Why Rent feels so outdated 20 years after its debut

Great article!

Thanks for this, TMC-4. I agree with the article. Rent is always going to be a very good 1990s time capsule, but it doesn't speak across generations and eras. I am trying to think of which musicals do. I suppose Les Miz, Cabaret, Sound of Music, and probably Hamilton. Anyone else have an opinion?

Also, I agree with the author that the rock songs are not memorable. The songs that stand out are the fairly traditional ones like "Seasons of Love," "Another Day," the Maureen tango, and "La Vie Boheme." I will always love this musical, and yes the live show is way better than the movie, but it is just very good, not great.

There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people. – G.K. Chesterton

Wonderful article and great information, but I still disagree with it.

As someone who is a part of the LGBT community and someone who experienced a lot of what the film expresses, even though I was born in the late 80s, I feel that this film expresses a level of acceptance that we have since ignored after the strangle hold that is social media. Perhaps I am strangle-holding the past, but this film and the Broadway edition still cause me to break down into a blubbering mess and remind me as to why I still fight for equality.

Perhaps the youth of today are too busy with the latest "yep...stole your money" gadget to pay attention. I do not have any hope or repect for anyone 18 or younger since 2014. The generation is *beep*

And yet...this film and its meaning are still amazing.

Well, it's certainly not of Joss Whedon's "Once More, With Feeling" caliber, but it's not bad.

I disagree about the music. The music is why I like this musical. I'll also disagree with the arguments in the article but also say that I agree with the idea that RENT is dated.

I don't think that tackling a time specific topic ages a story. Lots of stories tackle moments in history. Rent's problem is that it doesn't address that moment in time well. RENT isn't about the AIDS crisis so much as it's set during the AIDS crisis and many of the characters have AIDS. That's it. The musical never delves into issues that made AIDS a pandemic: high price of drugs, the open hostility and fear towards people with AIDS, those in power either ignoring those suffering or obstructing those trying to help. The musical is aging because while audiences watching RENT on Braodway in the 1990s would have remembered the horrific events of the 1980s AIDS crisis, younger audiences won't remember those moments. And the musical doesn't do anything to educate them. It's more, "Oh, look, these people are sick. Isn't that sad?"

Les Miz is also period specific but it actually shows the audience what life was like for the people of Paris during that time long before the barricades are erected.

Another reason RENT is aging is because it relies on whiny middle, upper middle and upper class 20 year olds to create this story of woe. The obvious exception, of course, is Angel.

Angel is the embodiment of what the musical wants to be. She is the forgotten AIDS victim. She doesn't have a loving, supportive family. She was alone on Christmas Eve and would have spent Christmas Day alone except for Life Support if she hadn't met Collins. She doesn't appear to have access to AZT. Her funeral is sparsely attended and paid for by someone who really didn't know her. If Benny hadn't stepped up, Angel would have been buried in a pauper's grave.

The rest of the characters are poor by choice. This is why the stories also fails as a story on poverty. Mark, Roger, Mimi, Joanne, and Maureen have supportive, loving families. We hear from Mark, Roger and Mimi's parents during the stage production and see Joanne and Maureen's families in the film. Collins is an educated man who had a job at MIT and once traveled to Greece (ran naked through the Parthenon). Roger and Mimi have access to and take AZT. According to the always accurate wikipedia (sarcasm), in 1989 AZT would have been anywhere from $6,400 to $10,000 per year. Roger doesn't work and Mimi works as a low end dancer. There's no way they could afford to drop $500-$900 per month on one medication. Someone (probably parents) is paying for it.

Personally, I really enjoy RENT but I do agree that it is aging and it might not be as accessible to younger millennials as it was to Gen X and older millennials.

To love another person is to see the face of God! - Les Miserables

Yes, certain parts of Rent are of the times, the treatment of AIDS and the bohemian milieu depicted, but the messages
of love and living for today are timeless. La Boheme, the opera, was of its time, but is considered a classic. And I agree
that the best songs are not rock songs but theater songs.