Rent!!!

In my short life I have been witness to many amazing theatrical performances - Stones in his pockets, Ruy Blas and The Complete History of America Abridged. While I am no dramaturg, Rent with all of it's energy by far dwarfed any of them manifold.

Last night, my b-fri and I went to go see it with a couple of our friends. Our seats were in the first section after the primo seats, some call these seats the not so primo seats, but I prefer my term. Yeah, we had to squint in order to make out the facial expressions of all but the most overly made-up cast members and yes, sometimes the sound was a bit gargley - but it was breathtaking none the less.

(Soliloquy - After our roadtrip to Colorado, Dana and I didn't really need to hear the words clearly - we listened to the sound track dozens of times on the 20 some hours we spent on the road going to and from Denver. So they are pretty much ingrained in our collective mind)

This would certainly have been enough to make me happy, but then something miraculous occured. We discovered that the box office sells pit tickets by lottery the day of each performance. Today, after work Dana, another friend, and I sojourned to Rose State to acquire the coveted tickets. There would have been more of a caravan, but our friends from work declined our invitations because they had previous engagements and parental responsibilities. It is hard to be spontanious and prudent at the same time, but I digress, back to the matter at hand. My friends and I were three of the lucky 20 people to get to sit in the pit for Rent's final performance at Rose State's Performing Arts Theater.

These pit seats were beyond words. We were so close that we could see and hear everything with a crispness and clarity that makes high-definition seem obsolete. Even from afar, on the first night the beauty and power of each song was revived in my mind, but our proximety to the performance tonight will certainly cement each one indelibly into my soul. I had almost forgotten the depth and beauty of Rent's meaning. It's message is so positive and amazing, even if the delivery is morbidly depressing. The tolerance and unconditional love in the face of unbearble adversity that it depicts is certainly admirable. Suffice it to say - Rent is beautiful and if you let it, it will change your life, if not at least how you view the world.