Rent is an American musical that won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama for its creator, Jonathan Larson. Rent was the only Larson show produced during his lifetime. Larson died suddenly at the age of 35 of an aortic aneurysm on Jan. 25, 1996, the day before the musical’s first preview performance off-off-Broadway. The musical became an immediate hit, leading to its transfer to Broadway on April 29, 1996. It ran there until Sept. 7, 2008, becoming one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history.
The plot of Rent loosely follows the narrative of the famous opera La Bohème (1896) by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Larson shifted the location of Rent from the Paris of La Bohème to a dilapidated neighborhood of New York City. Like the Puccini opera, Larson’s show portrays a group of young people living a bohemian life as society’s outsiders. The central characters in Rent are a drug-addicted dancer named Mimi and a composer named Roger. The two become lovers.
Larson included themes not traditionally found in musicals, such as mixed-race romances and lesbianism. Both Mimi and Roger are HIV positive, which means they carry the virus that causes the disease AIDS. Several other characters are also HIV positive or have AIDS.
Larson’s score blends rock, rap, and gospel music. The most popular song in the show became “Seasons of Love.” The original stars of Rent were Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi and Adam Pascal as Roger. Michael Greif was the director, and Marlies Yearby was the choreographer (creator of dances). Pascal repeated his role in the 2005 motion-picture version. Rosario Dawson played Mimi.
See also Opera (La Bohème).
