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Broadway musical written by the late, great Jonathan Larson — who, for the record, was neither HIV-positive nor gay. Debuted in 1996 and still going strong. Essentially a modern re-write of Giacomo Puccini's beloved opera La Boheme, but with a happier ending and a score influenced heavily by pop, rock, and techno.

The main differences between La Boheme and Rent:

Setting:
Paris in the early 19th century becomes New York in the early 90s

Characters:

Rodolfo the playwright becomes Roger Davis the HIV-positive musician, former heroin junkie, looking to write one hit song before succumbing to the virus he contracted from his dead girlfriend (first played by Adam Pascal)

Marcello the painter becomes Mark Cohen the filmmaker, trying to make it big (first played by Anthony Rapp, once played by Joey Fatone of N'Sync)

Benoit the landlord becomes real estate mogul Benjamin Coffin III, former roomate to Mark and Roger and a symbol of the coming gentrification of the neighborhood and the eventual death or commercialization of Bohemia (first played by Taye Diggs)

Colline the philosopher becomes Tom Collins the HIV-positive anarchist, a computer geek who sabotaged MIT's virtual reality software and teaches part-time at NYU (first played by Jesse L. Martin of Law & Order fame)

Shaunard the violinist becomes Angel Dumot Schunard the street musician, an HIV-positive sometimes-transvestite and lover to Collins (first ...

The best Broadway musical that exists. It debuted in 1996, and is still running today.

Awesome Broadway musical about love, AIDS, life... very touching. Kind of depressing. Inspiring... has an obsessive fan base known as the "RENTheads."

Life-changing musical. It's not one of those chorus-line, "let's do the can-can" musicals AT ALL. It will make you embrace life, and the music is pretty cool, too.

when in script form, the Bible itself.

The greatest musical i have ever seen. I dont really know how to explain it but it made me cry. But i would cry during the happy parts and the sad parts. I saw it with the original cast and the cast that is touring right now and it is still amazing. It is like nothing you will ever see.

a broadway play. Based on Puccini's La Boheme. Writen by Jonathan Larson who was HIV-positive but sadly died of an aortic aneurysm. Like La Boheme there is 8 people who grow into a family. Some people say it's life changing, a must see. Me? I agree.