What Is "Rent," Within The Context Of The Performing Arts?

"Rent" is an American rock opera first performed on Broadway in 1996 and made into a film in 2005. "Rent" tells the story of a group of poverty-stricken, Bohemian artists in New York City's East End who live from day to day and face impending eviction as they are unable to pay their rent. Additionally, their neighbourhood is about to be redeveloped and the industrial buildings in which they make their home torn down.

The plot spans an entire year, beginning and ending at Christmas. The story, which unfolds in 1989-1990, deals with a great many social issues, including poverty, homosexuality, transgendered people, faith and AIDS. Several scenes depict a support group for people who are HIV positive and the film shows how one by one the members of the group succumb to the illness.

Despite the difficult issues covered by the film, the movie is hardly depressing. There is a good mix of humour thrown in, and what stands out the most is the close-knit community formed by a handful of struggling artists who find hope in each other.

RENT, loosely based on the opera LA BOHEME, has helped revitalize Broadway.  As a rock opera with young characters, it was marketed as a show that young audiences could relate to (more so than, for example, Rogers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe shows).  A cover story in NEWSWEEK when the show opened mentioned that it was a sexy, energetic show.

RENT has been running on Broadway for a number of years, at a time when several other shows have come and gone.  It _does_ seem to reach young audiences.

IN addition, RENT (written by Jonathan Larsen, who unfortunately died just before the show opened) received the Pulitzer Prize for drama, one of only a handful of musicals to receive that honor.  It picked up a couple of Tony awards, too.

So if you're asking "within the context of the performing arts," I'd have to say that RENT is one of the more popular and honored works of the past decade.