Quote:
Originally Posted by DeltAlum
I do, but look at West Side Story, which keeps having revivals and is still often playing in high school and community theatre as well.
Romeo and Juliet lives, as does La Boheme.
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I recognize that both musicals are based on old stories.
West Side Story is about race relations, and the racially segregated gangs in the story are still around today - and when you combine that with the debates going on in this country today about immigration and race, WSS is just as relevant as ever. But, a major part of Rent's storyline is AIDS, and although it's still a serious issue in this country, the attitude about it has changed since the early 90s. The majority of the main characters in Rent have AIDS and go through the whole thing acting as if their days are numbered - and for one of the characters, it's true. That may have been the way it was when the story was written, but people diagnosed with AIDS nowadays can actually live their whole lives with AIDS - the treatment and prognosis is completely different...it's no longer a death sentence. So now the story comes off as cliched. The storyline is a little too literal to be able to apply its lessons to life today.