It’s hard to believe that Jonathan Larson’s revelatory musical RENT is 20 years old. Its songs are as infectious now as they were in 1996; Its themes about living for today in the face of life’s greatest hardships.... timeless. Just like in the show, RENT provides “Life Support” for musical lovers, myself included. At 15 years old, as I struggled with my sexual identity, listening to Joanne and Maureen, Collins and Angel sing about their love for each other gave me the support I needed to come out to my friends and family. And in talking to countless other fans of this show, each one seems to have her or his own personal RENT story about how it has supported them throughout the years. The reasons for which may be different today considering the diagnosis of HIV and AIDS has dramatically changed over the last two decades as a cure seems likely in the next decade to come, but in a modern New York City where virtually every neighborhood has pushed struggling people out of its unaffordable radius, where the need for art and its reflection on who we are as a culture today is continually devalued, where tangible empathy is being replaced by technological apathy on every subway train from Battery Park to the George Washington Bridge, RENT’s message is still undeniably relevant. This production is dedicated to those who have sought or found personal peace in that message.
“There’s only us, there’s only this. Forget regret or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other day, no day but today.”
- Jonathan Larson
Nick Brennan, Director
