Rent is the musical theatre adaptation of Puccini's
La Boheme. Written by
Jonathan Larson, who saw it reach
off-Broadway success, then re-wrote it for
Broadway. He saw the first performance on January 24, 1996, returned to his home content, and died that night of an aneurysm.
The play it set in New York's
East Village. It focuses on two artists who are
squatters in a building. One is a film maker who isolates himself from the world by using his camera, the other is a musician who has
AIDS. The musical shares with its audience a year in the life of these two men, along with that it shares the lives of all the people they are involved with. From ex-lovers, to old friends.
This won the
Tony award for best musical in 1996.
Rent had a following of groupies, partly due to their sale of 20 dollar front row tickets to those fans who would wait outside the theatre for hours. Some considered this play to be revolutionary and timeless. Those who felt that way were mostly theatre novices. Critics felt that the lyrics and plotline were dated, and that would keep
Rent from becoming a
Broadway staple like
Phantom of the Opera and
Les Miserables.