Readers Rally Around Play’s Approach to AIDS

The Times received approximately 35 letters objecting to Dr. Alice Glasser’s Oct. 13 Counterpunch on “Rent.” Here’s a sampling:

Rather than having a “cavalier approach” to the spread of AIDS in America, I felt Jonathan Larson had a deep sadness concerning the fate of many of his characters, much as Puccini had dealing with the prevalence of tuberculosis in Paris in the mid-19th century.

LYNN MORGAN, Vice President

Feature Production, Warner Bros.

Nowhere in “Rent” is the spread of AIDS treated as a glorious, rebellious act. Nowhere is it implied that it’s “no big deal to spread a fatal disease.” Perhaps Glasser misunderstands one of “Rent’s” tenets that I strongly stand behind: that all people, even those with a fatal disease, have a right to love and be loved.

Let me assure Glasser that Jonathan Larson, the composer-writer of “Rent,” and all of us who have contributed to the creation of “Rent” understand the gravity and heartache of her job as medical director. We have either received those positive lab slips that she handed out or love/loved someone who did.

MICHAEL GREIF

Director of “Rent”

The show emphasizes how important it is to not sit and be remorseful over having AIDS when you can live in the present. Sex is not taken casually, and as the show progresses, the audience sees the development of the relationships between friends and lovers grow and how they deal with losing a loved one to AIDS.

CATIE A. THARP

Orange

Perhaps the most telling detail in Alice Glasser’s article is her disclosure that she once worked in a clinic where she had to give people the results of their HIV tests. She states, “As a caring and compassionate person, I could not divorce myself from this pain, and that is why today I have another job.” Clearly, she could and did divorce herself from the pain by simply switching jobs.

Those of us “living with, not dying from disease” (a quote from “Rent”) truly cannot divorce ourselves from this pain--and we are also caring and compassionate people. We have as much right as anyone to find love and compassion.

I have a deep awareness of how fortunate I am to be beating the terrible odds of AIDS. Though I am saddened by the devastating losses of so many dear friends, I am able to fully live my life for today. That is what Jonathan Larson captures passionately in “Rent.”

MICHAEL SUGAR

North Hollywood

Obviously, my reaction to “Rent” was much different from Glasser’s. I saw the show in New York, just after it won the Tony, and I was caught up in its celebration of life, and its message that love can give our lives meaning in spite of the senselessness of AIDS. I thought of the many close friends and loved ones that have been lost to this epidemic and felt that somehow they had been remembered and honored by this incredible musical.

“Rent” deals with a deadly serious subject in a way that inspires joy and tears and contemplation, all very positive prescriptions in the age of AIDS.

PAMELA EZELL

Los Angeles

“Rent” deals with HIV and AIDS as part of the lives of these people, and to say or write that “their attitude is that it’s no big deal to spread a fatal disease” is just not true. There is nothing casual about how “Rent” deals with AIDS; the message is that AIDS is serious and that people with AIDS should be treated with compassion.

DAVID NOVAK

Santa Monica

Obviously, Glasser’s concern that we face HIV and AIDS responsibly is valid and important. But I wish she had looked and listened a little harder to what “Rent” is really about before making such a stinging accusation.

DAVID ARNAY

Member of the “Rent” band

“Rent” was inspired by some of Jonathan’s friends dying of AIDS, and his message is not “sex for death,” it is “measure your life in love.” That’s why the play received the Pulitzer Prize and why we still get mail from people saying, “Thanks for reminding me to live.”

KENNA RAMSEY

Cast member, “Rent”