Rent Still Relevant

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 5:38pm

http://www.voicesforrent.com/voices/index.html?fuseaction=tools.invlink&k=sR5GXrCFj1sVTAOr

I thought this article discussing the relevancy of RENT was pretty interesting. Be sure to check it out and discuss.

Updated On: 3/27/07 at 05:38 PM

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 6:04pm

Haha, so I edited the link so it works now.

I have to admit, in relation to the article, I definitely thought RENT was out of date, but this article changed my mind about that!

Updated On: 3/27/07 at 06:04 PM

[Heybeenfood]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 6:06pm

Rent will always be relevant, not relevent.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 6:25pm

I have to admit, in relation to the article, I definitely thought RENT was out of date, but this article changed my mind about that!
Interesting that this revelation came from an article linked by Voices For Rent, the officially sponsored website you also happen to be shilling in your signiture.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 6:48pm

I have always thought RENT was more of a Hallmark Card version of the AIDS Crisis. Never cared for the show.

Updated On: 3/27/07 at 06:48 PM

[bjivie2]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 6:52pm

And that's not an article regarding the relevance of RENT, it's a review.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 7:13pm

You just want minutes, don't you?

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 7:35pm

"There's a lesson in the play about how to help people," she said, her voice taking on a serious tone.
"And it talks about AIDS."

After reading the article again, this quote kind of jumped out at me. Will RENT be out of date when AIDS is no longer an issue?

And I know this is a review, but some of the stuff that it said definitely jumped out at me.

Wow, some hostile people on here. What do you guys have against Voices for RENT? Who cares if I want minutes. I'm not spamming the board telling you to join. Just thought you guys might find this article interesting. If I was just doing this for the minutes, then there are 5 other links I could have posted on here, but I didn't think anybody would find them interesting.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 7:44pm

Well I think AIDS is far from being irrelevant. Perhaps its been put on the back burner in terms of awareness, but it's not forgotten.

I think RENT has only lost its relevance because it has been running for so long. It's sort of become a joke, and people have seen many bad productions of it, so I think it has lost its effect in that way, but there will always be high school sophmores who see the show on tour and thing it's the best thing to grace the stage.

[AudreyTwoTwo]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 9:15pm

I think it has lost its effect in that way, but there will always be high school sophmores who see the show on tour and thing it's the best thing to grace the stage.

True that, but I wasn't one of them. lol.

[desiree armfeldt]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 9:23pm

I don't think anything so poignant could be irrelevant. I mean, and to look at it in a larger sphere, AIDS is a crisis that is certainly not going away anywhere in the world. I think RENT will always touch hearts and evoke such responses. Although I've passed that phase of my life in which i would only listen to it, I still think its incredible.

[Broadwayboy2631]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 9:31pm

eh. yes and no.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 3/27/07 at 9:49pm

Agreed Desiree. But I think churning out non-equity tours that miss the heart of the show ruin its image and it make more of a joke, than such a relevant, beautiful piece.

There's also the whole "why don't just pay their rent?" argument.

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 3:56am

I know when I was a big RENThead when I was younger, I definitely thought it was more poignant. But now that I'm older, I tend to forget the big picture and focus on the little things, like why doesn't Mark take the stupid job, and why is everyone so pissed at Benny when he is just trying to defend his job. But nevertheless, I still enjoy RENT, and, you're right, AIDS is definitely an issue. I also find it weird that people focus on the AIDS part when that isn't really what the show is about.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 4:08am

I think it would have more importance if they closed the damn thing already, so we can look back at it for the good things it was, and not the show that was pushed to those embarrasing limits and died in shame...trying to exploit every second of it takes so much away from what it intended to be.

[Parsley]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 4:23am

I like the show but now it has become something of a cliche and says nothing interesting/worthwhile/relevant. Not that a show has to - it can be enjoyable for its own sake and Rent once was. It is just not as earth-shatteringly important as some seem to think it is.

Sadly it has not been helped by some very inferior casting and some very lack-lustre performances.

[Urban]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 5:02am

Personally I don't think RENT was that relevant back in 1996.

I am just don't think it handled the 'issues' well. Then again it was dealing with some heavy handed stuff that even composers with decades with experience would have trouble with.

There where a few moments it might of 'hit' (but for the most part I do think those moments where the parts that where the more whimsical, non-issue centric stuff - ala "Tango: Maureen"), the parts that did deal with some of the heavy stuff left me cold.

Just my two cents at any rate, don't take it personally!!! If it helped you get into musical theatre then it actually does have some other relevance then - as a stepping stone - and that is never bad!

[Kringas]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 9:48am

You find it weird that people focus on AIDS within the show when half the characters are HIV-positive?

To me, Rent really seems like part of a zeitgeist that has passed. It was a big, loud, exciting show that dealt with "real" people and "real" issues (and, of course, had the misfortune/blessing of the loss of its creator as the show was poised to go mainstream.).

I missed the original cast, but I was a Rent-head back in the days of the early replacement casts, which were some really wonderful performers (Marcy Harriell, Jim Poulos, Norbert Leo Butz, etc) but even then the show felt a little dated and its depiction of life (particularly that of the gay characters) often felt a little forced and hollow. I always felt those flaws were glossed over on stage and the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Not having seen it on stage since 2000, I don't know what my reaction would be. I know I didn't have the greatest reaction to the movie, but that had to do more with the execution of the material (as well as the excision of half the music).


As Urban said, it wasn't really all relevant in 1996. It's morbid speculation (but I'm certainly not the first to bring this up), but the success of the show could very well have had much to do with the fact that Larson died so young and so unexpectedly. Perhaps the show would have succeeded either way. Perhaps some sorely needed lyrical and plot revisions would have been made. Perhaps not. Perhaps nothing would have been changed and the show still would have been a runaway success. There's no way to know.

It's wonderful that the show still speaks to generations of (mostly) young people and I don't begrudge anyone anything for that. The show is what it is. I just wouldn't say what is it is is relevant.

Edited to fix a typo

Updated On: 3/28/07 at 09:48 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 10:00am

I distinctly remember a conversation I had with an OBC member in which we discussed the idea that people always focus on AIDS when they talk about Rent, and that Rent has become "that musical about AIDS," kind of like there are token "AIDS plays." And yet... it's not all that accurate. Rent is not about AIDS. It's not about drugs, or problems that were exclusive to that time and that place. It happens to take place there, and it happens to encompass those things, but it's truly about something much, much bigger; it uses them as a vehicle for its bigger ideas. To that end, I think it's hard for it to lose its relevance. There are so many arguments that Rent has become "dated," where people use "dated" to say that it's not relevant or relatable anymore -- saying something is dated is to write it off because the word when used most often is pretty negative. It's period, but things that are period are able to be relevant, often on the basis of the whole idea that history repeats itself, we should learn from the past, etc. I guess for me, saying that it's not relevant anymore, using incarnations of the "AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was back then," etc. is taking it a little bit too literally.

Updated On: 3/28/07 at 10:00 AM

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 10:13am

I completely agree, Emcee.


What, is La Boheme something we can no longer relate to because people don't die of tuberculosis anymore? Is something like A Doll's House no longer relevant?

Rent never was about AIDS, it's about people celebrating life in the face of death, and the struggle to appreciate life when you know you're time is limited. And it's about the artist's struggle to create art but still be a part of life and not remove himself and be a mere observer of it. I'd be shocked if any of those ideas ever become dated and irrelevant.

[Bruce Memblagh!]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 10:22am

Rent may have a hint of relevance about it, in the same way that many musicals could be said to do the same, but that does not make it a good musical, or a musical that says anything profound about anything. Which, I believe, it does not. Certainly not when any message it might be trying to say comes over as forced, unrealistic and garbled.

