The Mark Escay Story
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players

Plot summary : Based on Puccini's 'La Boheme', 'Rent' tells the story of one year in the life of friends living the Bohemian life in modern day East Village, New York City, 1989-1990. Among the group are our narrator, nerdy love-struck filmmaker Mark Cohen (Anthony Rapp); the object of Mark's affection, his former girlfriend, Maureen Johnson (Idina Menzel); Maureen's Harvard-educated public interest lawyer and lesbian lover Joanne Jefferson (Traci Thoms); Mark's roommate, HIV-positive musician and former junkie, Roger Davis (Adam Pascal); Roger's new girlfriend, the HIV-positive drug addicted S&M dancer, Mimi Marquez (Rosario Dawson); their former roommate, HIV-positive computer genius Tom Collins (Jesse L. Martin); Collins' HIV-positive drag queen street musician/lover Angel (Wilson Jermain Heredia); and Benjamin Coffin III (Taye Diggs) a former member of the group who married for money and has since become their landlord and the opposite of everything they stand for. Shows how much changes or doesn't change in the 525,600 minutes that make up a year.

My Opinion: Rent a powerful story of everyday life of lower new yorkers trying to make their dreams come true. At the same time just trying to get past a day. The script is nothing special but what hits me the most is the music. In this musical it's not the script and the plot driving the story, it's the music. All types of stories are told in this musicale's music from not paying rent to measuring a year. I give this a perfect 5 because of the music that tells the story rather than a script.