Rent (Musical)

Rent is a rock musical by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Puccini's opera La bohème. It opened Off-Broadway in early 1996, then moved to Broadway, where it ran for twelve years and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. Set in Manhattan's East Village during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, it follows a group of struggling artists and friends. Several central characters are queer, and the love story between Angel, a trans woman and drag performer, and Tom Collins is often held up as the show's emotional core. Songs like "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Bohème" made it a landmark of LGBTQ+ representation on the mainstream stage. Larson died the night before its first Off-Broadway preview.