Larson’s groundbreaking Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award-winner reinvented musicals when it debuted in 1996. An inspiring story about friends and artists struggling in New York City’s East Village, Rent tackles addiction, poverty, AIDS, and most of all, love.
The cast of 20 students included Aubrey Campbell ’26, Cole Wright-Schaner ’23, Anthony Thompson ’23, Grace Friedman ’23, Joey Tarlavsky ’25, Maximus Ganem ’25, Isa Cardoso ’25, Leslie De La Rosa ’25, Eva Pearlman ’25, Sofia Block ’23, Alissa Mangiaracina ’24, Abigail DeLena ’25, Trevor Wilkes ’25, Ryan Swanson ’24, Kirk Petrie ’25, Hao Shen ’25, Anna Mak ’24, Hunter Wisneski ’25, Ben White ’26, and Alyssa Samuels ’25.
Rent, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical and 1996 Pulitzer Prize, among other awards, was one of the first Broadway musicals to feature bisexual and transgender characters. Rent brought controversial topics to a traditionally conservative medium, and it helped to increase the popularity of musical theater among the younger generation.
