History Theatre / Rent

* BrokenAesop:
** We are told we should all live our lives to the fullest because we could die tomorrow, and there is no day like today. But if you do happen to die, you can be resurrected through ThePowerOfRock. The concept of there being "no day but today," which is sung about a lot, is subverted in the second act through the use of passage of time: the first act, in which the mantra occurs extremely frequently, takes place in one day while the second takes place over the course of a year (in which the mantra is shown to be faulty at best).
** ''RENT'' also likes to complain about how hard it is to be an artist, but any kind of artistic job working for someone else would be selling out. One wonders what would happen if Roger actually starts selling [=CDs=]. Or, indeed, if ''RENT'' itself becoming so extremely lucrative means we shouldn't listen to it as it sells itself out...
** For people who spend the whole time talking about love and loving life, the circle of friends seems to have a lot of cheating, poor communication, and emotional sniping at each other -- no one is enjoying themselves very much, or following Angel's lauded example. And, for that matter, Collins, who spends his time loving Angel and loving life with Angel ends up pretty much broken because of Angel's death.
** The extent to which the "all the characters are lazy bohemians" trope has become associated with the play has obscured the fact that the majority of the characters actually ''are'' working to support themselves: Collins, Mimi, and Joanne are all conventionally employed, Benny is making a good crack at breaking into the 1%, Angel has a serious street hustle going, and Roger is getting back on his feet after overcoming a heroin addiction. Only Mark and (going by the book) Maureen can really be construed as living totally self-indulgently "for their art."

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Mimi is stated to be Latina, but since a Black Latina actress was one of the first to play the role, other portrayals have ranged from Black to even non-Latin white.

* IrrelevantActOpener: "Seasons Of Love". The show's most iconic tune also has almost nothing to do with the narrative outside of the notion of a year of time passing (as it does in Act II). It's mostly a thematic keynote.

** In both versions of "Finale B", [[spoiler:Angel gets to come back into the show, but the ways it happens are different. In the stage show, their actor simply comes back onstage during the ending and rejoins the cast, while in the film, it's done by having Mark's film end with a shot of Angel staring directly at the camera. The original draft of the film's ending was very similar to the stage version, but it was ultimately reworked when it confused test audiences]].
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the film, the pastor at [[spoiler:Angel's funeral]] still interrupts the group as they're mourning so as to discuss payment, but he noticeably does so ''without'' using a homophobic slur in the process.

** More focus on the group's friendship, as well as the interpersonal relationships between individual characters (Mimi and Angel's friendship, for example, is given more focus).

** Cutting "Christmas Bells" in the movie removes the implication that Mimi got her AZT on the black market, making it seem as though an exotic dancer living in squalor could somehow afford a drug priced somewhere in the thousands.[[note]]In fact, most of the protests and riots during [[ThePlague the AIDS crisis]] were the result of a potential life-saving drug being made too expensive for the people with the illness, who felt that the Reagan administration were [[MurderByInaction simply waiting]] [[KillThePoor for them to go extinct]] rather than help them.[[/note]]

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Angel is AMAB,[[note]]assigned male at birth[[/note]] dating a gay man, dresses like a drag queen, acts femininely, and is hinted to prefer the pronoun "she" but apparently doesn't mind masculine pronouns, and plays at being "brothers" with Collins during La Vie Boheme. Her actual gender is never explicitly stated, so it's entirely up to the actor, director, and perhaps audience. Mark refers to Angel with male pronouns at one point before correcting himself (and it's common in productions to have Angel give him a glare to force the switch), Collins uses both genders when referring to them (saying both "Sing it, girl" and "I like boys" while referring to Angel), and even Angel themself got in on it offstage by referring to herself as "more man than you'll ever be and more woman than you're ever gonna get".

* AnachronismStew: The play doesn't have a set time period and premiered on Broadway in 1996, but the movie is set in 1989–90. Benny and Collins both talk about the Internet somewhat prophetically, since it didn't start becoming mainstream until the mid-'90s. The same is true for Angel referencing ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'' a year before it was released. Mark's film montage at the end contained a mural painted on a wall for deceased Latin music legend Music/CeliaCruz, but the movie was supposed to be set about 10 years before that happened.

