20th Anniversary Tour of RENT to Bring 'La Vie Boheme' to Harris Center

The 20th Anniversary tour of Rent comes to the capital region-and to the intimacy of Harris Center's Stage One.

Rent opened on Broadway in 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer; it won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Best Musical. Rent follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists-a timeless celebration of friendship and creativity.

RENT-THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR will take the stage in Folsom for five performances: Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 7:30 pm; Friday, February 3 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, February 4 at 2 pm and at 7:30 pm; and Sunday, February 5, at 1 pm.

Tickets are $45-$75; Premium $79, with a 10% Discount for Thursday evening single tickets. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

IT'S A RENT TRADITION: SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNT! For the Harris Center performances, the 20 seats in Row C are to be priced at $20 and made available for a ticket lottery beginning 2 hours prior to each performance. The tradition of the $20 tickets began in 1996 in New York when the show moved to Broadway after a sold-out run in a small downtown theatre. See below for details.

On April 29, 1996, a musical opened on Broadway that looked and sounded unlike anything that had come before it. It told a powerful, moving, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting story of young, impoverished New York artists who were seeking to make their way in the world, longing to connect, and trying to survive the looming specter of AIDS.

The actors were black, white and brown; the characters were straight, gay, bisexual and transgender. Although the show was famously inspired by Puccini's opera, La Bohème, it was also a reflection of the life of its creator, Jonathan Larson, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics. His score brilliantly melded Broadway savvy with contemporary rock, and the show captured the zeitgeist of a particular place at a particular moment in time.

RENT became a phenomenon. A few weeks before the musical's Broadway premiere, Larson, who died of an aortic aneurysm the night before RENT was scheduled to open Off-Broadway, was posthumously awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical, and run for over 12 years. It also attracted legions of fiercely devoted young theatergoers affectionately known as RENTheads, who returned to the show again and again because it spoke to them so personally.

To celebrate the musical's 20th anniversary, key members of the original creative team have reunited for a national tour of RENT, enabling a new generation to discover why the show is so special - and why it continues to have a profound effect on audiences.

For Kevin McCollum, one of the original producers of RENT, the show's greatest legacy is its boundless humanity. "How do you measure a life?" he says, alluding to the lyrics of the show's most famous song, "Seasons of Love." "How do you measure a year? Attention must be paid to how you treat people and how you build family. Touch people, change people by loving each other against all odds. Live no day but today, and keep your artist's heart. This is a musical about living with, not dying from disease, introduced at a time when people thought AIDS was a death sentence. And I think RENT helped take the patina off the idea that these people weren't us. Straight, gay; sexuality was a character trait, but it wasn't what the show was about. It's about young people finding their voice against all odds. It's a celebration of diversity, and how young people always change the world."

IT'S A RENT TRADITION: CONCERNING THE SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNT! The 20 seats in Row C are to be priced at $20 and made available for a ticket lottery beginning 2 hours prior to each performance. Available only from the Harris Center Ticket Office, lottery tickets are available on a cash-only basis, are limited to two tickets per person and shall be exempt from facility and ticketing fees. The tradition of the $20 tickets began in 1996 in New York when the show moved to Broadway after a sold-out run in a small downtown theatre. The producers of the show are committed to continuing the tradition of offering orchestra seats for $20 in each city the show will play.

The Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College brings the community together to share in cultural experiences featuring the work of artists from throughout the region and around the world. Built and operated by the Los Rios Community College District, the $50 million, state-of-the-art regional performing arts center boasts three intimate venues with outstanding acoustics, an art gallery, a recording studio, elegant teaching spaces, plenty of safe parking and all the other amenities of a world-class performing arts venue. Each year the Center hosts over 400 events attracting more than 150,000 annually.

IF YOU GO:

RENT-THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 7:30 pm;

Friday, February 3 at 7:30 pm;

Saturday, February 4 at 2 pm and at 7:30 pm;

Sunday, February 5, at 1 pm.

At Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College, 10 College Parkway, Folsom, CA 95630

Ticket Price: $45-$75; Premium $79; 10% Discount for Thursday evening single tickets.

Tickets are available online at www.HarrisCenter.net or from Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time.

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