The Stage

Rent to close on Broadway after 12-year run

Published Monday 8 September 2008 at 17:10 by Judd Hollander

After more than 12 years on the Great White Way, the musical Rent will play its final show on Sunday, September 7, 2008, winding up a 5,124 performance, 16 preview run. Currently the seventh-longest running show on Broadway, Rent has grossed more than $280 million during its time there. The show played its entire Broadway run at the Nederlander Theatre.

When it opened on Broadway on April 29, 1996, Rent was the first Broadway show in more than two decades to become a magnet for teenage and college audiences - a trend that has continued with various shows since then, such as the current rock musical drama Spring Awakening.

Rent also pioneered some now widespread marketing tools, including being the first show to sell same-day orchestra seats for $20. As a result of this practice, it became a common sight to see fans lining up the night before for tickets. The practice was later changed to a lottery system, one which many other Broadway shows soon copied.

Over the years, Rent has been translated into every major language and has been performed on six continents. Some of the countries the musical has played in include Argentina, Australia, Chile, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungry, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In the United States, national tours of the show have been running almost continuously since late 1996, grossing more than $330 million. A new national tour is set to launch sometime in 2009.

Rent won numerous accolades when it first opened, including the Tony Awards for Book, Music and Score - all written by the late Jonathan Larson - and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show also made headlines when the 36-year-old Larson died from an aortic aneurysm the day before the show began previews Off-Broadway. He had attended the show’s final dress rehearsal earlier that night.