* BittersweetEnding: The musical ends on an optimistic note, but half the characters have HIV/AIDS, so it's really only a matter of time until something like this happens again. Mark frets about being the only one left alive, and resolves to memorialize his friends in film. [[spoiler:WordOfGod is that Mimi died soon after the end of the story.]] Also, it's possible now that Benny (and by association, his wife Allison) are living on borrowed time as well, if we interpret his relationship with Mimi as a sexual one.

** The extent to which the "all the characters are lazy bohemians" trope has become associated with the play has obscured the fact that the majority of the characters actually ''are'' working to support themselves: Collins, Mimi, and Joanne are all conventionally employed, while Angel has a serious street hustle going. Roger is getting back on his feet after overcoming a heroin addiction; only Mark and (going by the book) Maureen can really be construed as living totally self-indulgently "for their art."

-->'''Blanket Person''': ''Who the fuck do you think you are?\\

This lot is full of motherfucking artists!!''\\

'''Blanket Person''': I thought not.

* RefrainFromAssuming: "Seasons of Love" is not called "525,600 Minutes".

* ShoutOut: To ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', of course: Angel's last is name Schaunard, the name of the character she was modeled after. Collins is Collin, Mark is Marcello, Mimi (just guess), etc. They all have jobs roughly equivalent to their operatic counterparts, Mark being a filmmaker while Marcello was a painter, etc.
** The use of "Musetta's Waltz" (the song Roger keeps playing on his guitar), referenced in the line from "La Vie Boheme A": "And Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song ... (Roger plays) ... that doesn't remind us of Musetta's Waltz."
** The lines "Every single day, I walk down the street, I hear people say 'Baby's so sweet'" in "[[CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem Take Me or Leave Me]]" (a fairly direct, if modernized, translation of the first lines of "Quando m'en vo", or Musetta's Waltz).
** And of course, the akita, Music/{{Evi|ta}}[[Creator/AndrewLloydWebber ta]].
** Part of "Christmas Bells," where various vendors shout out their wares to passerby, echoes a similar scenario in the Act II opening of ''Theatre/LaBoheme.''
** Mark burning his screenplays for heat and Mimi's game with the candle are taken straight from the opera, and the ending is a virtual recreation, with the ending slightly tweaked.
** Collins' obsession with his stolen coat in Act 1 is likely because his inspiration in ''La Boheme'' spent his only aria bemoaning the loss of his coat.

* PositiveDiscrimination: It might be a coincidence, but the four canonically minority characters (Benny, Collins, Joanne, and Mimi) are the only ones with stable jobs. Also, the only healthy and unconditionally loving relationship is between two gay men.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/howaboutlove.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The original Broadway cast in its full, LGBT-riffic glory.]]

** "Another Day" originally has the support group singing along in the final chorus, but they're clearly in two different locations - the group meeting spot and the loft. In the film, Collins, Angel, and Mark actually join Mimi on the street, turning the final chorus into a confrontation.

** In the stage show, [[spoiler:Angel dies during "Contact", giving them a verse of their own that allows them to go out with a bang. The film has a far more somber take on the scene, as they degenerate over the course of "Without You" before dying in their hospital bed with Collins desperately cradling them]].

* EnsembleCast

* FaceHeelTurn: Apparently [[DesignatedVillain Benny]] if we believe Mark and Roger.

---> '''Collins:''' We went to steal an air conditioner.
---> '''Angel:''' We'll be right back.

* IronicEcho: "I'll cover you." The first time, it's part of an extended metaphor about a pair of lovers providing shelter for each other. The next time, it's about filling in a grave.
* IrrelevantActOpener: "Seasons Of Love". The show's most iconic tune also has almost nothing to do with the narrative. It's mostly a thematic keynote.

* TheLostLenore: April, Roger's dead girlfriend, whose suicide triggers the depression we find him at the play's start. [[spoiler:In the theatre version, Mark notes that April [[DrivenToSuicide slit her wrists in their bathtub]], leaving a note saying only, "We've got AIDS." The film isn't quite that explicit.]]

* SurvivorGuilt: Mark knows he's probably going to outlive all of his friends, which is a serious downer.

