The 1996 musical Rent has become a cultural icon for Generation X. Now in it's 10th year on Broadway, Rent is the ruler upon which musicals are measured. With its memorable songs, socially aware plot, intriguing set design and costumes, Rent has been labeled as the musical that brought back the younger generation to Broadway. Rent tickets ability to capture the younger generation has been compared to the musical HAIR in the 1960's.
Rent clearly featured AIDS, poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and gay characters becoming the first of its kind to do so and enabling other musicals, such as Avenue Q to continue down that path. Its ethnically diversified cast was also the first of its kind, showing struggling artists and musicians hoping to make it big.
The story behind the creation of RENT is almost as fascinating as the RENT story itself. Bill Aronson, a playwright, wanted to create a modern version of Puccini's La boheme, replacing the grandeur with mayhem. The following year, 1989 Jonathan Larson, a composer, and Aronson began collaborating on the plot and music. Over time RENT became Larson's project and he worked on it diligently, writing song after song. The musical hit off-Broadway the day after Larson tragically died from aneurysm.
The original cast in 1996 had Taye Diggs as Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel Dumott Schunard, Idina Menzel as Maureen Johnson and Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi Marquez. Taye Diggs went on to a film career and Idina Menzel went on to win a Tony Award for her portrayal of Elphaba in Wicked.
RENT has been showered with critical praise and popular word-of-mouth winning multiple Tony Awards (for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical) and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The song "Seasons of Love" has proven so popular and so beloved with audiences that it is sometimes performed alone, without the rest of the musical. The first line: "Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes," refers to the number of minutes in a year. Ask any Rent fan and they can tell you that love is the only accurate measure of a year in a life.
This joyous Rock Musical is breathtaking in its scope and inspiring to those struggling to build their dream in the arts. Get Rent tickets to see this beautiful and unique musical at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City,
