Rent 20th Anniversary Tour

{Consideration provided by the Segerstrom Center for the Arts}

It’s the Rent 2oth anniversaray! Twenty years ago, I found myself sitting in the orchestra section of our local theatre for a performance that changed my perspective on musical theatre and deepened my love for this beautiful art form. The musical was Rent, an off-Broadway production loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème. The story follows a group of young artists struggling to survive in New York City’s East Village during the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.

Rent 20th Anniversary – 20 Years of Rent!

Rent first debuted at the New York Theatre Workshop and went on to play at the Nederlander Theatre after it won a Pulitzer Prize. The rock musical gained momentum with audiences and went on to win a Tony Award for Best Musical. The music is as raw and evocative as the themes of poverty, homelessness, drug addiction and HIV/AIDS depicted throughout the musical. Set in gritty New York City, the story is unapologetic, bold, and hopeful, despite the gravity of what these artists are enduring.

Rent was conceived by the composer/playwright Jonathan Larson, who drew inspiration for the musical from La Bohème. The opera told the story of poor young artists enduring the plague of Tuberculosis in 1800s Paris. Larson replaced Tuberculosis with HIV/Aids and set the story in New York nearly two centuries later with characters who bore a striking semblance to those in La Bohème. Even the title was symbolic as rent can also mean “torn apart.”

Rent 20th Anniversary – The Classic Story Never Gets Old

The story of seven artists aspiring towards dreams both attainable and far-reaching celebrates friendship, creativity, diversity, and love. While I was admittedly drawn into the story by the music, I found myself going through a myriad of emotions as I watched the performance. Twenty years later, I still find many of the themes to be effective, and watching Rent at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in many ways felt like a new, yet familiar experience.

The Rent 20th Anniversary Tour debuts at the Segerstrom Center January 6th, 2017 and runs through January 8th, 2017. Performances are as follows: Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased online, via phone (714) 556-2787, or at the box office (600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA).

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Caryn Bailey

Caryn is a NICU nurse by day, blogger by night and mom 24/7. She savors the warm Southern California sun and loves to travel, shopping, baking, reading and frequenting her local tea room. Caryn created the column Lavishly Green for Peekaboo Picks Magazine to share her best tips for going green in style, she is the Former editor for Family Review Network, former OC Family Magazine online contributor, former Orange County Moms Blog contributor, former Evenflo Savvy Parent contributor, former member of the Totsy Advisory Board and former freelance writer for CBS Los Angeles.