The musical was Rent and it celebrates its silver anniversary this year with an online gala and lots of gratitude from generations of fans.
Jonathan Larson’s story of free-spirited artists and street folk in New York’s drug and AIDS-ravaged East Village in the early 1990s was inspired by Puccini’s “La Boheme” and found a ready audience among young people.
“It gives hope to people who feel that ‘I am different’ and ‘I don’t fit’. This says, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ says James Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theater Workshop, who nurtured ‘Rent’. “It says, ‘You can go out and make your own community.'”
New York Theater Workshop will celebrate ‘Rent’ with a gala on March 2 that is available to stream through March 6. Original cast members will be joined by theater stars such as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Neil Patrick Harris, Ben Platt, Billy Porter, Ali Stroker, Eva Noblezada and Christopher Jackson. Tickets start at $ 25.
Rent won Tony Awards for best musical, score and book and a Pulitzer Prize. It lasted 12 years on Broadway and more than 5,000 performances, launching the careers of Pascal, Rubin-Vega, Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Anthony Rapp.
There was a 2005 film version, several tours, an off-Broadway revival, international productions, a Hollywood Bowl concert and a live Fox staging in 2019, all fueled by songs like ‘Take Me or Leave Me’, ‘Out Tonight ‘and the crowd-friendly’ Seasons of Love ‘.
Since then, everything has been referenced to ‘Rent’, from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ to ‘The Simpsons’ to ‘I Am Legend’. In the movie “Team America: World Police” dolls play the show “Lease”.
Larson never witnessed his triumph: He died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35 after the final dress rehearsal in January 1996.
The 15 original actors keep in touch and share a text thread. “We really got into rapport and trust with each other right away, especially after the tragedy,” Heredia said. “There is nothing that unites people more than tragedy.”
The musical had an unpretentious start. The New York Theater Workshop had just moved into its East Village space in the summer of 1992 and was under construction. Larson rode by on his bike and put his head in it.
“He was curious because he had written this musical for the East Village and was looking for a home in the East Village for it,” said Nicola.
A few days later, Larson released a script and a cassette tape on which he sang all the songs. Timing was perfect. “We were looking for something to do about our neighborhood in the literal sense and on walks in this musical,” said Nicola.
It quickly became apparent that Larson was steeped in classical music, pop and everything in between, which Pascal calls an “incredibly unique, eclectic influence soup.” Larson’s musical topped the company’s list.
“People can write music. People can write words. Not many people can write words and music together, ”says Nicola. “And then even fewer people can understand how to put words and music in a dramatic context.”
The show attracted Rubin-Vega, who was usually not interested in musical theater. “This spoke to me,” she recalled. ‘I knew these people. These are the kind of people I associated with. “It was, she adds, a musical she wanted to see for herself.
She would earn a Tony nomination for her Mimi, an HIV positive heroin addict and stripper. She remembers looking out and seeing the audience sing along – weeks before even a cast album was available. They were repeat customers.
“It was a supernova,” she said.
Being in ‘Rent’ alone was life-changing for Heredia, a then 24-year-old who never thought he’d be in a musical, let alone one who made the leap to Broadway.
“I never saw my face in the faces of people who were on Broadway,” said Heredia, who played doomed drag queen Angel.
It was Heredia, a self-proclaimed hyperactive club boy, who hopped on heels one day during a rehearsal break – much to the surprise of director Michael Greif. That move was put on the show.
“The trick to that whole number wasn’t jumping on the table. It was jumping off the table, ”Heredia says with a laugh. “My back and my knees are paying for it now.”
Heredia won a Tony for his work, but he says he values the dozens of people who approached him to say that Angel helped them come to their parents, accept their son, or just inspire them.
“The impact it has had on the generations before me has affected me even more than Tony,” he says. “It’s one of the best things that ever happened to my life.”
‘Rent’ also helped put the New York Theater Workshop on the map, where it continued to nurture shows like ‘Hadestown’, ‘Once’ and ‘Slave Play’.
“You can really look at the history of New York Theater Workshop, neatly split between before ‘Rent’ and after ‘Rent,’” said Nicola. ‘It’s so important. It has transformed the organization. “
One “Rent” fan is Miranda, the visionary behind “Hamilton,” noted Rubin-Vega. “In no uncertain terms, he is a legacy from Jonathan, just as Jonathan was a legacy from Sondheim,” she said.
Pascal adds, “It’s a gift that keeps on giving.”