* {{Corpsing}}: In the 10th anniversary performance (which featured the original main cast), there were a few instances where the cast members briefly broke character due to some sort of slip-up. Both Adam Pascal and Creator/IdinaMenzel occasionally forgot their lines or lyrics (but laughed it off and continued), and there's a rather hilarious instance during "I'll Cover You" where Creator/JesseLMartin was caught off-guard by how fast an incoming dance move was. His reaction? "'''OH SHIT!!!''' I forgot how fast you[[note]]Wilson Jermaine Heredia[[/note]] were!"

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the film, the priest at [[spoiler:Angel's funeral]] still interrupts the group as they're mourning so as to discus payment, but he noticeably does so ''without'' using a homophobic slur in the process.

** The events of act one take place over several days instead of just on Christmas Eve, meaning several events occur in the daytime instead of at close to midnight. As a result, Life Support has multiple meetings instead of one continuous session, and several of them disappear over the course of the film as they die.

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Angel is AMAB,[[note]]assigned male at birth[[/note]] dating a gay man, dresses like a drag queen, acts femininely, and is hinted to prefer the pronoun "she" but apparently doesn't mind masculine pronouns, and plays at being "brothers" with Collins during La Vie Boheme. Her actual gender is never explicitly stated, so it's entirely up to the actor, director, and perhaps audience. Mark refers to Angel with male pronouns at one point before correcting himself, Collins uses both genders when referring to them (saying both "Sing it, girl" and "I like boys" while referring to Angel), and even Angel themself got in on it offstage by referring to herself as "more man than you'll ever be and more woman than you're ever gonna get".

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:This version of Schaunard (Angel) dies of complications from AIDS, unlike the original Schaunard from ''Theatre/LaBoheme''.]]

* DidIMentionItsChristmas: The play spans two Christmases as well as one [[NewYearHasCome New Year's Eve]], though the holidays are rather incidental to the plot.

** At the end of "Will I?", Roger leaves the stage to show that he's finally getting out of the loft, and it's heavily implied that he went to the Life Support meeting. The film confirms this implication by having him leave the loft at the beginning of the song instead of the end, and he makes it to the group in time to sing the final verse.
** "Another Day" originally has the support group singing along in the final chorus, both to continue their mantra from the previous song "Life Support" and to {{Foreshadow|ing}} Mimi herself having AIDS. The film reduces this to Mark, Collins, and Angel singing along with her outside of the apartment and singing directly to Roger, making it far more confrontational on both sides.

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Angel is AMAB,[[note]]assigned male at birth[[/note]] dating a gay man, dresses like a drag queen, acts femininely, and is hinted to prefer the pronoun "she" but apparently doesn't mind masculine pronouns, and plays at being "brothers" with Collins during La Vie Boheme. Her actual gender is never explicitly stated, so it's entirely up to the actor, director, and perhaps audience. Even RENT Live and the movie, which had Mark correcting himself when he accidentally referred to Angel by male pronouns at her funeral, sees Collins using both.

Like many stage musicals, ''RENT'' would eventually adapted into a feature film. Directed by Creator/ChrisColumbus, the 2005 adaptation featured most of the original Broadway cast reprising their roles, with the exceptions of Creator/RosarioDawson as Mimi, and Tracie Thomas as Joanne. Unlike the theatre production, it's a {{period piece}}, specifically established and set over a year from December 1989 to December 1990, whereas the original musical's time period was intentionally left ambiguous.

The original Broadway production was a LongRunner, having a healthy twelve-year run from April 29, 1996, to September 7, 2008; the final performance was filmed for home video, and was notable for having Tracie Thomas reprise her film role of Joanne, as well as having Rodney Hicks and Gwen Stewart, two members of the production's original cast at the New York Theatre Workshop, returning to be a part of the closing cast.

* MoralDissonance: Angel killing a puppy, then singing about it.

* CluelessAesop: Being unemployed is preferable to paying your dues at a sensationalist tabloid show, where you're paid more per story than most journalists earn in a month.
** It's perfectly okay to happily sing to your friends that you were hired to murder someone's animal for cash with a booty shake here and a drum solo there.
** The one which most upsets the show's detractors: "You're either a penniless bohemian, or you're a sell-out." It's a kick in the teeth to all the creative people out there who work day jobs to support themselves while still finding time to make art, or worse (according to the musical), find a way to make money ''through'' their art.
*** The extent to which the "all the characters are lazy bohemians" trope has become associated with the play has obscured the fact that the majority of the characters actually ''are'' working to support themselves: Collins, Mimi, and Joanne are all conventionally employed, while Angel has a serious street hustle going. Roger is getting back on his feet after overcoming a heroin addiction; only Mark and (going by the book) Maureen can really be construed as living totally self-indulgently "for their art."

