RENT to Open at San Francisco Playhouse in December

San Francisco Playhouse will celebrate the holidays with the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical phenomenon Rent. Loosely based on Puccini's La bohème, Jonathan Larson resets the action to Manhattan's East Village on the precipice of the millennium, where a ragtag group of artist friends struggle to create and get by. With an electrifying score including “Seasons of Love,” “La Vie Bohème,” and “Take Me or Leave Me,” this life-affirming Broadway musical spotlights the power of community, love, forgiveness, and hope that still resonates 30 years after it revolutionized musical theatre.

San Francisco Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English helms this musical with musical direction by Dave Dobrusky and choreography by Vince Chan. Rent will perform December 11, 2026 – February 6, 2027.

Premiering Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop shortly after Larson's passing, Rent transferred to Broadway in 1996, where it won the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It ran for more than 10 years on Broadway and was adapted into a film. The New York Times called it “Glittering, inventive score. Shimmers with hope for the future of the American musical.” Variety deemed it “Phenomenal. Sensational. Marr[ies] rock 'n' roll to musical theater to successfully merge the visceral power of the former and the sentimental, emotional punch of the latter. It features half a dozen of the most powerful theater songs the contemporary theater has produced.” It ran for six months at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre in 1999, where San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed Rent “The musical theater ride of the year. Exhilarating, impassioned, bursting with capital-R Romantic feeling.” Recently, The New York Times wrote Rent “Upended Broadway's sense of what musical theater could be” and San Diego Union-Tribune remarked “'Rent' still tugs at the heartstrings. Enduring and still electric.”

Director Bill English leads the cast. Seen in last season's Evita, Chanel Tilghman (she/they) returns to the Playhouse as Mimi Marquez, a young dancer.  Matt Skinner (he/him) makes his Playhouse debut as Mark Cohen, a filmmaker seeking his place in the world. Ruby Day (she/her) returns as Maureen Johnson, a passionate performance artist who is Mark's ex. Solona Husband (she/her) makes her Playhouse debut as Joanne Jefferson, a straitlaced lawyer in love with Maureen.  Parker Guidry (they/them) makes their Playhouse debut as Angel Schunard, a vibrant street musician. Maurice Alpharicio (he/him) makes his Playhouse debut as Tom Collins, a professor and anarchist. Dave J. Abrams (he/him) returns to the Playhouse as Benjamin Coffin III, Mark and Roger's landlord. 

The ensemble is composed of Malia Abayon, Devin A. Cunningham, Cody Craven, Jurá Davis, Em Dwyer, Roeen Nooran, Sofia Rosas, and Brittany Nicole Sims.