A Tribute to Chris Columbus + “Rent”

Anthony Rapp, Idina Menzel, and Tony winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia are among the original Broadway cast that reunite for director Chris Columbus’ vibrant adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical. Inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème, HIV/AIDS replaces tuberculosis as the disease raging in New York’s Alphabet City as 1989 draws to a close. Filmmaker Mark (Rapp) documents his and his friends’ lives, poor bohemians all, as they share their dreams and heartaches. While performance artist Maureen (Menzel) makes shows illuminating the group’s eviction fight with their former friend and landlord Benny (Taye Diggs), HIV-positive couples Angel (Heredia) and Collins (Jesse L. Martin) and Roger (Adam Pascal) and Mimi (Rosaria Dawson) struggle to maintain their health. Columbus reaps big dividends with striking cinematography and production design that vividly evoke the grit and glamour of the era, while the staging and choreography gloriously open the story from its stage-bound roots. There is also a local angle: While set in Manhattan, the film was largely shot in soundstages on Treasure Island and at other Bay Area locations. —Pam Grady

Tribute

Chris Columbus first rose to fame as the screenwriter of two films that went on to become classics, Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985), before making his directing debut with Adventures in Babysitting (1987). His second directorial feature was another classic, Home Alone (1990). Among his other features are Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Nine Months (1995), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Rent (2005), and the upcoming The Thursday Murder Club. Columbus is also a producer whose most recent project was Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024).