RENT – the ever popular rock opera, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. It tells a story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. The musical was first seen in a limited three-week workshop production at New York Theatre Workshop in 1994. This same New York City off-Broadway theatre was also the musical's initial home following its official January 25, 1996, opening. The show's creator, Jonathan Larson, died suddenly the night before the off-Broadway premiere. The show won a Pulitzer Prize, and the production was a hit. The musical moved to Broadway in April 1996. On Broadway, RENT gained critical acclaim and won a Tony Award for Best Musical among other awards. The Broadway production closed after a 12-year run and 5,124 performances, making it the eighth-longest-running Broadway show by that time. The success of the show led to several national tours and numerous foreign productions, and in 2005, it was also adapted into a motion picture.