17 ways RENT lied to you

[tazber]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 3:25pm

Cute

[xoffender45]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 3:46pm

Ugh. I hate Buzzfeed.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 3:56pm

I knew they were lying!! I want my $20 back.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 4:15pm

Love. It.

Posted: 9/21/13 at 4:25pm

Ugh. I hate RENT.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 4:51pm

I hope nobody really needs this article to tell them that Rent is a bunch of crap. It's like Jerry Seinfeld's joke about the Superman costume that says, "Do not attempt to fly."

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:03pm

"I hope nobody really needs this article to tell them that Rent is a bunch of crap."

A bunch of crap that boosted the profile of New York Theatre Workshop, made some people a boatload of money and enhanced the careers of some of the people associated with it.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:05pm

"Crap" is subjective. To you, those three points refute the opinion that it's a "bunch of crap." To me, I agree that it's "crap." It's an overrated, cliche ridden musical that garnered massive popularity because of Jonathan's death.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:08pm

I get that they didn't have a lot of GIF from the musical, but showing them from the movie made me sad. The movie was absolutely awful. Watching the DVD of the last show on Broadway is always fantastic, though.

Rent won four Tony Awards and still plays today all over the world. It made musicals cool for young people and was the only modern musical playing on Broadway for years. Plus, they were the first show to offer 20 dollar seats. Other Broadway shows have followed that example to make Broadway theater accessible to people who would otherwise be unable to afford the ticket price. Who wouldn't like all of that? The show, and everything that came with it, was incredible.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:10pm

"A bunch of crap that boosted the profile of New York Theatre Workshop, made some people a boatload of money and enhanced the careers of some of the people associated with it."

Exactly!

[Hongus]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:16pm

its a musical stupid

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:24pm

And if Larson hadn't died, the musical would have never seen the bright lights of Broadway.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:27pm

They forgot to mention that by using the rewired ATM at the Food Emporium, the camera would tell police exactly who is stealing all of that money and the whole gang probably still be in prison.

La Vie Boheme!

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:30pm

"its a musical stupid." It sure was. It makes you appreciate the musical smart all the more.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:47pm

I like the musical stupid.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:55pm

"And if Larson hadn't died, the musical would have never seen the bright lights of Broadway."

If you believe that, I honestly don't know what you're doing with your life. Like most off Broadway shows that become hugely popular, have overwhelming demand for tickets, and simply need a bigger venue, the show transferred to Broadway. I would love to think art won over commercialism here, but it didn't. They knew it would make tons of money, which is did. His death had nothing to do with it considering they had already made the decision to transfer when he died.

Good one, though.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 5:59pm

Well, that's one opinion. The other (widely accepted) one is that if Larson hadn't passed away, the show never would have hit the nerve it hit with people. And it's entirely possible that that's true.

So I honestly don't know what you're doing with your life, either.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 6:43pm

It resonated with audiences long before he died. So, yeah no.

It was a great show, which is why it won awards and ran for a very long time. His death was shocking, but that's not why people saw it for years and years and years afterwards.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 6:53pm

"It resonated with audiences long before he died. So, yeah no."

Seeing as he passed in Jan of 1996, you are patently incorrect. Unless, of course, you're referring to the three-week workshop in 1994. Clearly, that means it 'resonated with audiences long before he died.'

So I ask... Were you there for that workshop? Do you know what "resonated" and what didn't? And, if so, could you also tell me how many people were in attendance for that workshop? Thanks.

[Kad]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 7:13pm

I totally never noticed that they ordered all vegetarian food during "La Vie Boheme."

I hate them.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 7:15pm

The life and tragic death of Jonathan Larson is a now-legendary "What If?" in Broadway history... what if Jonathan Larson had lived to see RENT open?

The show certainly wouldn't have drawn as much initial attention. Would it have eventually gained attention on the strengths of merits? Would it have been remembered for its run and live on in small regional productions? Would it transfer uptown but be found too big for its britches and not last long as many have since? There are so many possible ways the show could have gone, what actually played out is almost indisputably the best-case scenario for the show's reception. Short of actually curing the world of AIDS somehow, RENT got to live out every possible dream a show could have.

Of course, the other side of the "What If?" coin is... what would Larson have done with it between transfers, and what would Larson have written after it? Even more than focusing on the unwinnable debate about RENT's alternate paths had Larson lived, I prefer to mourn for what could have been to come had he had more time to write.

That said, I love BuzzFeed sometimes and Alyssa Rosenberg was tweeting last night about RENT as they wrote this listicle. Her tweets tore the story's plotholes to shreds and were hilarious. The show works in its moment as a powerful and propulsive piece, but man in the light of day the story evaporates into a cloud of illogic.

[anmiller07]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 7:17pm

I truly love RENT. It was my first musical, and it's very dear to me. Having said that, Larson died the morning of the first preview at NYTW, and I recall seeing interviews/reading articles that the producers and his family were having trouble deciding whether or not Jonathan would have wanted it to transfer at all. So I don't think that decision was made before he died.

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 9:27pm

I don't think you can separate Jonathan Larsons' death from the zeitgeist of the time. In 1996, I was still totally fatigued and raw from all the loss of friends, artists and potential over the previous 10 years. We had lost our closest friend (and my husband's partner before meeting me in '84) to AIDS a few months before. I was sobbing in tears in the theater when we first saw it.

I really think you have to factor-in the cumulative grief over the dimming of a generation's genius into the show's success. I needed the rockin' catharsis. That afternoon was one of my most moving in a theater in my lifetime and I will always be grateful to the work for speaking to me.

Does the show use cheap tricks to manipulate the audience? - sure. (as do many of the greats)
Do parts of the second act fall apart? - yes ..again like many popular shows
Is it derivative? - admittedly
Yet, does it seem revolutionary, but really isn't? - yes (again like many greats)
It's not the worst hit by far, and admittedly not the best. However, it still works onstage and connects with audiences today - and when it was written, it spoke to a great need in the nation.

[sephyr]

Posted: 9/21/13 at 10:25pm

When I first saw the movie (yes, I saw the movie before the stage show) I didn't know that Jonathan died. I just connected to the great songs and touching moments, the show itself. I think it stands apart from his death as a really good show, not perfect, but great and I think it would have been a major hit regardless.

[someone.else's.story2]

Posted: 9/22/13 at 1:29pm

I will always love RENT. It was part of my growing up and it still speaks to me. That said, I know lots of folks who don't like it. I also don't get the extreme hate that some seem to have for it as its not a perfect show, but then how many musicals really are.

Still, I don't get why people who don't "get" it love to bash it so.