Goodbye Love

Tonight, an era ended on Broadway.

After celebrating it's 12th anniversary this past April, the musical Rent performed for the last time. Groundbreaking and acclaimed back in 1996, the show grew to become a mainstay on the Great White Way. It' won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the Tony Award for Best New Musical. Cast member Wilson Jermaine Heredia, the original Angel, also won a Tony--Best Supporting Actor in a Musical.

Rent had a meteoric rise to fame, from the brainchild of a waiter to its current status of beloved Broadway musical. Yet why has it endured? My hometown newspaper, the Staten Island Advance, called Rent a "nostalgic" look at life in the 90's East Village. It could be the lasting tragedy of creator Jonathan Larson, who died before the first performance of the show at New York Theatre Workshop. That in seeing the work of someone who was taken so young, he lives on or one can wonder what could've been.

It could be all the performers who graced the Nederlander's stage, the energy and talent they brought to the roles as well as the bright futures it lead to. There's the original cast--Anthony Rapp, Tony winner Idina Menzel (Wicked), Taye Diggs (Private Practice), Jessie L. Martin (Law and Order)--whose performances were nearly all captured on film in the 2006 movie version directed by Chris Columbus. And to all who followed, who made Rent an experience for each new audience, they live on as the rag-tag group of artists struggling to live.

And therein lies the magic of Rent. Everybody who has ever been apart of a group of friends knows how strong those bonds could be, particularly in bad times. Through death, disease and broken hearts, the eight central characters stick together and face life with a positive attitude. That message has attracted years of Rentheads (the ones in the front, singing along and often start moo-ing halfway through "Over the Moon" before Maureen even gets to that point).

As director Michael Greif wrote in his letter for the final Playbill, printed on Playbill Online: "That's a lot to celebrate. It has been a great run. Thank you, Jonathan Larson."