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December 2, 2008 8:12:29 PM CST

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It's Curtains for Rent After 12 Years

Posted Sep 7, 08 5:13 PM CDT in Arts & Living 

(Newser) – Twelve years and 5,124 performances later, Broadway bids adieu today to Rent, the New York Daily News reports. The beloved musical, which follows a group of bohemians and street folk through AIDS-ravaged, early-1990s East Village, “speaks to people's hearts," an original cast members tells the AP. It also spoke their wallets: The award-winning musical has grossed more than $280 million on Broadway.

Like the drug-addled artists it depicts, Rent had humble and tragic origins. It wowed critics off-Broadway before rocketing to the bigtime, but creator Jonathon Larson died of an aortic aneurism in 1996 before Rent's first performance. “I don't miss what he didn't write,” a producer said. “I feel bad that he isn't here to enjoy what he did."

Sources New York Daily News, Associated Press

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In this July 2007 image released by Richard Kornberg & Associates, the current cast of the Broadway musical Rent is shown.   (AP Photo)
The beloved musical Rent calls it quits today after a hugely successful 12-year run.   (AP Photo)
Anthony Rapp, an original cast member of the Broadway musical Rent, reminisces about the musical's origins New York, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008.   (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Rapp stands in front of the Life Cafe in the East Village, the neighborhood where Rent had its inception 12 years ago in New York, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008.   (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
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