The Gates Foundation will match the donations raised by every livestream ticket sold for Rent, the 30th Anniversary Concert, up to $525,600, doubling what the one-night benefit at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Monday, October 26 can send to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The figure is not arbitrary. Anyone who has heard Seasons of Love will recognize 525,600 as the minutes in a year, and the matching gift turns the show’s most quoted line into a fundraising ceiling. It applies to the stream only: seats in the Rodgers for the 8pm performance have already sold out, and the livestream is how audiences anywhere else will see it.
The evening is a full concert staging of Jonathan Larson’s musical rather than a revue, and it brings back a remarkable share of the people who made it in 1996. Michael Greif, the original director, returns to stage it, and Tim Weil, the original music director, leads members of the first band, Kenny Brescia, Jeff Potter and Daniel A. Weiss, joined by Steve Gelfand.
On stage, the original company members returning to their roles are Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Fredi Walker-Browne, Yassmin Alers, Gilles Chiasson, Shelley Dickinson, David Driver, Darius de Haas and Rodney Hicks. Other Rent alumni join them: Natalie Venetia Belcon, Adam Chanler-Berat, Nicholas Christopher, Merle Dandridge, Trey Ellett, Jordan Fisher, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jose Llana, John Eric Parker, Jai Rodriguez, Antonique Smith, Ephraim Sykes and Aaron Tveit. More names are due in the coming weeks.
Greif framed the night in terms of the show’s origins. “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,” he said, adding that Larson would be “proud and honored” to join forces with Broadway Cares for the anniversary.
The concert is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Andy Jones of Baseline Theatrical, with ViiV Healthcare as presenting sponsor; the stream is made with The League of Live Stream Theater. The poster is by Naomi Mizusaki and Drew Hodges, who designed the show’s original advertising. Broadway Cares says details of a limited lottery for seats in the theater will be announced at 2pm ET on Tuesday, October 13, and livestream tickets are available through its Rent 30th anniversary page.
