Jonathan Larson’s Broadway phenomenon ignites the stage with passion and energy.  One year—525,600 minutes—in the lives of seven young friends from Alphabet City brings love, loss, tragedy and triumph in a whirl of non-stop music. Larson built the show on the artists and addicts he knew in his neighborhood as they battled poverty, drugs, AIDS and the looming gentrification of their Vie Bohème. Urban and gritty, this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical brims with raw emotion and infectious enthusiasm.

Based on Puccini’s La Boheme, Rent opened off-Broadway in January 1996 to wide critical acclaim. It quickly moved to its Broadway home, the Nederlander Theatre, where it ran for 12 years, becoming the eighth longest running Broadway musical in history.  Rent won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama and was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning four, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The rock musical was adapted into a 2005 feature film directed by Chris Columbus starring most of the original cast, including SU Drama alumnus Taye Diggs ’93, Idina Menzel, and Adam Pascal. Rent‘s composer, lyricist and scribe Jonathan Larson died suddenly of an aortic aneurism just before previews began off-Broadway, a testament to Larson’s message that there is “no day but today.” Visit Syracuse Stage for tickets and more information.

Call for Artists for RENT Exhibit

In the spirit of “la vie boheme,” Syracuse Stage is partnering with the Cultural Resources Council of Onondaga County on “Where Theatre and Visual Arts Meet,” a visual exhibition of the compelling stories found in Rent. Entries must be submitted on CD, slides, or colorized sketches to Carol Charles at cdcharle@syr.edu by January 4. More details and submission guidelines are available on the Syracuse Stage Blog.