Rent is Due: Part 3

I’ve saved the best for last today! Idina Menzel’s and Taye Diggs’s characters couldn’t have spent less stage time together in the play, but something sparked in real-life and they have been married for the last 5 years. Maureen and Benjamin are certainly an unlikely pair, but there’s something cute about a Broadway family.

Idina Menzel (Maureen Johnson) Maureen had the show stopper (and my least favorite song in the show, “Over the Moon”) as the diva, who is also torn between Joanne and Mark. Menzel’s voice was no doubt spectacular, even in such a goofy song. I also had a chance to see her on Broadway in her Tony winning role in Wicked, where she rocked the house as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. In addition to her film work (Enchanted, most recently), she released her third solo album this year, I Stand. I’ve heard her perform on the morning shows and the songs are a little too cheeseball for even me, but I know there are Rentheads out there who will eat it up..

Taye Diggs (Benjamin Coffin III ) Diggs’s career goes without saying. He went from his role in Rent as Benny, the pain-in-the-ass landlord, to helping Stella get her groove back , to dozens of short-lived TV series (Day Break or Kevin Hill, anyone?). Lately, he’s co-starring on Private Practice, the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off. I don’t think this one’s gonna stick either, but he certainly has the longest resume of the group and is probably closest to being a household name.

Life Café I can’t end this post without giving a nod to the 9th character in the play, the Life Café. This is in fact a real place in the East Village which has gone from gritty neighborhood joint to tourist attraction (no doubt helped by the changing landscape of the neighborhood since 1996). You can get Soy Burgers (“And Fries!”) but alas, no Miso Soup, Seaweed Salad, Tofu Dog Platter, or Pasta with Meatless Balls (“they taste the same”). I received an email yesterday from the official rent site http://www.siteforrent.com/, inviting me to make my pilgrimage to the Life Café, where they have “dedicated the beautiful mahogany bench in the Life Cafe dining room to Jonathan Larson where he often sat while researching for and writing RENT.” So. Rentheads, even though the show will close, we’ll always have the Life Café. Play it again, Angel . . .