Earlier this year, Melbourne audiences were wowed by the autobiographical Jonathan Larson musical, tick, tick… BOOM! And soon, the sounds of Larson’s music will fill the air once more. Get ready for his iconic, Tony Award-winning rock musical, RENT. The musical will go on a national tour, starting in Brisbane in January 2024, followed by seasons in Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Canberra. RENT will play at the State Theatre in Arts Centre Melbourne from February 17 to March 7.
RENT
Walk through the vibrant streets of New York City’s East Village and celebrate life, love and the human spirit with this Pulitzer Prize-winning show. This retelling of the 1896 opera La Bohème focuses on struggling young artists, as they navigate their lives under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
RENT first opened off-Broadway in 1996, and has since grown into a timeless sensation. Tragically, writer, composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson died suddenly in the early hours of the morning, before the show was meant to open to the public. As a result, he never saw the impact of his work on the public.
“The characters who live in the East Village of 1990s New York navigate that which resonates so deeply with us in Australia in 2024: cost of living pressures, the threat of preventable disease, the subtle feeling that all the ways in which we can now communicate belie our disconnection,” said producer Lauren Peters. “And all of this sounds incredibly heavy but RENT somehow takes all this and turns it into a joyous celebration of connection, chosen family and life itself – and it’s that joy in the face of all of life’s adversity and opportunity that is perhaps best captured in its iconic number Seasons of Love, a song which has achieved the rarest of Broadway feats and transcended the show for which it was written.”
Australian dates:
- Brisbane – Playhouse at QPAC – January 27 to February 11
- Melbourne – State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne – February 17 to March 7
- Newcastle – Civic Theatre – March 15 to 17
- Perth – His Majesty’s Theatre – May 11 to 26
- Canberra – Canberra Theatre – June 7 to 16