Rent (musical)

Rent is a Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical, based upon Puccini's opera La bohème. Rent opened in New York City on April 29, 1996 at the Nederlander Theatre and continues to play on Broadway (the 8th-longest running Broadway musical as of May 3, 2005). The musical centers around a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive in New York's Alphabet City neighborhood under the shadow of AIDS. (In the opera, the disease was tuberculosis).

Related Topics:
Tony - Pulitzer Prize - Puccini - Opera - La bohème - New York City - April 29 - 1996 - Nederlander Theatre - Alphabet City - AIDS - Tuberculosis

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The score included the songs "Seasons of Love", "Rent (song)", "One Song Glory", "Light My Candle", "Tango: Maureen", "I'll Cover You", "Without You", "La Vie Boheme", and "Santa Fe". The resulting cast album from the show was the most successful recording of an American musical in almost 30 years, featuring both a 2-disc, "complete recordings" collection, a version of the song "Seasons of Love" featuring Stevie Wonder, and a 1-disc "best of" highlights.

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The musical was conceived by Jonathan Larson, a 35-year-old composer who died from an undiagnosed dissecting aortic aneurysm on January 25, 1996, just a few hours before the musical made its debut at the New York Theatre Workshop. It is believed that the defect resulted from Marfan syndrome.

Related Topics:
Jonathan Larson - Composer - Aneurysm - January 25 - 1996 - New York Theatre Workshop - Marfan syndrome

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At the time, Rent was rare among Broadway musicals in that it featured some of the first clearly gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender characters on stage. While a commonly-held stereotype is of a higher proportion of gay people in theater, almost every previous production which dealt with such issues had generally been relegated to off-Broadway venues (an exception is La Cage aux Folles).

Related Topics:
Broadway - Off-Broadway - La Cage aux Folles

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