Rent
Yes, you already know and love this one, but Rent has to be included on most “Best of Broadway” lists for its depiction of LGBTQ+ people and couples as well interracial relationships. Plus, since it arrived on Broadway in 1996, we have never stopped singing the music.
A group of friends live through the final year of the 1980s as 1990 approaches. Roger (Adam Pascal) and Mimi (Daphne Rubin-Vega) are both HIV-positive while Collins (Jesse L. Martin) and Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia) have both advanced to AIDS. They fight against Benny (Taye Diggs) who is trying to kick them out of their apartment while Mark (Anthony Rapp), Maureen (Idina Menzel) and Joanne (Fredi Walker) make some noise with Maureen’s protest.
This musical became a cultural phenomenon and ran on Broadway for 12 years while a film adaptation featuring a majority of the original cast members came to theaters in 2005.
