RENT

About the show

The first New York Theatre Workshop production was a developmental workshop presentation of RENT that was staged at the not-for-profit theatre company in the East Village of New York City. Jonathan and his friends visited the theatre while it was being renovated and knew it was the perfect home for the musical, so they dropped off the script which the artistic staff of the theatre reviewed and agreed to produce. The 1994 workshop was an early version of the musical which would continue development at New York Theatre Workshop for two years before the world premiere Off-Broadway production in 1996 which transferred directly to Broadway. In 1994, RENT featured songs that never made it to the final version, such as "You're A Fool", "Voice Mail #4", "He's A Fool", "Open Road", the predecessor of "What You Own"; "He Says", "On The Street #1-3", "You'll Get Over It", the predecessor of "Tango: Maureen," featuring Mark and Maureen; "Right Brain", later rewritten as "One Song Glory", featuring Roger; "Do A Little Business", the predecessor of "You'll See," featuring Benny, Mark, Roger, Collins, and Angel; "Female to Female A & B," featuring Maureen and Joanne; and "Real Estate", a number wherein Benny tries to convince Mark to become a real estate agent and drop his filmmaking.