Jonathan Larson took inspiration from Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Boheme (which premiered in 1896) and created a rock musical called “Rent.”

What is “Rent” about? It is a story told with the backdrop of New York’s Lower East Side, in which a group of artists are trying to survive the harsh reality of AIDS in the prosperous days of Bohemian Alphabet City. Larson borrowed heavily from Puccini’s opera, with New York replacing Paris and AIDS replacing Tuberculosis (many characters are also quite similar to the opera).

The musical received accolades such as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Award for Best Musical, Tony Award for Best Book, Tony Award for Best Score, Drama Desk for Outstanding Book and Drama Desk’s Outstanding Musical. Larson released the musical in 1994 as a limited three week Workshop Production at the New York Theatre Workshop. Later, on January 25th, 1996, it was shown publicly. Sadly, Larson died mysteriously the night before the Broadway premiere.

Due to its unexpected success, the musical was shifted from Broadway to a larger theatre, which was the Nederlander Theatre. After continuously running for twelve years, 5,124 shows to be precise, the Rent musical became the eighth longest running musical in Broadway after “The Phantom Of Opera.”

Apart from Broadway, the musical was performed on almost all the continents and in 22 different languages. The production was shut down on September 7th, 2008 with a gross earning of $280 million during its twelve year span.

Additionally, the musical was adapted as a feature film in 2005, which featured its original cast.