The Fading Effectiveness of RENT

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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 :)

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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.

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

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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?

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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.

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