Rent, the acclaimed musical chronicle of
counterculture life and death in Manhattan's East Village,
will close in June after more than a dozen years on
Broadway.
The
rock-inflected reinterpretation of the Puccini opera La
Boheme will be the seventh-longest-running
Broadway show in history when it closes after its evening
performance June 1, The New York Times
reported.
The musical
reeled in four Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize, grossed
more than $280 million on Broadway and $330 million more in
productions elsewhere, spun off a 2005 movie, and
fostered the careers of actors including Taye Diggs
and Jesse L. Martin.
Coproducer
Jeffrey Seller told the newspaper that ticket sales slowed
noticeably in the fall. He did not immediately return a
telephone call early Wednesday from the Associated
Press.
Seller told the
Times the show faced competition from such
newer musicals as Legally Blonde: The Musical,
which opened in April 2007, and Spring Awakening,
which opened in December 2006.
Still, when
Rent opened, ''I couldn't have foreseen that
we'd get to five years,'' he said.
Rent examines the struggles of a group of
artists and outcasts in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
celebrating their pluck, camaraderie, and commitment
to self-expression while dealing frankly with drug
addiction, AIDS, and loss. (AP)