For once, the rent is going up, and nobody’s complaining. Jonathan Larson famously wrote “Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes” in his lyrics for “Seasons of Love” from the musical RENT. The Gates Foundation is paying it out in dollars: up to $525,600, matching every livestream ticket sold for Rent, the 30th Anniversary Concert on Monday, October 26.
The seats at the Richard Rodgers Theatre are gone, but the livestream is still selling. Tickets cost $30, proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and the match doubles each one until it maxes out at 17,520 tickets.
When RENT opened on Broadway in April 1996, the drug combinations that would make HIV manageable were just arriving, and PrEP was years away from FDA approval. Larson saw none of it. He died on January 25, 1996, the morning of the show’s first Off-Broadway preview.
The drugs exist now. But access is another story. Since 1988, BC/EFA has granted more than $320 million to close that gap, paying for medication, meals, counseling and emergency help through local organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
Back on the boards
Original director Michael Greif returns, and so do the actors who first played these roles: Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Fredi Walker-Browne.
Additional RENT alumni Renée Elise Goldsberry, Aaron Tveit and Jordan Fisher join them, with more names to come. Original music supervisor Tim Weil leads a band that includes three of the 1996 musicians.
Larson’s bohemians spend the whole show refusing to pay rent. Pay yours: $30, doubled by Gates, at broadwaycares.org/rent30livestream.
Fast facts: ‘Rent, the 30th Anniversary’ livestream
- Richard Rodgers Theatre (in person: sold out) and livestream
- Monday, October 26, 2026
- Notable performers scheduled to appear: Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Fredi Walker-Browne
- $30 livestream, matched by the Gates Foundation up to $525,600
