Rent Tickets

Jonathan Larson was an award-winning composer, lyricist, and playwright. His landmark musical Rent started as a staged reading with New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. The musical premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in 1994 before transferring to Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre. Rent features some of the most popular show tunes, including “Seasons of Love,” “One Song Glory,” and “Take Me or Leave Me.” The musical closed its 12-year run in 2008 with 5,123 performances on Broadway, the ninth longest-running show at the time. Rent’s final performance on Broadway was filmed live and adapted for television.

In 2005, Hollywood produced a film version of the musical directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Chris Columbus. The movie adaptation featured actors from the original Broadway cast reprising their roles. Rent’s Broadway and Hollywood success catapulted its actors, including Anthony Rapp and Idina Menzel, into fame.

What to Watch For

• The opera La Bohème, which the musical Rent is based on, is based on Henri Murger’s novel “Scènes de la Vie de Bohème.” The 1851 novel is a collection of four vaguely intertwined stories about Bohemians living in Paris during the 1840s.
• Jonathan Larson is known for his musicals Rent and Tick, Tick…Boom!
• While both musicals explore social issues, Tick, Tick…Boom! is personal — it’s an autobiographical musical centered around a composer in New York named Jon. Both musicals have film adaptations, with the more recent Tick, Tick…Boom! adaptation in 2021 starring Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, and Vanessa Hudgens.
• Most known for his work in the theatre, Jonathan Larson also worked as a children’s songwriter. He composed songs for Away We Go!, An American Tale, The Land Before Time and Sesame Street.
• The night before Rent’s premiere off Broadway, Jonathan Larson died from an aortic dissection in his home. Rent would’ve been Larson’s breakthrough, but the 35-year-old writer and composer died before he would see his musical’s success.