Rent does has some great songs but some horrible direction, some one dimensional characters for whom it is hard to care, and some poor casting choices over the years. It also has some trite lyrics amid some truly beautiful ones - beautiful ones being in the more simplistic songs such as "Will I...?", and poor ones when Larson was being at his most pretentious.

Still, Rent is rarely less than an interesting show and when it has a strong cast and decent ensemble (which unfortunately seems rare these days) it can still be electrifying.
Updated On: 3/28/07 at 10:22 AM

[Becky]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 11:26am

I think it would have more importance if they closed the damn thing already, so we can look back at it for the good things it was

You're opinion comes from someone who has seen/experienced the show and has something to "look back on". The problem with that is that people are *still* seeing it for the first time and discovering the show....constantly. Not to mention a lot of those people are having the same feelings/emotions you did the first time you saw it. They are just going through it now.

The show opened in my city last night, and there are several co-workers of mine who are desperate to *finally* see it after all these years. We're all seeing it tonight, and it will be the first time for them - as it's the fist time for a lot of people visiting NY.

It's easy to forget that when people have such history with a show....

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 1:39pm

I think another idea to go along with what Becky said is that a lot of people who saw it years and years ago and felt all of these things for it have moved on and grown up -- their lives have changed, in many cases to the degree that they don't see through the same lens anymore. They don't see themselves reflected in these people. It reminds me of many opinions I've seen from original Rentheads who have gone on to work in corporate America and in doing so have become and disillusioned with Rent's themes because they think life has shown them that those themes are not "real." And... when I hear things like that, I think people are placing too much blame on the show for falsified themes and perhaps not enough on the fact that people change, along with their circumstances and perspectives. I think a lot of people fail to realize that the show loses its poignancy for them, and not as an entity -- as a result of who they are (jaded, in some respects?) and not the show's merit. Yes, there are always new sets of people discovering it and feeling whatever they do for it for the first time. Growing up allows you to realize a lot of things about your past. That's what hindsight does. So maybe in a lot of cases, with those kinds of people, I'd probably argue that it's not the show that's become less anything It's you who have changed. You're looking less at a case of "I learned that the world isn't this way," and one more accurately that that's just not how you see it anymore. ("You" editorial, not directing that at anyone in this thread.)

Updated On: 3/28/07 at 01:39 PM

[broadwaybaby086]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 1:49pm

Well said, Becky and emcee.

However, I did recently see the show for the first time on Broadway- after seeing it 6 years ago on tour- and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and actually felt the themes. I went into it completely disenchanted, with a "been there, seen this" kind of attitude, and the show (and cast) surprised me. I'd have to agree that it should stay for a while longer- as long as it still speaks to the viewing public.

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 3/28/07 at 7:40pm

I think another idea to go along with what Becky said is that a lot of people who saw it years and years ago and felt all of these things for it have moved on and grown up -- their lives have changed, in many cases to the degree that they don't see through the same lens anymore. They don't see themselves reflected in these people. It reminds me of many opinions I've seen from original Rentheads who have gone on to work in corporate America and in doing so have become and disillusioned with Rent's themes because they think life has shown them that those themes are not "real." And... when I hear things like that, I think people are placing too much blame on the show for falsified themes and perhaps not enough on the fact that people change, along with their circumstances and perspectives. I think a lot of people fail to realize that the show loses its poignancy for them, and not as an entity -- as a result of who they are (jaded, in some respects?) and not the show's merit. Yes, there are always new sets of people discovering it and feeling whatever they do for it for the first time. Growing up allows you to realize a lot of things about your past. That's what hindsight does. So maybe in a lot of cases, with those kinds of people, I'd probably argue that it's not the show that's become less anything It's you who have changed.

I can't say enough how true this is. I'm only 19, but when I was younger, the story of RENT definitely rang true to me. Now that I'm in college to be an engineer, I feel like the message of RENT no longer applies to me, because I will be joining corporate America and most likely working for the government.