"Are we not counting the movie?"
Well that was originally Chris Columbus' decicion, true they could have declined, but what smart actor wouldn't? A chance to get back with the old gang to film a mainstream Hollywood movie adaptation of the show that changed your life in many ways. You gotta pay the bills, and, well, would you turn it down?
"Or all the PR **** they did around that time?"
PR is pretty much mandatory for mainstream Hollywood releases, it's not like they pulled a Mariah and stormed talk shows unannounced to whore the movie.
"Or the book Anthony put out that basically rides on the coat-tails of RENT?"
What, a guy's not allowed to write a memoir? RENT was a big moment of his career and his personal life. These were the people who worked with Jon, who knew him, who were good friends with him, who helped him build his dream back in NYTW, and Anthony was one of the first. It might not have been a very well written show, but the spirit that Jon had, the influence he made on the cast and the overnight sensation the show became, coupled with the loss of his mom pinpoints a pivitol moment in Anthony's life. Doing the film brought those memories back so, being a writer, he dicided to write an autobigraphy.
I don't know if it's a good book, I haven't read it, but I think where it came from is honest.
I'm not a fanatic Renthead, I enjoy the show, I've really only seen it live once, and I do agree it's been running for too long. But I believe Adam and Anthony are not doing this just to ride the coatails of the show, it was important to them and they made many friends out of it (each other especially), so they want one last chance to commemorate it. Is it a good career move, probably not, would they be better off developing their talent and career by doing something new, definatley. But if they wanna do it...let em, all power to them. Why not let them go back and celebrate for awhile and give people a chance to see the original roles.
You're reminding me of people you hear at the movies asking questions every ten seconds, "Who is that? Why is that guy walking down the street? Who's that lady coming up to him? Uh-oh, why did that car go by? Why is it so dark in this theater?" - FindingNamo on strummergirl
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
(Chess concert 
