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In the early 1990s, composer Johnathan Larson wrote “Rent,” a musical based on the opera “La Boheme,” that follows a group of starving artists struggling through poverty, love, and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) crisis.
This spring, San Marin High School’s musical theatre program will be performing “Rent School Edition.” The musical will be altered to allow more people to enjoy the show, including replacing slurs and strong language and withdrawing a song due to heavy sexual themes. Songs like “Out Tonight” and “La Vie Boheme” will have verses removed and lines changed to tone down inappropriate and drug-related elements.
“Rent” is a rock opera and tells its story by focusing on songs rather than long dialogue scenes.
“There’s more music to the story than there is [speaking], and the musical expresses the story throughout the songs,” freshman Skyler Viola, who plays filmmaker Mark Cohen, said. Each character in the musical has flaws and strengths that contribute to the show in their own way.
“Angel is an incredible character and a free spirit, being a sort of glue for the whole cast, and someone I can understand well,” senior Robyn Hirasaki, who plays Angel, a street performer and drag queen, said.
Queer actors and characters often get backlash from the public just for presenting themselves differently from other people, but characters like Angel have created a space in theatre for these characters and performers.
“Angel is a cornerstone and an inspiration, shifting from masculine to feminine and presenting as they wish,” Hirasaki said. “Their character has had a deep impact on the minds of many in the past, as a figure of unconditional generosity and queerness in both sexuality and gender expression, and where they are by the end of the show.”
Characters like Tom Collins, a philosophy professor who dreams of opening a restaurant in Santa Fe, and Mimi Marquez, a provocative dancer and heroin addict, both have AIDS in the show, along with others in the main cast and ensemble. The World Health Organization officially recognized Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day in 1988 to raise awareness of AIDS and advocate for the people who needed treatment. In 2025, for the first time in 37 years, the United States did not commemorate World AIDS Day.
“I think it’s emblematic of an administration that doesn’t seem to care [about these people and this crisis],” Executive Director of AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), Mitchell Warren said.
Because of this, much of the cast of San Marin’s “Rent School Edition” feels that it is an important time to be telling this story. “Rent” is a musical that has been an impactful piece of art that brings awareness not just to AIDS but to other real-world problems like housing instability and discrimination towards oppressed groups, which many can relate to. It connects to many who feel stuck in the shadows of others or who feel forced to conform in a group in which they do not fit.
“Being the main character of Mark, who has to go through [feeling like a background character] but finds out he could be in the main frame instead of being behind a camera is important because he’s stepping out of his boundaries in a sense,” Viola said.
San Marin’s “Rent School Edition” is set to open on Mar. 12 at the Emily Gates Performing Arts Center and will run until Mar. 29. Tickets will be available on GoFans. For more information, check out @smhsmusicaltheatre on Instagram and @sanmarinmusicaltheatre on TikTok.
