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RENT

Client: Rent the Musical

Publisher: Rob Weisbach Books/William Morrow

Written by: Jonathan Larson

From the moment it made its stage debut, Rent—which follows a year in the life of a group of bohemian young artists and activists struggling to survive, create, and find love in Manhattan’s East Village under the shadow of the HIV/AIDS epidemic—single-handedly reinvigorated Broadway and took America by storm. Sweeping all major theater awards (including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama) and earning four 1996 Tony awards (including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical), Rent captured the heart and spirit of a generation, reflecting it onstage through stirring words, powerful music, and the energy of its young cast. But how could we tell that story when the show’s librettist and composer, Jonathan Larson, had tragically passed away on the eve of its first performance? We knew that we needed to create a book that would give voice to Larson and to Rent’s life-affirming message.

A View Behind the Curtain

Rent offers what most theater books can’t: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds. We brought the show to life through vivid color photographs, the show’s full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of Rent’s creation. This is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the diaries and letters of Jonathan Larson himself.

East Village Inspiration

In keeping with the show’s gritty look, we designed Rent to look intentionally rough, like an East Village artist’s notebook from the era of the show—complete with a duct tape spine and spray-painted cover—so that it looks like it belongs to a very particular moment and place, a tough New York City.