Curtain Comes Down on 'Rent'

Broadway prepared to say goodbye Sunday to "Rent," 12 years and 5,124 performances after it first became a rock musical with a message for theatergoers of all ages.

The show, book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, was born off-Broadway in triumph and tragedy. Larson died of an aortic aneurysm after its final dress rehearsal in January 1996. He was 35.

Larson's tale of free-spirited artists and street people in a gritty drug- and AIDS-plagued East Village of the early 1990s touched several generations.

Rave reviews propelled "Rent" to Broadway, where the musical opened the following April at the Nederlander Theatre, a house often shunned by producers because it was on the wrong side of 42nd Street.

The show, inspired by Puccini's "La Bohème," found a ready-made audience in young people. Its fanatical supporters were nicknamed "Rentheads," and many of them saw the show after the musical instituted a same-day, front-row ticket price of $20. The plan proved so popular that it was changed to a lottery format to accommodate the demand.

The show survived and thrived — winning Tonys, Obies, and the Pulitzer Prize for drama as well as grossing more than $280 million during its Broadway run. Millions more were made from national tours and foreign productions that performed on six continents. A film version, using much of the original cast, was released in 2005.

Another tour starts in January for some 30 weeks with several members of the original cast. Plus a new cinecast of "Rent," filmed in high-definition video by Sony Pictures during the musical's last performances, will be shown in movie theaters in America and Canada for four days (September 24-25 and September 27-28).