Last night I went to see “Rent” for the seventh time. Yes, the seventh time. I’m psychotic, I know. But lemme see if I can explain it. When I first got the soundtrack in ’96, it was solely because my roommate Liz and I had seen Adam Pascal performing on Rosie O’Donnell. He was brutally hot. We were smitten. Lizzie would come home from class and put “Glory” on repeat (to the point where she almost killed the song for me). By Spring Break ’97, all of our friends knew it by heart. We saw it that March in Boston from the nosebleed section of the balcony. Eight months later we saw it in Chicago from the front of the balcony. The absolute pinnacle, though, was seeing it in London on the very first day of previews in April ’98. We sat in the very first row and got to see four of the original Broadway performers (including Adam Pascal… *swoon*). It was so fantastic we went back to see it again a few days later. By that point I had seen it four times, and I didn’t think any production could possibly top that first night in London. A few months later, though, I found myself in New York and a friend won front row tickets in the standby drawing. Off I went again to see the show in the original theater. It was good, but by this point my interest was definitely on a decline. I didn’t give it a second thought, in fact, until I arrived back in London in October ’99 and discovered that the production was about to close. I snagged one of the few remaining seats for the last day and watched as the cast laughed and cried and said goodbye. It was amazing. You see, “Rent” isn’t about the production for me anymore. It’s about remembering my best friends and how it became something that we owned. So when I heard that a UK tour was starting up, I couldn’t resist. I dragged along my college friend Kel for an evening of nostalgia. We had the best time, clapping and laughing and mooing and screaming. The production itself was reasonably good, but it was more the invoking of the “Rent” ritual and all our memories that we enjoyed. Oh, and Adam Rickitt was pretty cute too. *grin*