The Fading Effectiveness of RENT

[SkierRob02]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 3:32pm

I'm just wondering for those out there around my age (29) if your feelings about RENT have changed from when you first saw it?

It was 1996 when I first saw RENT. I was 20. I was finally accepting my sexuality, I just experienced love for the first time, I wanted to be some sort of revolutionary, I was an "artist" and ready to face the world, etc....Basically, I had the "I'm gonna do my thing and change the world" attitude that most people my age had at the time, a typical GenXer.

The first time I saw RENT, I was mesmorized, captivated, moved; I felt as if MY life was being portrayed up on that very stage. It hit me so hard. It affected me so much. From that first moment, I was hooked; i was an official RENT-head. I used to camp out just to get those 2 first row tickets, I used to play the CD over and over and over. I identified with some of the characters. In the first 2 years I saw it a whopping 26 times. After that, it kind of lessend and I wasn't totally addicted any longer. I would see it here and there with Newbies, etc...

This summer a bunch of friends and I decided to go and see it again. I found myself a bit disappointed. The spark was gone, the magic was gone. I wasn't sure why. Now I think about it, I think I've figured out why it's changed for me...

Since 1996, my life changed so much. I learned to live as an OUT, PROUD, GAY man, I found a career, I've matured, learned and experienced a lot in life. I'm not trying to sound pretentious or anything; I'm analyzing myself not others. I think that through this growing period, I've accepted that the Bohemian ideals that were conveyed no longer fit in where I am in life. AIDS, addictions, love lost, new love, I've experience these very things either personally or through others. I think through my experiences with these issues that I am somehow jaded. It took away the idealistic view that I had towards RENT. People don't "come back from the dead" when suffering with AIDS (as did MIMI), addiction isn't this light issue that sort of looms over people....I guess what I'm trying to say is that these issues are much more dark in real life. They are more disturbing and serious.

I am ALWAYS going to be a fan of the musical. I will always love the music, but just so much of the initial spark has dwindled. I will still carry the philosophy of "No day but today", and will still have those very happy, safe, identifying moments to keep as my own. I will be there opening day to see the film. I will never get back those days if idealism and revolution again.

Thanks for reading.

[Kringas]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:26pm

I'm with you. In almost every Rent thread, I wind up touching on this subject. I'm a little older than you (31), but had a very similar experience with the show.

I think age has something to do with it, and the new experiences and wisdom that come with it. I've always found that when I'm watching the show I still enjoy it, it's when I'm removed from it that I start examining the issues raised and mixed messages presented within it.

I'm really looking forward to the movie, but I think, for me, a lot of that is nostalgia.

[SkierRob02]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:36pm

Not that much older...Going to be 30 next month...Holding onto 29 for as long as possible.

"I'm really looking forward to the movie, but I think, for me, a lot of that is nostalgia."

Same here.

[Steeler Jim]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:39pm

I'm 40. And a happily-married heterosexual with no real problems outside of day-to-day annoyances -- and Rent has the same effect on me now as the day I first saw it on stage in 1996.

It's the music that does it for me. It's timeless. The story is the most important thing to others and I understand that.

But - the music will always be with me. That's why I really couldn't care less if the movie "sucks" on some levels, because I'm going with the express intent to sing along with EVERY song (quietly, of course, as to not offend the other patrons in the theater)....

Updated On: 11/14/05 at 04:39 PM

[Kringas]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:43pm

One thing that sticks out (now that I am firmly ensconced in adulthood) is the jaw-dropping sense of entitlement that radiates from the title song. Sure, Benny reneged on a promise, but these are all grown people. Life ain't free and he does have a right to demand the rent. Go squat somewhere else, if it's that big of an issue.

[Marquise]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:44pm

It's nostalgia for me also. But it still gets me. When RENT premiered at NYTW in Feb of 1996 I was already living in a squat on East 11th with a co-worker. It takes me back to the days that the East Vill was my playground and my home. There will always be a connection. It's like a part of me and my generation.

[PoisonedRose]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:49pm

beautiful posts. i always wondered if rent seemed like that once people moved up and out of their angsty twenties.

[Kringas]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:50pm

It's nostalgia for me also. But it still gets me.

It still gets me, too. I have no doubts that I'll be crying like a baby during it next Wednesday. For me and so many of my friends, Rent was this enormously life-changing experience. Perhaps that was just youth (or more specifically, what sort of youth I was), but the fact remains that it still has a hold on me, despite the problems I have with the material.

[kasim]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:55pm

i just turned 30 in august and saw rent for the first time this March :)

So it has had the same effect on me it did then :)

[Behind_the_Spotlight]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 4:58pm

I'm 18 years old (19 on thursday) and I know kind of what you're saying. When I think about it, it does seem a little more idealistic than is realistic. But when I'm listening to it, whether it's the OBCR or the soundtrack, there's this immediacy and urgency that I can't help but being absorbed in. If nothing else, it always makes me feel so alive and inspired when I listen to it.

Kringas: I felt the same way when I heard it for the first few times... but that was before I realized Benny had told them they didn't have to pay. I think the song is less about entitlement and more about frustration that their friend would go back on his promise like he did. I have to say, if a friend of mine was letting me stay someplace for free, I'd be really upset if he suddenly changed his mind. But's there's more to it than that. Like they say, "How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray." On the surface it's about being evicted, but it's really about trying to figure out how to deal with life's betrayals and disappointments.

[robbiej]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 5:07pm

Even at 22 and fresh out of college, I was like, 'Wait...you can't pay rent? GET A JOB!!!!'

