A friend dragged me to that play back in the 90’s. A steaming pile of self-pitying tripe, wherein the characters all lamented their awful lot in life, while very deliberately ignoring how their own “choices” and “lifestyles” got them there. Worst show I’ve ever seen.
Team America’s version pretty much summed it up.
Thanks for this nugget. I wouldn’t have known about Rent if you hadn’t posted about it.
RENT was a HORRIBLE play/musical...
the tunes were catchy.. but the story and plot etc were absolute garbage....
It won awards because of its subject matter, nothing else...
Literally in a year or whatever the time frame of the entire play was supposed to be, not a SINGLE CHARACTER.. NOT ONE... had ANY growth... they were all the exact same as they were at the start of the play... What kind of storytelling is that? CRAPTASTICALLY AWEFUL, THAT’S WHAT...
I sadly sat through the film version of this crap fest back when they made the film, because someone else in my house wanted to watch it... I have no problem with the subject matter, yes the AIDS epidemic at its peak was devastating. Living with it was not easy.. so I have no issue you want to tell story involving people who’s lifestyles I disagree with.. But it was JUST TERRIBLE STORYTELLING, PERIOD.
You want to have a big musical number celebrating the fact you are a hedonist? Fine, you are a hedonist... but refusing to accept that hedonism contributes to your troubles? That’s mental illness.
Anyway, I am sure the cast did fine, but its just not a good story, period... the subject matter will indeed keep some from watching, but even so I am not surprised it got no audience, RENT just is bad storytelling.
Rent?
Is this a documentary on the best political party of all time:
The Rent is too damn high Party!
Nope, it stunk. Completely un-watchable.
Wife was watching another live musical a couple of years back, don't remember what it was. I watched for about 5 minutes and walked out of the room.
Haven't looked at one since. Looks like I'm not the only one.
525,600 viewers
The suits at ABC must laugh every time they see the numbers for “America’s Funniest Videos.” The show is dirt-cheap to produce (especially since Tom Bergeron gave up hosting duties), and matches or exceeds ratings for more expensive shows on the other networks. Wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the production budget for Fox’s production of “Rent” was higher than the entire season of AFV. And I’d guess the weekly fest of cat videos and suburbanites getting hit in the crotch was far more entertaining than “Rent.”
I like Rent for the fact I didn’t take my wife to another Broadway Show for 20 years. It was so awful it turned her off from that type of entertainment for 2 decades.
There are very few musicals or plays that I don’t like.
RENT ... I want my life back.
The Pro Bowl may have been a factor also.
-PJ
The show is nowhere near as popular as it used to be.
I caught part of one of my favorite musicals, “Bye Bye Birdie” the other night. Ann-Margaret was to die for back then!