Why did Rent flop?

It wasn't terrible, but its main problem was – perhaps unusually – their decision to use the original Broadway cast. Obviously they're all great thespians, but they're also supposed to be playing East Village hipsters in their 20s, and by the time the movie came out, they were all pushing 40 (and unlike the stage, you can only hide so much with makeup).

In general it simply didn't translate well to the screen. For reasons I still don't get, they built a huge "old school East Village" set that weirdly relocated the likes of CBGB onto Avenue A. ("West Side Story" and "In the Heights" thankfully avoided this silliness.) If "Wicked" inspires a bunch of new musical movies, however, I could see something like "Rent" getting a revised film version. (As long as they don't ruin it like they did with "Cats.")

I never liked it - I hate when so much of a piece is stolen from something else, in this case La Boheme. Same as Ms. Saigon - fuck that modern Madame Butterfly.

I lived in the East Village when this was supposed to have taken place, so it just seemed false and overly PC. How is it 4 of the 8 characters have HIV or AIDS?

A lot of people love it, so I'm in the minority.

I hope so.

I liked it. Oddly enough, the two actors who weren't in the original cast were my favorites (Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms). There's a beautiful scene late in the film where members of an AIDS support group slowly fade away and ends with Angels death which is heartbreaking.

It's only got one good number in it, that's why.

r4 I was thinking there was no way Rosario was in the original cast unless she made it on Broadway as a teen.

Because it's for FAGS!

R6 - Si, I was in original cast - got me thee role in TV cho.

dammit

[quote] Icould see something like "Rent" getting a revised film version. (As long as they don't ruin it like they did with "Cats.")

A version of Rent with CGI cats is something I could really get behind.

The cast was too old by the time it came out and none of them were really movie stars either. And I agree that shooting in San Francisco made no fucking sense.

Don't forget the LIVE TV version where one of the leads injured himself in dress rehearsal and there was no understudy. They ended up broadcasting most of the filmed invited dress before he got hurt with some LIVE moments and it sucked.

Rent is one of the worst

R2- it’s not stolen. It’s a modern retelling. Should stories only be told one way?

The problem with the movie was that singing in a modern story looked silly. In the case of Wicked, we’re already used to singing in Oz so it works.

r2 you just have to disregard posters like that. They have some type of weird idiosyncrasy. We're talking a body of work published in the late 1800s. It's just ridiculous.

last comment meant for r14 about r2.

Jesse L Martin was effective

He was the best part of an unfortunate film.

[quote] How is it 4 of the 8 characters have HIV or AIDS?

Well, maybe since it takes place in the East Village in the late '80s, early '90s.

It certainly was not unusual, r20.

I found it maudlin and glib, alternately. But many people like this sort of thing. It's popular entertainment. Théâtre de boulevard with songs.

It really showed how much the theatrical production relied on hype, as when exposed to an audience that isn't already convinced it's a masterpiece the weaknesses of the story and the unpleasantness of most of the characters is fully exposed.

R22 Popular entertainment??? It didn’t even break even on a 40 mil budget. The play was highly successful though.

Rosario bearded for New Jersey Senator Cory Booker during his last re-election.

There was also a filmed version of the Broadway production. IIRC, the original cast members did a little cameo at the end.

It’s biggest problem is that Rent was very much “of its time” so that by the time the film version came out in 2008 the storyline from the early 1990s was very dated.

I think the main problem was they tried to create a musical with no stars. Chicago and Moulin Rouge brought the musical back in the aughts but they both had at least one big star.

Did it flop? I really enjoyed it, saw it several times and still listen to the soundtrack ...... IDK - I think people are too picky -

Everyone has AIDS!

What r27 said. The East Village is one big NYU campus now. Rent is a relic.

I love the movie. I watch it again and again. I also have the "extended" CD which I listen to a lot. If you don't like it, don't watch it. And btw you're wrong.

the only part I didn't like was Angel's drawn out death, which they then incorporated into the revival...in an early version i saw in the theater was all the writhing, loving, and bitching under the sheets ending with the sheet being pulled away from Angel and company posed as La Pieta which came as an overwhelming shock to the audience when Tom Collins delivers the line, "It's over."

We all fucking died in our seats.

[quote]I never liked it - I hate when so much of a piece is stolen from something else, in this case La Boheme. Same as Ms. Saigon - fuck that modern Madame Butterfly.

Do you also hate WEST SIDE STORY for "stealing" from ROMEO & JULIET?

R27 nailed it. It’s a time capsule.

[quote]A version of Rent with CGI cats is something I could really get behind.

That might work: Half the characters have Feline AIDS and they can sing, "Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes since someone put food in my bowl."

RENT is unauthentic, as it claims to take place in 1996 when the only sliver of time this story makes sense was in 1983-84 maybe.

The characters are wholly self-absorbed and unlikable, They are all dilettantes, and the songs are caterwauled dreck.

Having actors in their 40s playing these college aged characters was looney, and the NYC of RENT barely existed. At least I didn't recognize it and I moved here in 1981.

The timeline is a bit confusing. Columbus set it in 88-89, but Thelma and Louise is referenced, a 1991 film. So onstage it clearly took place in the mid-90s.

I didn't like the songs and I don't really have a ton of empathy for bohemian types who slum it while being deluded about their shitty art and the impact of their personal aesthetic or whatever.

R39 Why so much hate in your heart?

I feel sad for R39 not responding to Rent’s message of love.

R24 I was referring to the play, the basis of the movie. Many people like that sort of thing, just like they lap up Andrew Lloyd Webber. And indeed Rent was a crazy success.