Audiences will step into a bohemian lifestyle when the curtain rises in Elon University’s upcoming production of “Rent,” the winter musical of the 2025-26 season.
“Rent” is a rock musical written by Jonathan Larson, chronicling the lives of struggling artists in New York City in the early ’90s during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The show will run in McCrary Theatre from Feb. 13 to Feb. 15.
“Rent” will be the second Elon production directed by assistant professor of music theatre, Jacob Brent, who has a long history with the show. Brent was part of the team that helped create the high school version of “Rent” in 2003. He said coming back to the full version has been an interesting experience.
“I don't think I've opened the script in rehearsal,” Brent said. “My whole script is marked up and all that, but I try not to ever open the book when I'm directing because I know the score intimately.”
“Rent,” which opened on Broadway in 1996, is a rock retelling of the Giacomo Puccini opera “La Bohème.” Brent said Puccini’s opera takes place during the tuberculosis pandemic, but to modernize the story, Larson changed the disease to AIDS.
“La Bohème has been around forever, and it’s timeless,” Brent said. “That grand opera story is so powerful and holds up. And when you have that with this new rock sound, it's the combination of something new and familiar at the same time.”
According to Brent, Larson wrote about what he observed in New York during the AIDS crisis. The characters and experiences they undergo are inspired by his friends and the people in his East Village community.
Brent said the timelessness of the story has helped “Rent” go down in theater history as one of the classic musicals of the modern era. He said even people who aren’t in the musical theater space know iconic songs such as “Seasons of Love” and “La Vie Boheme.”
“Rent” was also one of the first musicals to showcase people of color and the LGBTQ+ community onstage in leading roles, paving the way for representation in the world of theater. Brent said people across different identities and experiences are highlighted, making the show a celebration of life and love.
“It changed the industry,” Brent said. “It's a chance for people to play characters that are aligned with their own personal identities, and it’s coming from a place where you’re not having to make something fit.”
The show also celebrates nonconformity, as most of the characters in the show live a bohemian lifestyle, defined by Brent as an unconventional, free-spirited way of living. The characters reject societal norms and instead value authenticity, art and freedom.
“It’s all about living for today,” Brent said. “We all have responsibilities, but that bohemian ideal is very enticing, right?”
Behind the celebrations of love and independence, there are also darker themes of disease, poverty and gentrification.
“It can come off like these kids are just bratty kids who don't want to pay their rent, but it's actually bigger than that,” Brent said. “They're getting forced out and losing their homes to make way for million-dollar apartments that rich yuppies are going to buy. It's about fighting for their life, their shelter, for love and fighting for connection.”
No one is fighting for connection more than aspiring filmmaker Mark Cohen, played by senior Andrew France. Mark serves as the narrator of the story, introducing characters and relationships as he’s desperately trying to work on his short film.
“Not much of the plot happens to him. He's always on the outskirts,” France said. “He's not really the center of the friend group, and he isolates himself by hiding behind his work.”
France said he admires Mark’s ability to fully invest himself in his work, even if it is unhealthy. France also said him and Mark are similar people who have the same drive and passion.
“He just reminds me to actually do the thing I want to do. Don't just doomscroll. Don't just sit around,” France said. “If I say I want to do something, I’ve got to do it. I’ve got to show up for myself.”
Senior Andrew France, left, who plays Mark Cohen, films sophomore Micah Cabot, who plays Roger Davis, as Cabot plays during a rehearsal for a scene from "Rent" Jan. 21 in Scott Studios.
France said he couldn’t think of a better way to end his journey at Elon than performing in “Rent.”
“Mark's a character I've been wanting to play for so long,” France said. “I just feel so lucky to finally be playing him at Elon, this place that I love, with a bunch of people I love. It's pretty perfect.”
France said one of his favorite parts about “Rent” is how developed the characters are and how real they feel. As an actor, he said he appreciates every “nugget” of information, such as how every line is crafted and how everyone’s history is mapped out.
France said the realness and honesty of the characters are what made “Rent” so controversial when it debuted in 1996. He said it wasn’t common to see out-and-proud gay characters and people with AIDS represented as people and not just stereotypes.
“People who are different from you aren't these crazy alien monsters,” France said. “We want to show that they are just people living their lives and trying to achieve happiness just like you.”
Sophomore Micah Cabot, who plays aspiring musician Roger Davis, said he hopes this show helps people understand how to be more open and accepting of different identities and perspectives.
“Even if you aren't fully supportive of the communities represented in this show, when you see it, there's a way to look at it from a perspective of living as a human being,” Cabot said.
Cabot’s character, Roger, contracted AIDS from his ex-girlfriend and lives each day in fear that if he doesn’t write one great song before he dies, his life will have meant nothing.
“Roger wants to find a true blaze of glory and something that will outlive him,” Cabot said. “It's ultimately about creating an impact that will last beyond the time when we're gone, that generations after us can discover and find meaning in.”
According to Cabot, Roger wants to write something that proves to himself that he's worthy, but he fails to realize that his work is great and that he is valuable and has meaning in the world. Cabot said the “grittiness and realness” of the show helps him relate to Roger’s internal conflict, as a performer who keeps wanting to get better and better.
