RENT
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
April 21st – 30th, 2023
Direction: Desirée Dabney
Musical Direction: Elle Meerovich
Choreography: Wes Seals
Scenic Design: Sarah Cook
Costume Design: Kasey Brown
Lighting Design: BJ Wilkinson
Sound Design: Joey Luck
Technical Director: Preston Spence
Production photos
All production photos by Aaron Sutten
About “Rent”
VCUarts Theatre presents Rent, Jonathan Larson’s iconic award-winning musical that shaped a generation of audiences and taught us all to measure our life in love. Set in the East Village of New York City in 1989, Rent is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Rent has become a pop cultural phenomenon with songs that rock and a story that resonates with audiences of all ages.
Loosely based on Puccini’s La Bohème, Rent follows a group of artists and musicians struggling to create and find love over the course of a year amidst the US HIV/AIDS crisis. The group’s dreams, losses, and love stories weave through the musical’s narration to paint a stunningly raw and emotional portrait of the bohemian world of New York in the late 1980s. Through songs such as “Seasons of Love,” “One Song Glory,” “I’ll Cover You,” “Out Tonight” and more, they embrace hope, find strength and survive. Rent is exuberant, passionate and joyous—a groundbreaking phenomenon that defined a generation.
“The exhilarating, landmark rock opera…a glittering inventive score.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES