Based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème, Rent tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York¹s Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City.  The show won a Pulitzer Prize and the production became a world-wide hit.  On Broadway, Rent won a Tony Award for Best Musical among other awards. The musical brought an ethnically diverse cast and controversial topics to a traditionally conservative medium, helping to increase the popularity of musical theatre amongst the younger generation.  The Broadway production had a 12-year run and 5,124 performances, making it the eighth-longest-running Broadway show.  In 2005, it was also adapted into a motion picture that features most of the original cast members.