http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_(musical)

This resource talks about RENT in it's entirety. I was surprised to learn that the show has not been around foor as long as I thought it had. Heck, I was 3 years old when it was first seen! I feel bad that the creator, Jonathan Larson, died just before it went on Broadway. That would suck! Essentially, RENT was pivotal because it introduced ideas like drugs, AIDS, and drag queen-ism to theatre. Seeing as how most of the audiences were fairly conservative, these topics had yet to be brought up, because nobody wanted to acknowledge them. But it's good that they were because they are all facts of life, whether people like them or not.