America at the end of the millennium was a place where HIV/AIDS wasn’t necessarily a death sentence. A new generation was waking up to the idea that, with knowledge and drugs such as AZT, many of them had a future.

Now, 22 years after it arrived on Broadway, “Rent” is back to capture that moment in time. The tour that arrived Tuesday night at Heinz Hall is an ongoing celebration of the anniversary of a ground-breaking show that brought a hard-driving rock ’n’ roll edge to young people living on the edge.

There is something not quite up to the heights that “Rent” can reach in the production passing through Pittsburgh this week. When it is firing on all cylinders, particularly in the second act, it can ignite the memories of a time when the music and the message were all the rage. If you lived through that time, it also recalls the tragedy outside of the onstage story — creator Jonathan Larson, who wrote the book, lyrics and music, died suddenly at age 36, just before opening night, and posthumously was awarded two Tony Awards (best musical and score) and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Watching “Rent” again Tuesday night, it was one of the few times I have been struck by the work onstage and the incongruity of the venue — a set design of abandonment and decay against the tiered wedding-cake red, white and gold of Heinz Hall, along with a plugged-in, high-volume band where the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra usually holds court.

The onstage band at times overwhelmed the voices, so if you didn’t know the lyrics coming in, the rock opera may have lost you here and there.

The story is patterned after the Puccini opera “La Boheme” and speaks the language of artist squatters in an abandoned New York City building, soon to be displaced by urban redevelopment. Art for art’s sake is the golden rule. Earning an honest living seems to be equivalent to selling your soul to the devil — a dog is killed for money, an ATM is hacked, a job turned down, all in the name of being true to one’s self.

The story revolves around incongruous roommates — deeply depressed rocker Roger (Pittsburgher Logan Farine), a recovering junkie who has AIDS, and cheerful responsible filmmaker Mark (Sammy Ferber), whose outrageous girlfriend, Maureen (Lyndie Moe), has recently left him for a lawyer named Joanne (Jasmine Easler).

Mark is the chronicler of his circle of friends, including Tom Collins (Josh Walker), a professorial purveyor of “actual reality” who is rescued and falls hard for Angel (Aaron Alcaraz), a drag queen with a heart of gold. Mimi (Paola Hernandez) is a teenage entertainer with a bad habit who sets her sights on Roger, and the two begin a stormy relationship …

It’s all a bit flat and a bit pat in the first act, sprinkled with a few highlights — Mr. Farine’s rendition of “Glory,” Mimi’s moves as a club performer in “Out Tonight,” Joanne and Mark finding common ground in “Tango: Maureen,” the cast coming together on “La Vie Boheme.”

The passion and purpose hit their strides in the second act, when Mark and Roger get to let loose on a stirring “What You Own,” the definitive expression of what Mr. Larson thought of the 1990s, when “you are what you own.”

The second act opens more hopefully, with “Season of Love” — one of those songs you probably know by osmosis (“five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes …”), and one that provides a showcase for the vocal acrobatics of Alana Cauthen.

From there, the gang cracks at the seams, and disease takes hold of sweet, caring Angel and struggling Mimi. They do not handle it well.

Benny (Marcus John), the boys’ former roommate, who is still in Mimi’s life, has married well and wants to turn their home into a “cyberland” for artists. He throws money at problems, which they seem ready to take while calling him a “traitor” to their bohemian lifestyles.

The looming big bad is rightfully poverty, despair and the disease that has taken hold of lovers and friends. The big hope is the new drugs that are helping some and the knowledge that if you fall, there are people there to catch you.

One thing that resonated with this “Rent,” more than in other times I have seen it, is the fact there are concerned parents out there, worrying and encouraging across telephone lines. These are not children who chose to leave and were not abandoned because of drug use or sexual orientation, and that is a message worth delivering at any moment in time.

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.

First Published: March 28, 2018, 1:09 p.m.