I know I'm probably 10 years late but I love the musical Rent, It changed my life. First, I'm going to tell you the times I was exposed to this musical. I think the first time, or probably for a lot of of people is listening to Seasons of Love. The second time was when I had seen someone on instagram dancing to La Vie Boheme and I was pretty interested about the song. Over time, I would listen to the same Act 2 opening over and over. The third time was one of the Ham4Ham videos posted online when Renee, who played Mimi in the last Rent production of 2008, sung Out Tonight with two other cast members in harmony with ending with them yelling Work! At the end of the song. I would only watch bits and pieces of the musical online with Renee in it, but that's about it.
My love of Rent started when I was watching Lin Manuel's Ham4Ham video with him and Adam Pascal singing What You Own. I loved the song and the harmonies which lead me to search up the movie version of the song. I really enjoyed the song and later had an interest of the other movie versions of the songs. Over time, I just kept listening to two of the songs of the movie soundtrack, "Seasons of Love," and "What You Own" . A few months later, I discovered the Rent OBC track and listened to it, just so I can listen to something other than the Hamilton stuff.
After adding some commentary to the songs I wasn't really sure of and enjoying most of the songs, I decided to download the OBC album and I instantly fell in love with the whole thing over time. When I like something, I usually surf the internet for everything of my topic of interest, basically going on a marathon of some sort. I did the same with Rent. I watched every movie clip, the 2008 movie and every video of the original cast of Rent Youtube has to offer. The thing that shocked me is that I didn't know that Tracie Thoms had played Joanne in the movie, the last performances and the one at the Hollywood Bowl. And later on, I fell in love with Tracie and her portrayal of Joanne. So that's my story, Thank you Jonathan Larson :)