I've actually only seen the show once. And that was with the original cast. I kind of knew the flaws of the show at the time, but was so thrilled by the energy and commitment or the cast (especially Rubin-Vega...GOOD GOD DAMN was she brilliant!), that I felt I shouldn't delve too far and destroy that memory by seeing it again and further analyzing it. To my surprise, the cast album really held up well, thrilling me all over again. I think the show was best when it reached far musically (the St. Mark's sequence is still a wonder).

But more than being a 'great show', RENT will always be a time in my life. I'll never forget getting up at 4 in the morning to go wait on that insanely long line for the first open call since RENT's opening. I sat there (number 30, thank you very much) and smoked cigarettes and chatted with cute boys and college friends and mocked the first people in line who were showing off their favorite yoga poses. I'll never forget getting a call-back (my first for a Broadway show) and preparing like a madman for it. It was a remarkable time in my life and that, more than the story, will be brought up when I see the film. And I'll be glad...even if the film isn't great...to remember that time of my life.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 5:11pm

I think Rent was a more tight show than it is now as well. I saw it a couple of years ago, and found that the magic that was once there with the original cast was gone in a sense.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 5:21pm

I see the flaws of the piece more clearly now then I did at 18. But I think its definitely a musical that speaks to young audiences (notice how most of the people who on here who are self declared RENTheads were barely out of grammer school when the show first opened).

And that is clearly the target audience for the new film version.

[SkierRob02]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 6:22pm

"there's this immediacy and urgency that I can't help but being absorbed in" - Behind_The_Spotlight

Well said...Maybe that's what I'm referring to. As you get older the "urgency" that was once there disappears. Not just with RENT, but life in general.

[xrent_headx]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 6:35pm

that SkierRob02 was a very heart-touching story...Thank you for sharing

[ashley0139]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 6:36pm

I'm a little younger (18 ) but I can understand where you're coming from. And while right now I feel like that pertains to me so much and it still completely effects me, I can understand that in a few years I might not still feel the same way. However, no matter what the setting for the show (NYC, AIDS, drugs, poverty, etc.), the themes are universal and the message will never change or become dated. Whether they're paying their rent or not, the show is about love. It's about dealing with death and becoming a family and dealing with stuff. It's about living each day to the fullest. While I may not relate specifically to the story, I don't think that the effect it has on me in that way will ever go away. Just my 2 cents.

Updated On: 11/14/05 at 06:36 PM

[temms]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 6:59pm

I'm with you. I'm 30, managed to see it at NYTW on a fluke while visiting NYC on Spring Break my senior year of college, and it was a profound experience. I was about to set out into the world, planned to come to New York and work in the theatre, and vaguely knew the Jonathan Larson story. It was the first show that really reflected a vision of the life I wanted - not the disease and the addiction, of course, but just the fact that even with disease and addiction, you can still find a community of people who love you and accept you and strive for the same art-vs-commerce goals you do. And the score, of course.

I saw the trailer for the film a few months back (the first "Seasons of Love" one) and wept openly. I remembered what it was like back then when everything was ahead of me, and thought about how far I'd come. I eventually moved to the East Village (I'm in Brooklyn, now), started being a theatre composer in a crumbling building with drummers and music producers and all of us making noise all hours of the day and night, made friends of all kinds of backgrounds and ethnicities that I never encountered growing up in the midwest.

I see the show's faults, now, and it will probably never speak to me again the way it did when I was contemplating what my life would be and saw in the show the possibilities of a new life that I desperately wanted, all set to a spectacular score. If I saw it today for the first time, I'd probably be far too jaded and critical to care too much. But it's a milestone in my theatregoing life (with "Falsettoland" and "Angels in America" before it, "Hedwig" after, and I'm still kind of waiting for the next one) that I will probably always love, because the innocence of the show reflected exactly where I was at that point in time.

[SkierRob02]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 9:33pm

"If I saw it today for the first time, I'd probably be far too jaded and critical to care too much. But it's a milestone in my theatregoing life" -- temms

Perfectly stated. You perfectly stated in these few words what I was trying to convey....THANK YOU!!

[kas]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 9:47pm

yay! there's older people on here! i'm 30 as well, and i will always love the musical and the people, but we grow farther and farther away from the base material as we go through life. your 20's are all about experimenting with your future and who you think you are vs. should be. hopefully, at 30 i am in a better place, so we are stepping away from the angst that drives rent. i will always find the material exciting and accessible - i was in acting school when it premiered and went all teh time - but you naturally move on. and a side-bar - when i chime in with other younger people on here about silly things like adam pascal is hot, etc - i feel retarded. :) soooo nice to know that tehre are older people who are still fans.

[Fizz]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 9:54pm

I'm only 17, but I can see where you are all coming from. Its a universal message, one that can apply to both the young and old, but yes, it is a little... I can't quite find the word, but its not exactly how things happen in real life.

Of course, I'm always the optimist and still a young one, so it still inspires me greatly. Although I too have wondered just how hard it is to get a job. C'mon, lazy asses, get off your artsy butts and get a job like I did.

[SkierRob02]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 10:00pm

Yep...Here's to the older (OMG did I say that) theater fans....BOO YA!!!!!!!

[TennesseeTwang]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 11:32pm

You are all correct. The message is indeed timeless and universal. But as you grow older, the method of delivery of that message is no longer as convincing as it once was.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 11:33pm

I think this thread is semi-rediculous.

So, now that the movie is coming out, people feel the need to belittle show at every chance they get?

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 11:35pm

*sigh* munk, I'm afraid it's going to be hard to take you seriously.

And it's ridiculous. Not rediculous.

[Kringas]

Posted: 11/14/05 at 11:36pm

I don't see much belittling or ridiculousness. I see a thread where people are talking about how tastes change and ideals bend with time.

I always qualify my Rent rants with the fact that the show still gets me every time. Loving something doesn't mean you can't see its flaws.