* PrecisionFStrike: Also the only two F-bombs left in TheMovie.

* TheMovie: [-FEATURING-]: Most of the original Broadway cast members!
** The producers recognized that, for the most part, the original cast had aged well enough in 10 years that they could all take their original roles. Fredi Walker, the original Joanne, thought she was too old for her role, but made sure they didn't RaceLift her part. Daphne Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi, was pregnant at the time of production.

-->''Mark:'' [[TearJerker/{{Rent}} ♫ And when I capture it on film, will it mean that it's the end and I'm alone? ♫]]

* StepfordSmiler: Mark. While he's always attempting to be [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Roger's happy, supportive best friend]], the song "Halloween" marks him (pun intended) as someone contemplative, mournful, and terrified of the reality of his situation. ''[[TearJerker And when I capture it on film, will it mean that it's the end and I'm alone?]]'' Roger even calls him out for this, how he appears to be making himself numb while encouraging the others to feel.

** Unfortunately this works against Benny's character. His RedemptionQuest scenes in the second act (covering the cost of [[spoiler:Angel's funeral]] and Mimi's stay in rehab, encouraging Roger to get back together with her towards the end of the show) were cut from the film, making him a definitive antagonist, rather than having a complicated relationship with the others while still being their friend. The film arguably suffers for losing this nuance. Though it also removes the bit near the end showing that his wife found out about his infidelity.

* AdaptationExpansion: Nothing is noted in the musical about how Mark or the others will pay for the post-show party after the one waiter notes that the last time Mark visited, he didn't even have enough to pay for his tea. In the film version, Angel shoves a bunch of money at the waiter, some of what she had left from her hit on Evita.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPay: ''"The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome."''

* Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III: Mark, Mimi, and Roger's landlord, Mimi's ex-boyfriend, and the closest thing to an antagonist this show possesses. He used to be their roommate, until he married a real-estate heiress and "sold out". He has something of a {{Frenemy}} relationship with the others, seen as nothing more than yuppie trash and a sell-out.

Notable for its revitalization of the musical theatre genre among young people, its ground-breaking portrayal of people with AIDS, and its obsessive fanbase. Also notable for being one of a select number of musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

** Unfortunately this works against Benny's character. His PetTheDog scenes in the second act -- where he pays for [[spoiler:Angel's funeral]] and Mimi's stay in rehab, and encourages Roger to get back together with her near the end -- were cut from the film, making him purely the villain, rather than having a complicated relationship with the others while still being their friend. The film arguably suffers for losing this nuance. Though it also removes the bit near the end showing that his wife found out about his infidelity.

* AdaptationExpansion: Nothing is noted in the musical about how Mark or the others will pay for the aftershow party after the one waiter notes that the last time they visited, Mark never paid. In the film version, Angel shoves a bunch of money at the waiter, some of what she had left from her hit on Evita.

* AutoTune: Peppered throughout the movie soundtrack, to the distaste of many fans, since the majority of the cast were Broadway pros.

** We are told we should all live our lives to the fullest because we could die tomorrow, and there is no day like today. But if you do happen to die, you can come back to life through ThePowerOfRock. The concept of there being "no day but today," which is sung about a lot, is subverted in the second act through the use of passage of time: the first act, in which the mantra occurs extremely frequently, takes place in one day while the second takes place over the course of a year (in which the mantra is shown to be faulty at best).

->''"Five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,''
->''five-hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear,''
->''five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,''
->''how do you measure, measure a year?"''

* FaceHeelTurn: Apparently [[DesignatedVillain Benny]].

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Angel is DMAB,[[note]]designated male at birth[[/note]] dating a gay man, dresses like a drag queen, acts femininely, and is hinted to prefer the pronoun "she" but apparently doesn't mind masculine pronouns, and plays at being "brothers" with Collins during La Vie Boheme. Their actual gender is never explicitly stated, so it's entirely up to the actor, director, and perhaps audience. Even RENT Live and the movie, which had Mark correcting himself when he accidentally referred to Angel by male pronouns at her funeral, sees Collins using both.