Rent American musical Actions Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rent-American-musical Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rent-American-musical Written by Karen Sottosanti Karen Sottosanti is a writer and editor who works in educational publishing. Karen Sottosanti Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Aug 27, 2024 • Article History Table of Contents Rent, landmark Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical created by composer Jonathan Larson and recognized for raising national awareness of issues related to poverty, addiction, gentrification, and the AIDS epidemic. Inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème (1896), a classic opera depicting the tragic romance of bohemian youths in Paris, Rent celebrates the lives of a group of young, racially diverse, LGBTQ artists and activists—in a way that was rare on Broadway at the time—in the Alphabet City neighborhood of New York City’s East Village. On January 25, 1996, Larson tragically died of an aortic aneurysm at age 35, hours before Rent’s first ...(100 of 709 words)

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