RENT returns to Broadway for one-night-only 30th anniversary benefit concert

Jonathan Larson’s landmark rock musical RENT will return to Broadway for a special one-night-only 30th anniversary concert, bringing the spirit of La Vie Bohème back to New York for a major benefit event.

The concert will take place on Monday, 26 October 2026, at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre, with proceeds supporting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Tickets and sponsorships are set to go on sale to the public at noon Eastern on Monday, 1 June.

Original director Michael Greif will return to helm the anniversary event, joined by original music director Tim Weil and the full original RENT band. The evening will feature original Broadway cast members alongside a range of special guests, with further names to be announced.

Greif said the event was a fitting tribute to Larson’s legacy and the community at the heart of the show.

“Jonathan wrote RENT in honor of the people he knew who were living and struggling with HIV and in honor of the many friends and contemporaries he lost to AIDS,” Greif said. “I know he’d be proud and honored to join forces with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of his milestone musical.”

Inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, RENT follows a group of young artists in New York’s East Village as they navigate love, creativity, poverty and loss amid the HIV/AIDS crisis. The musical premiered Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop in 1996 before transferring to Broadway, where it became a defining work of contemporary musical theatre.

The original Broadway production ran for 12 years and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the Tony Award for Best Musical, cementing Larson’s work as one of the most influential stage musicals of its generation.

The original cast included Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs. Larson, who wrote the show’s book, music and lyrics, died on 25 January 1996, the night before the musical’s Off-Broadway premiere, at the age of 35.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS executive director Danny Whitman said RENT continues to resonate because of its compassion, urgency and human focus.

“Few works have captured the urgency, humanity and resilience of a generation like RENT,” Whitman said, adding that the concert would help provide support including meals, medication, health care and hope for people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses.

The 30th anniversary concert will be produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Andy Jones, founder of Baseline Theatrical.

RENT: The 30th Anniversary Concert will take place on 26 October 2026 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York. Tickets go on sale to the public on 1 June 2026.