It’s a sad day to be a theater queen. After twelve years on the great gay way, Rent producers announced the musical will close up shop on June 1st. The adaptation of La Boheme not only inspired a generation of young dramatists, but raked in serious dough: “Rent which cost $240,000 to put up downtown, has gone on to gross more than $280 million on Broadway and another $330 million on the road. Productions have been mounted on six continents.”
‘Rent’ To Close, Queens To Weep
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Ash
That is sad, but every good play’s gotta come to an end. The saddest part about the RENT saga is its writer, Jonathan Larson. He died of an aortic dissection that could have easily been caught by doctors but was not. He was sent home from the hospital and died that night, the night before RENT opened. The saddest part about RENT is while it has won many, many, MANY awards and accolades and made a lot of money, Jonathan Larson didn’t get to experience any of that. He was a struggling writer for a long time and died before he became one of the most successful writers of his generation. So sad.
Dawster
no, ash, the SADDEST thing about the RENT saga is that awful movie… and whatever the hell that production of RENT REMIXED was….
BUTCHERS!
Justin
Aww, this is some sad news. RENT got me through high school, along with any other misfit gays and drama kids. What a wonderful show. The movie was pretty harsh, but hey, it was nice to see what I was picturing in my head when I listened to the soundtrack all those years before I saw it.
hells kitchen guy
Well, this is one theater queen who won’t be crying. I (and almost everyone I know) thought it SUCKED. The only reason why it got legs was because of the real-life drama surrounding it; that, and a talented young cast.
Bitch Republic
I first really accepted that I was gay the first time I saw RENT on Broadway.
http://www.BitchRepublic.net
ousslander
I never saw the pay but if it was anything like that movie then Thank God it’s closing. It was one of the most pretentious pieces of crap I’ve ever seen, especially the lead lesbian who looked like she got whacked in the face with a shovel.
Mark Walsh
While Rent was memorable because it spoke
to the issue of AIDS and was popular, it overdosed the audience with so many varying images of distressed people that it almost seemed to present a generic picture of gays.
I’m not sure that the art itself deserved as much aclaim as it recieved. One thing for sure is that it ought to give gay people a notion of how much of an opening their is for really great gay themed productions. Gay people and sexuality are about a lot, not necessarily tragic. Gay people have been real suckers for buying into the american dream, and leaving their imaginations behind.
hells kitchen guy
There were plenty of “great gay themed productions” long before Rent: Boys in the Band. As Is. The Normal Heart. Torchsong Trilogy. March of the Falsettos. We hardly needed “Rent” to inspire us.
Tonic
I was definitely inspired by RENT and have to credit it for helping me recognize that I’m gay AND that gays are just as human as anyone else (I had been taught the opposite). Rent also reached a wider audience than previous gay-themed shows and probably did a lot to combat homophobia. The movie was not so good, but the Broadway show was amazing.