Rent

Jonathan Larson, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, began working on the American rock opera Rent in 1989, when playwright Billy Aronson sought a collaborator for an adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème (1896) set in contemporary New York City. Later, Larson completed the project on his own with Aronson’s blessing and credited him for his contributions.

Rent was an immediate hit, lauded for broaching the issue of HIV/AIDS, depicting LGBTQ+ identities, and including multiracial representation. Its sold-out Off-Broadway run with New York Theatre Workshop made the move to Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre inevitable three months later. Given the inaccessible expense of Broadway theater tickets, producers implemented a democratization effort suited to the musical’s themes in what is now a widespread practice: selling $20 rush tickets—first come, first served, for a seat in the first two rows.

Rent quickly became a pop culture phenomenon with a devoted following. Fans memorized the songs, followed the show on tour, and even wrote fan fiction and created fan art. Rent did not invent edge and shock on Broadway, nor was it the first rock musical or even the first rock opera. However, it spoke particularly to youths who felt like misfits, self-proclaimed musical theater nerds, LGBTQ teens who were still self-discovering, and to those who felt that their families didn’t understand them. The musical places a version of the LGBTQ community onstage that is out and proud, even in its messiness, and treats HIV/AIDS patients and those who experience substance addiction as people who deserve dignity.

Rent ran on Broadway until 2008, and national and international tours ran on and off from 1996 until 2022. The Broadway production swept the 1996 Tony Awards, including winning Best Musical and two posthumous awards for Larson for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical. Larson was also posthumously awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Several documentaries have been made about the show, and Rent was adapted into a feature film in 2005.

Content Warning: Rent portrays the effects of discrimination based on HIV positivity, race, gender identity, and sexuality, substance abuse and addiction, and discusses death by suicide and symptoms of adverse mental health. These topics are pervasive and appear in most scenes/songs.

Plot Summary

Rent focuses on a group of artists living in poverty in Alphabet City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It begins on Christmas Eve, when Mark Cohen, an aspiring filmmaker, starts making an unscripted documentary about their lives. He shares a loft apartment with Roger Davis, a singer/songwriter who discovered from his girlfriend’s suicide note one year ago that he has AIDS. Since then, Roger hasn’t gone out, and he spent the last six months withdrawing from heroin and getting sober. Roger is determined to write a great song before he dies. The power goes out during the opening scene; the friends have no money and no heat and are running out of things to burn to stay warm. Meanwhile, their friend Tom Collins is mugged on his way to their apartment. He receives help from a warm-hearted drag queen named Angel. They fall for each other immediately, and they each reveal that they are HIV positive. Mark goes out, and Roger meets Mimi Marquez, their neighbor who asks him to light her candle. She flirts, and he is interested, but he pushes her away and discovers that she has an addiction to heroin. Collins arrives, bringing supplies, and introduces Angel to Mark and Roger. Their former roommate Benjamin Coffin III (Benny), who married into money and bought their building, shows up to collect the rent, which is a full year in arrears. Knowing they can’t pay, Benny offers an alternative solution: He will forgive the past and future rent if they will put a stop to the protest performance Mark’s ex-girlfriend, Maureen, is staging on the vacant lot next door. They refuse his offer. Instead, Mark decides to accept the desperate pleas of Maureen—who left him for a woman—to help fix her sound system.

At the vacant lot, Mark meets Maureen’s girlfriend, Joanne. Their encounter is awkward until they bond by talking about the ways Maureen can be manipulative. Mark goes to a support group meeting with Collins and Angel. Mimi comes back to try and seduce Roger more aggressively, but he throws her out and leaves the apartment. After the Life Support meeting, Mark stops a police officer from beating a woman without a home by filming him, but the woman yells at him for using her to get famous. Collins, Angel, and Mark daydream about leaving New York, moving to Santa Fe, and opening a restaurant. Mark leaves to check in with Roger, and Angel and Collins express their love for each other. Roger finds Mimi and apologizes, inviting her to come to Maureen’s show and to dinner afterward. At the show, Benny has the police standing by. Maureen gives her performance. Afterward, the group goes to eat at the Life Café, singing proudly about the bohemian life. Joanne breaks up with Maureen. There’s tension between Mimi and Roger until they each realize that the other is also HIV positive. The protest continues, and Mimi and Roger kiss.

In Act II, it’s New Year’s Eve, and the apartment building is padlocked. Maureen convinces Joanne to resume their relationship. The group breaks into the building right before Benny shows up and gives them the key, suggesting he changed his mind because Mimi came by and made a good case for them—sexually. She emphatically denies this and insists that Benny tried to seduce her, and she rejected him.

Mark receives an offer from a less-than-reputable news show. Mimi and Roger make up, but her dealer shows up, and she buys heroin. On Valentine’s Day, Joanne and Maureen are together but fighting. Mimi and Roger are living together, but Roger is frustrated by her lies when she goes out to get high. The couples break up again, and Angel gets sicker and dies. The group comes together for Angel’s funeral on Halloween but can’t manage to suppress their underlying conflicts. Mimi is with Benny, and Roger is leaving after the funeral to move to Santa Fe. Joanne and Maureen are angry at each other, but they reconcile. Mark hasn’t told anyone that he accepted a job at the dodgy news show. Roger is worried that Mimi looks sick and doesn’t want to admit that he’s afraid to watch her die. She overhears and gets upset and scared, and Benny agrees to pay when Mark suggests rehab. Collins has no money for Angel’s funeral, and Benny offers to pay for that, too. Mark becomes frustrated with himself and his choices, and he decides to quit his job. Roger suddenly figures out the song he wants to write.

On Christmas Eve, one year after the show began, Mark and Roger are back in the loft. Mark is ready to screen his documentary. Roger wrote his song but hasn’t been able to find Mimi. Collins comes over and tells them about an ATM he rigged to give money to anyone with the code A-N-G-E-L. Suddenly, Maureen and Joanne rush in carrying Mimi, who was freezing and living on the streets. She is dying, and Roger begs her to stay and listen to his song. He plays it and she wakes up, claiming that Angel told her to turn around. They all decide to value the time they have together.