“It honestly can be really hard at times because you want to be the best, but you also need to realize that what you're doing in the moment is good and not to undermine that value,” Cabot said. “The second you undermine it is the second you lose the point of it all.”
Sophomore Micah Cabot, left, who plays Roger Davis, and senior Helena Padial, who plays Mimi Marquez, rehearse a scene together Jan. 21 in Scott Studios.
Cabot said Roger’s desperation is exacerbated by the fact that his time is running out, thanks to his AIDS diagnosis. He is caught in a constant internal struggle, even as his friends and his love interest, Mimi Marquez, encourage him to live while there’s still time.
The main theme of “Rent” is the idea of living every day like it’s your last, and is perfectly encapsulated by the mantra, “No day but today.” According to Cabot, this phrase was started by a support group of people with AIDS as a way to stay united in the turmoil of society.
“No one had spoken up for them, and so they really had to create a voice of their own,” Cabot said. “No matter your sexuality or gender, in that time, you united in New York City and created that safe space that elicited some change.”
While Roger rejects this ideal, other characters wholeheartedly embrace it. One such character is Mimi Marquez, a sex worker with AIDS, played by senior Helena Padial. She said she has tried to follow Mimi’s “seize the day” attitude and hopes to maintain that in the entertainment industry.
“She's so cool. She's just fierce and wild and sexy, and I just love it,” Padial said.
According to Padial, Mimi is driven by passion, love and art, making her a character who is completely free and uncontained by the commercial world. But while Mimi’s character is all about celebrating life, Padial said she’s also a young, deeply affected person thrust into the nightclub lifestyle for survival.
“It’s a really hard story, and it's traumatic, and it's hard to dig up those feelings,” Padial said. “Learning how to step into a character and then also step out of it and go back to living as a normal human being, and you're no longer having AIDS and no longer feeling like you're dying, is really important.”
Senior Helena Padial, who plays Mimi Marquez in Elon's production of "Rent," rehearses Jan. 21 in Scott Studios.
This is Padial’s second time playing Mimi, the first being during the summer after her sophomore year. Because of her history with the show, she said she feels like she knows it inside and out. Padial also said that revisiting a role she had played at an earlier part of her training, as her last mainstage show at Elon, feels like a full-circle moment.
“I'm literally seeing the Elon magic in my own body,” Padial said. “I'm seeing it culminate, because I feel like a completely different performer than I was the first time.”
Padial said her favorite part of the process has been working with the cast and crew. She said everyone is like a big family that is dedicated to making this show as genuine as possible.
“We walk in, and everybody's hugging each other, and everybody's so happy to be there,” Padial said. “We're all giggling and goofing off sometimes, and we’re building this beautiful community. We are all as tight as we look onstage.”
Padial also said the cast and crew are working tirelessly to avoid copying previous productions of “Rent,” making it specific to Elon.
One way the cast will accomplish this is with updated technology. According to Padial, there will be a live video feed of Mark’s camera, and anything Mark films will be projected on the sides of the theater.
Dance is another element that will make Elon’s production unique. Historically, Padial said, “Rent” had never been a dance-heavy show, but the choreographer is introducing dance in unexpected moments throughout the story.
“It’s so purposeful, and it's not just dance. It's storytelling,” Padial said. “So much of ‘Rent’ is metaphorical, but then you’ll see these hard, complex stories play out through dance, which is so different.”
To keep the complex stories feeling genuine, Brent required everyone to watch documentaries and read as much as they could about the time period. Brent even shared his own stories about living in New York during the AIDS crisis to help the cast understand what it was like.
Sophomore Trevor Hudson, who plays Angel Dumott Schunard, said that as actors, it is their responsibility to research and honor whoever it is they are playing.
“If you're not reading and researching as an actor, what are you doing?” Hudson said. “How are you expected to be able to portray these real-life experiences without knowing how they look or how they feel?”
To stay grounded and to better immerse himself in the complex emotions and experiences of his character, Hudson said the best thing he can do onstage is to live in the moment.
“As actors, we’re taught to ‘live truthfully under imaginary circumstances,’” Hudson said. “Whatever expression we have, let it come out, whether it's a sad emotion or happy or mad, it's true.”
Sophomores Trevor Hudson, left, who plays Angel Dumott Schunard, and Kai Gaeta, who plays Tom Collins, rehearse together Jan. 21 in Scott Studios for Elon's production of "Rent."
Hudson said Angel, who also has AIDS, is the “heartbeat” and the glue of the friend group in the show. Angel teaches the other characters how to bring joy, peace and love into their dark realities.
“Angel has this light, and their high energy is unmatched,” Hudson said. “Angel is fluid and joyful and is always bouncing between gender binaries.”
According to Hudson, a character like Angel had never been seen onstage before “Rent” debuted. Hudson said he appreciated Larson’s dedication to telling the truth and putting what he saw every day onstage, and said he is grateful to be a part of such a groundbreaking musical.
“I’m glad we are able to do this for the younger person of color, the younger queer person, the younger aspiring actors,” Hudson said. “We’re doing it for the next generation to see, because how can we learn from the past if we're not showcasing it?”
“Rent” will run in McCrary Theatre with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13 and 14, as well as matinee shows at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 and 15. Tickets are available starting Jan. 23 on the Elon Performing Arts website.