The New York Times (www.nytimes.com/theater) was handed the story first, as expected. But we all saw this coming. Its tentative closing date is June 1, but I'll bet the bank that it's extended to January 2009. The RENTHEADS will come back in large numbers, allowing an extension or two to follow.
What will happen to RENT? We'll see it live on in regional and amateur stagings. What will happen to the Nederlander Theater? It'll receive its long-overdue renovation, and will hopefully host some new shows. (If you recall, before RENT, no one was using the space. But keep in mind, that was in 1996, in the beginning of Disney's Times Square Cleanup Movement.)
Now that RENT's been around perhaps a little too long, it's easy to forget how extraordinarily electrifying it felt to hear that wonderfully original score for the first time. I wasn't there for the premiere in 1996. The first time I ever listened to RENT was on my walkman in 1998. I continued to listen to it just about everyday for a full six months till I finally saw the show. But we all got a taste of what it was like in the beginning when Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal returned to the show last summer. Maybe they'll come back again...
I'm willing to bet that without RENT, there would be no SPRING AWAKENING - just as without HAIR, there would be no RENT. As rock musicals, all three of these extraordinarily good musicals take our breath away in ways not seen in any golden age musical.
RENT was a gift to Broadway from a downtown artist who was taken from us too soon. And it made Broadway a better place for 12 and a half years.
But let's not get too sad. EVERYTHING CLOSES. CATS closed. LES MIZ (and its inferior revival) closed. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST closed. And one day even LION KING will close.
